NCVF Championships– 2025 Registration Process FAQs

As we receive questions on the new registration process, they will be added to this page with responses.

Will this process change the total number of teams accepted?

  • The number of teams accepted will always be based on how many we can fit in the city/facilities available. This year’s tournament will be expanded from last year due to additional space at the convention center, and we are evaluating additional locations/facilities for future years as well. Ultimately we will choose the location that we feel is the best fit for the tournament when looking at a number of factors, but number of teams we can accept is a major factor.

What percentage of teams will be accepted/not accepted?

  • While we cannot predict how many teams will register this season, we expect to accept around 95-100% teams based on last year’s registration numbers and space available this year.

Are there only going to be Divisions I, II, and III now, no subdivisions?

  • There will still be subdivisions (and more will be added if/when the tournament is able to expand), however these subdivisions are not taken into account when registering.

  • Full Divisions: These are the divisions based on enrollment criteria and number of teams at the school (size of school, A/B/C teams, etc.).

    • Division I - Open to all teams, but intended primarily for teams from schools with total enrollment >15,000.

    • Division II - Teams from schools with total enrollment <15,000.

    • Division III - 2nd and 3rd teams from schools (the first team from any school is considered an A team for purposes of NCVF Championships registration).

  • Subdivisions: These will be split based on season results in April with the top ranked teams going to the top division, and lower ranked teams going to lower divisions (AA, AAA, etc.). This is done to group teams of similar competitiveness and create manageable division sizes, among other factors. Division I shown below as an example:

    • Division I(IA) - Teams ranked 1st-48th in Division I.

    • Division IAA - Teams ranked 49th through 96th in Division I.

    • Division IAAA - Teams ranked 97th through 144th in Division I.

    • Division IAAAA - Teams ranked 145th and beyond (this division may be added this year).

Will this year’s play be taken into account?

  • The automatic acceptances are based solely off of last year’s NCVF Championships.

  • No results are taken into account for the lottery draws.

  • The acceptance committees may take into account information from this academic year when filling the remaining tournament slots.

  • Spring results will not be available for the acceptance window in January, but they will be used for seeding/subdivision splits in April.

How were the percentage splits determined?

  • The intent of the splits was to ensure that the top teams from the year before we guaranteed acceptance while still maintaining that a majority of overall teams would have equal opportunity to compete. This tournament was started 40 years ago to promote opportunity for collegiate athletes and our hope is to honor that spirit of opportunity by keeping majority of the entries open to all teams instead of limiting making all entries results-based. These were the splits that the committee felt best accomplished these goals.

What stops an A team from playing Division III if only the B team is accepted?

  • Admittedly, this is a new process and some parts of it need refinement. This is a great question and we may make a small adjustment to the acceptance criteria for A teams with automatically-qualifying/lottery-qualifying B teams after reviewing.

Do regular season results (NCVF Recognized League, Regulation, and Fellowship) count toward divisional subdivisions still?

  • Yes, the ranking/seeding committees will take all of the same factors as past years into account when seeding teams and splitting them into divisions.

How will teams be considered after the first autoqualifiers?

  • The majority of remaining acceptances will be randomly assigned, and then a committee will review all information available to them (history of the club, historical results of the team, preseason information if available and verifiable, etc.), to fill the last spots in the tournament.

Is there a way to appeal if our team is not selected in the lottery?

  • The committee-selections following the lottery are our internal review system. While we will not be accepting “appeals,” from teams, all registered teams will be evaluated for the remaining spots as if they had filed a review.