Team Qualification
The national championship field is limited to 32 teams for men and 32 teams for women. All teams will have the
opportunity to qualify for nationals as stated below.
Men's Team Qualification Plan
Women's Team Qualification Plan
Should an institution declare its intent to participate in the NAIA Men's and Women's Cross Country National
Championships, it must honor that commitment if the team qualifies for any postseason meet. If the institution does not
honor its declaration of intent commitment, it shall be automatically suspended in that sport for the next academic year.
(See Policy Handbook Information in the previous section for additional details.)
A. Automatic Berths
For each gender, conferences/independents will receive one automatic berth per six teams participating in
postseason, two berths per twelve and three berths per eighteen. Conferences with less than six teams are considered “unaffiliated” and grouped geographically by the NAC. Each grouping may qualify for an automatic berth as follows:
1. Contest a qualifying event with six or more teams. The grouping will receive one automatic berth for the
winning team. At least six teams must participate in the qualifying meet to get the berth. Groupings with
five or fewer participating teams at their qualifying event can qualify through the at-large selection
process only, or
2. Do not contest a qualifying event. The grouping will receive one automatic berth to the highest rated
team on the national rating used for selection.
If no qualifying meet his held and no team in the grouping is rated in the top 25 in the national rating used for
selection, an additional at-large berth will be added.
If there is a tie for first place at a conference/A.I.I./unaffiliated group qualifying meet, then the tied first place teams
qualify for the national championships. This will not affect the number of at-large berths.
B. At-Large Berths
Once all automatic berths have been assigned, the remaining berths will be awarded through the at-large selection
process. For consideration for an at-large berth, a team must score in at least four meets prior to its national championship qualifier meet (conference/A.I.I./unaffiliated championships). Reporting requirements are outlined in
the General Information Section IV-D-Reporting Results of this manual.
At-large selection will be determined by the final rating which will take place Sunday following the deadline for
national championship qualifying meets.
If there is a tie in the rating for the last at-large berth position, then all teams tied in that position will qualify for the
national championships. The national championship field size will be increased accordingly.
Individual Qualification
For each gender individuals must qualify for the national championships at a postseason conference/independent/
unaffiliated championship meet, based on the following standards:
Conference/independent/unaffiliated groupings with 6-11 teams
• Top 5 finishers not on a qualifying team (automatic or at-large)
• Individual overall finish must be 15th or better
Conference/independent/unaffiliated groupings of 12 or more teams
• Top 7 finishers not on a qualifying team (automatic or at-large)
• Individual overall finish must be 20th or better
Unaffiliated groupings of 5 or fewer teams
• Top 3 finishers not on a qualifying team (at-large)
• Individual overall finish must be 8th or better
If 5 or more individual qualifiers are from the same team they will be scored at the national meet as an additional
team. This does not reduce the number of at-large berths.