Our 2nd edition of our Bracketology Report has a wide range of updates including a new #1 overall seed in William Penn. The overall seeding of the NAIA Tournament will come into play when the final 16 teams reach Kansas City. It is here where the teams who remain will be reseeded 1-16 and placed accordingly into the new bracket. As we saw last year, matchups matter, so it will be interesting to see how things shake out. We saw last year that the NAIA Selection committee did, for the most part, try and keep teams within a certain distance from home. We won’t know host sites until February 22nd, as final bids were just due on February 1st. Host sites will take a heavier toll on what the bracket shapes out like as well, as once we know where the regional sites are located it will be easier to slot teams. The NAIA has expressed that they aren’t concerned with keeping teams close to home and we have seen more of that this season in other NAIA Championships. This bracket, while meant to be fun, is more focused on the teams who do/don’t make it in, more than the actual matchups within the Pods themselves. Last year, in our last Bracektology Report, Red Banner went 48 of 48 on teams qualifying for the tournament!
For the actual NAIA Selection Committee Policy you can read more here:
2021 NAIA Men’s Basketball National Selection Committee Policy
For the 1st Edition of our NAIA Hoops Bracektology Report, you can view it here:
NAIA Men’s Bracketology Report – 1st Edition – NAIA Hoops Report
The Bracket
Tournament Bids
Top Overall Seed
William Penn (IA)
Last Team In
Central Methodist (MO)
First Team Out
Pikeville (KY)
Bubble Teams
Last Four In
First Four Out
Next Four Out
Field of 64 Breakdown
ARC Ratings
Committee Appointment Process Area Ranking Committees (ARC)
GREAT LAKES
Mid-South Conference
River States Conference
SOUTHEAST
Southern States Athletic Conference
The Sun Conference
MIDWEST
Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference
SOUTHWEST
Red River Athletic Conference
Sooner Athletic Confer
NORTH/CENTRAL
California Pacific ConferenceGreat Plains Athletic Conference
North Star Athletic ConferenceChicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference
North Star Athletic Conference
WEST
The Pods
Final Thoughts
There will be a lot more movement in and out of our Field of 64 over the next two weeks. However, most teams are down to just their final 5-6 games of the season, so it is getting down to the wire on teams trying to improve their resumes. We will start seeing our first round of auto-bids secured as early as this week, as we have several teams who are running away with their leagues and have a shot to capture league titles with a couple of wins this week. We will also see some of the “Bubble” teams who will be sweating out Conference Tournament Week, as upsets are sure to happen, and we will see teams come from nowhere, who are all of a sudden stealing automatic-bids and pushing teams out of the tournament. This is truly the best time of the year!
