KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The 2026 NAIA Men's Basketball National Tournament Field has been announced. 64 teams will open play in the NAIA Men's Basketball First Round presented by Ballogy on March 13 at 16 host sites around the country. The first 32 winners will then play on March 14 in the Second Round, with a trip to the historic Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City, Mo., at stake, where the Round of 16 will tip off on March 19.
Langston University, selected to the Liston Quadrant, earned a No. 4 seed and will serve as hosts inside historic C.F. Gayles Field House. In their pod of four teams includes No. 5 seed LSU-Alexandria, No. 12 seed Eastern Oregon and No. 13 seed Bethel (Tenn.).
The Lions will be making their tenth appearance in the NAIA National Tournament and fourth-straight under head coach Chris Wright.
The tournament scheduled at Langston University is as follows.
March 13 | Game One – 5 pm CT
No. 4 Langston (Okla.) vs No. 13 Bethel (Tenn.)
March 13 | Game Two – 7 pm CT
No. 5 LSU-Alexandria vs No. 12 Eastern Oregon
March 14 | Game Three – 6 pm CT
Game One winner vs Game Two winner
The 16 First and Second Round host sites were announced earlier this week on NAIA.org. Among those host sites, 10 received an auto bid through their conference; the remaining six earned an at-large bid into the tournament.
The field contains 35 automatic qualifiers that were determined by each conference; the remaining 29 spots in the field were decided by the Men's Basketball National Selection Committee, comprised of NAIA men's basketball head coaches and administrators from around the nation representing each of the five different areas, West, Midwest, South, East, and North.
The 64-team field features several teams that have gone the distance in the past and been crowned national champions, led by Oklahoma City, which has won six Red Banners across its 26 championship appearances. 16 other teams have claimed at least one national championship in their program's history; of those, six have claimed three titles, while two have claimed two.
Tickets to the first and seconds round hosted by Langston University are on sale now at the link here or through the Hometown Ticketing app.
