KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Benedictine Football officially earned the program's 17th berth in the NAIA Football Championship Series on Sunday night when the Association announced the 20-team field.
Benedictine (10-1) captured the program's second outright Heart South title on Saturday under head coach Joel Osborn with a 52-7 win over (RV) MNU. In doing so, the Ravens captured the fourth overall title under Coach Osborn and locked in an automatic berth in this year's FCS.
The Ravens earned the fifth seed behind defending NAIA Grand View University, who is the overall top seed, second seed Kesier (Fla.), three seed Montana Tech and four seed Friends. The Falcons, who earned an automatic berth out the KCAC's Bissell division jumped Benedictine in the Midwest ARC ranking earlier in the week and remained No. 2 in the arc on Sunday morning behind Grand View and ahead of Benedictine.
Benedictine and Grand View are joined by a third member of the Heart of America Athletic Conference in this year's FCS as William Penn University earned an at-large berth as the No. 13 seed. While Benedictine and Grand View earn byes into the second round on Saturday, Nov. 29, William Penn hosts No. 20 seed Texas Wesleyan on Saturday, Nov. 22.
This year's championship field includes 13 automatic qualifiers that won their respective conference regular-season or division titles, as well as seven at-large selections made by the NAIA Football National Selection Committee.
The 2025 field features 10 teams that repeat from 2024, while three teams ended playoff droughts of seven years or longer. William Penn (Iowa) last made the NAIA postseason in 2012, Campbellsville (Ky.) in 2015, and Southeastern (Fla.) last made it in 2017. The remaining seven teams have each appeared at least once in the last four seasons. In all, 2025 FCS qualifiers boast a collective record of 180-30 (.857).
Benedictine awaits their opponent until after the first round concludes, but by earning the No. 5 seed, they have guaranteed a host bid for the Second Round on Nov. 29 inside Larry Wilcox Stadium. Ticketing details will be made available once an opponent is known and a kickoff time is determined.
This year's FCS takes place with the First Round on Nov. 22, the Second Round on Nov. 29, the Quarterfinals on Dec. 6, the Semifinals on Dec. 13 and the 2025 NAIA National Championship Game on Dec. 20 in Fort Worth, Texas at Crowley ISD Stadium.
To see the complete playoff field with links to the full schedule for the 2025 NAIA Football Championship Series, visit https://www.naia.org/sports/fball/2025-26/Releases/Qualifiers.
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