NAIA Men's Basketball District Regionals

The NAIA Men's Basketball District Regionals were held in each of the NAIA's 32 districts between 1951 and 1993 to determine the 32 entrants into the NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament. Beginning in 1994, this function was superseded by conference championships and the awarding of at-large berths. District tournaments were held in some districts prior to 1951, but those are currently beyond the scope of this research, as it was not until 1951 that the NAIA mandated the use of some form of district selection process (although in some instances, this still amounted to a committee selection rather than a playoff of any sort). In some districts, conference tournaments did serve as the de facto district tournament, but this was generally reserved for situations where every school in the district was a member of the same conference anyway. This was the case, for example, with the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (1924-2013) in many years. Prior to "full integration", several districts were set aside specifically to allow qualification for what we now call Historically Black Colleges, and for many years the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association champion had its choice of going to the NCAA Small College tournament or going to the NAIA as the representative for District 29. If the champion picked the NCAA, the runner-up would become the District 29 representative.

Within each district, the method of selection varied greatly. Some districts maintained a relatively stable selection method for many years, while other districts seem to have altered their selection method almost annually.

Information on many of these regional tournaments remains very sketchy, and there are many gaps in the data needing to be filled. Many areas of the country which are and were NAIA strongholds are lacking in freely-available newspaper archive information, which has made the task of assembling this data even more arduous. Additionally, be advised that the absence of particular information does not mean it doesn't exist; most specifically, in many cases third-place games may have been played which are not noted, or what has been listed here as a two-team playoff may indeed have been a four-team affair with no information thus far uncovered regarding the semifinal round games.

District Assignments

Google News Archive was used to compile the base of this information; individual school media guides were also consulted where available (and useful), after which Google was re-consulted with additional search criteria. The Pittsburgh Press and Milwaukee Journal consistently provided the most comprehensive listing of scores (and, by extension, presumptive dates) for NAIA regional action, although in many cases regional papers were necessary for scores. In all cases except for those districts which these papers served as primary sources, regional papers were required to uncover sites. There were other papers which are unlisted below which provided occasional information on random hits, but for the most part the primary sources listed below were found to have more or less been consistently useful in this project. If no primary source is listed, it is virtually certain that information from local papers in that area is necessary to complete this project, and any assistance from readers with access to those papers' archives is deeply appreciated.

• District 1:
  • Washington; added Alaska and British Columbia in 1973
    • (Spokane Daily Chronicle, Spokane Spokesman-Review, Tri-City Herald, Ellensburg Daily Record)
• District 2:
  • Oregon; added Idaho in 1968
    • (Eugene Register-Guard)
• District 3:
  • California
    • (abstracts only from Los Angeles Times)
• District 4:
  • Texas (east)
    • (no primary resource)
• District 5:
  • Idaho and Montana until 1968; Montana only 1969-1973
    • (no primary resource)
  • Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont 1975-1993
    • (Lewiston Daily Sun, Bangor Daily News, The Day, Meriden Journal)
• District 6:
  • Colorado and Utah through 1954
    • (Deseret News)
  • black colleges 1956-1968
    • (no primary resource)
  • Carolinas (east) 1969-1993
    • (Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Lexington Dispatch, Rock Hill Herald, Sumter Daily Item)
• District 7:
  • Arizona and New Mexico; Colorado and Utah added 1955
    • (Deseret News)
  • Florida 1993 only
    • (Lakeland Ledger, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Daytona Beach Morning Journal)
• District 8:
  • Texas (west)
    • (no primary resource)
• District 9:
  • Oklahoma
    • (no primary resource)
• District 10:
  • Kansas
    • (Lawrence Journal-World, Fort Scott Tribune)
• District 11:
  • Nebraska
    • (no primary resource)
• District 12:
  • Dakotas; added Montana in 1974
    • (no primary resource)
• District 13:
  • Minnesota
    • (no primary resource)
• District 14:
  • Wisconsin
    • (Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Sentinel)
• District 15:
  • Iowa
    • (no primary resource)
• District 16:
  • Missouri
    • (Nevada Daily Mail, Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian, Saint Joseph News-Press)
• District 17:
  • Arkansas
    • (no primary resource)
• District 18:
  • Louisiana until 1956
    • (no primary resource)
  • vacant 1957-1964
  • Pennsylvania (West) 1965-1993
    • (Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Beaver County Times)
• District 19:
  • Mississippi and Alabama until 1956; Alabama 1957-1964
    • (Florence Times-Daily, Gadsden Times, Tuscaloosa News)
  • Pennsylvania (East) 1965-1993
    • (Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Beaver County Times, Reading Eagle, Gettysburg News)
• District 20:
  • Illinois
    • (abstracts only from Chicago Tribune)
• District 21:
  • Indiana
    • (no primary resource)
• District 22:
  • Ohio
    • (Toledo Blade, Youngstown Vindicator)
• District 23:
  • Michigan
    • (no primary resource)
• District 24:
  • Kentucky; added Tennessee 1965; Tennessee only 1975-1993
    • (no primary resource)
• District 25:
  • Georgia and Florida; Georgia only 1993
    • (Lakeland Ledger, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Daytona Beach Morning Journal)
• District 26:
  • Carolinas until 1968; Carolinas (west) 1969-1993
    • (Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Lexington Dispatch, Rock Hill Herald, Sumter Daily Item)
• District 27:
  • Tennessee until 1964
    • (no primary resource)
  • Louisiana-Alabama-Mississippi 1965-1974
  • Alabama only 1975-1993
    • (Florence Times-Daily, Gadsden Times, Tuscaloosa News)
• District 28:
  • West Virginia
    • (no primary resource)
• District 29:
  • Maryland and Virginia until 1952
    • (no primary resource)
  • black colleges 1953-1961; CIAA 1962-1968
    • (no primary resource)
  • North Carolina and Virginia 1969-1977
    • (Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Lexington Dispatch, Rock Hill Herald, Sumter Daily Item)
  • vacant 1978-
• District 30:
  • Pennsylvania until 1964
    • (Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Beaver County Times, Reading Eagle, Gettysburg News)
  • black colleges 1965-1974
    • (no primary resource)
  • Louisiana and Mississippi 1975-1993
    • (no primary resource)
• District 31:
  • New York and New Jersey
    • (Albany Times Union, Schenectady Gazette, abstracts only from New York Times)
• District 32:
  • New England until 1975
    • (Lewiston Daily Sun, Bangor Daily News, The Day, Meriden Journal)
  • Kentucky 1976-1993
    • (no primary resource)