KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially announced the 32-team field for the 24th annual NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship.

The event will be held for the 16th-straight year in Point Lookout, Mo., on the campus of College of the Ozarks (Mo.) from March 11 – 17. Nineteen programs are back after competing in the 2014 championship.

The official 32-team national championship bracket will be announced via a live selection show at 8 p.m. CST tonight on NAIANetwork.com.

Bethel College, which lost in the Crossroads League Tournament title game Tuesday night, is an at-large selection to the field. The Pilots are led by sophomore Clay Yeo, the former star at Triton High School.

The 32-team field is comprised of 23 automatic qualifiers, one host berth awarded to College of the Ozarks, and eight at-large selections. Automatic qualification is given to conference regular-season champions, tournament champions or tournament runners-up depending on the league. At-large teams were determined using the final regular-season Coaches’ Top 25 Poll released earlier today.

Defending national champion Indiana Wesleyan takes a 31-2 overall record into the NAIA National Championship after earning an automatic berth as the Crossroads League regular-season champion. The Wildcats, who claimed the No. 1 ranking in all 11 Coaches’ Top 25 Polls this year, punched their eighth overall championship ticket and seventh-consecutive. They look to become the second Division II program in history (since 1991) to repeat as champs, which would join Bethel (Ind.) (1997-98).

Four of the last five national champions will be competing in Point Lookout: Indiana Wesleyan, Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) (2013), Cornerstone (Mich.) (2011) and Saint Francis (Ind.) (2010). Overall, nine qualifiers have secured one previous red banner, led by the NAIA-record three hardware’s by Bethel (tied with Oregon Tech).

Embry-Riddle (Fla.), who earned an auto selection out of The Sun Conference by virtue of winning the regular season title, leads all qualifiers in overall season wins at 32-1. The Eagles are the first team to enter the championship with 32-or-more wins since 2003 – Cardinal Stritch went 32-2 during the 2003 regular season. Overall, there have been seven previous teams to enter the championship with 32-or-more victories.

Union (Ky.), champions of the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament, owns the longest active season winning streak at 20-straight games. The 29-4 Bulldogs have not lost since Dec. 13, 2014.

There are four newcomers to the NAIA Division II field: Brescia (Ky.), Northwestern Ohio, Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) and St. Francis (Ill.). Both Olivet Nazarene and St. Francis have a history of championship appearances in the NAIA Division I national championship.

The Cascade Collegiate Conference, Crossroads League and Great Plains Athletic Conference each landed four qualifiers in the championship field. The Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference and Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference each send a trio of teams to Point Lookout, Mo.

College of the Ozarks leads all NAIA programs with 19 championship appearances, which includes its 16th-consecutive trip. The Bobcats (25-6) are 28-17 all-time in the national championship. Since 2006, College of the Ozarks has shown a home-court advantage going 7-2 in first-round games. Behind College of the Ozarks in appearances is Bellevue (Neb.) (16) and Embry-Riddle (15). Overall, seven qualifiers have made at least 10 appearances at the championship.

Three of the top five teams, in terms of all-time postseason wins, made the 2015 list. Bethel is No. 3 with a 29-8 championship record in 11 previous trips. Ozarks is next with 28 victories, followed by No. 5 Cornerstone with 27 in 12 previous championships.

All of the national championship action will be video-streamed live on NAIANetwork.com, the NAIA’s official video-streaming platform provided by Stretch Internet. Don’t miss the live HD-quality video stream of all of the action running from March 11 – 17. For more information, click here.

For information on the 2015 NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship, click here.