Justin Hellinga

Northwestern Men Travel To Doane

The Northwestern College men’s basketball team looks to continue a two-game win streak as they head to Doane to face the Tigers for the second time this season. Tip-off on Saturday is set 4pm. Read more

Red Raider Women On The Road To Doane

Northwestern College looks for its fourth consecutive win as they travel to Doane this Saturday for another conference match up. Tip-off is set for 2pm. Northwestern has a conference record of 8-5, sitting 5th in the GPAC, and 8-8 overall. Doane is 10th in the conference with a record of 2-12, and 4-14 overall. Read more

Changes To NAIA Basketball Championship Format Announced

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) made a critical announcement on Friday after both its National Administrative Council (NAC) full body and Council of Presidents (COP) made decisions related to national championships.

First, the NAC voted to reduce the field size of both the men’s and women’s basketball championships from 64 to 48 teams in response to factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the COP voted to approve a measure to split the men’s and women’s swimming and diving national championships into two separate competitions for 2021 only.

The NAC approved the basketball measure that will reduce the overall field size, but will be designed to maintain conference at-large berths.

The basketball move will directly affect NAIA National Championship Opening Rounds, which will change from 16, four-team tournaments per gender to eight, six-team (three-team pod) tournaments per gender. The four sites that have already been announced in Wichita, Kan. (2), Omaha, Neb., and Alexandria, La., will continue as hosts.

Each opening round site will feature two, three-team “pod” tournaments (per gender) in which the No. 1 seed will receive a bye. The Nos. 2 & 3 teams will play each other on day one, and will face the No. 1 seed in that pod for the championship. The winner of that final game will go to the NAIA National Championship Final Site in either Sioux City, Iowa (women) or Kansas City, Mo. (men).