The 2019 NAIA Football National Championship was a four-round, sixteen team tournament played between November 23 and December 21, 2019. The tournament concluded with a single game, played as the 64th Annual NAIA Football National Championship. The championship game was played at

Eddie Robinson Stadium Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium is a 19,600-seat multi-purpose stadium in Grambling, Louisiana. It opened in 1983 and is home to the Grambling State Tigers football team and Grambling High School Kittens football team. The stadium is named in ...

in Grambling, Louisiana, between the undefeated No. 2 Marian Knights, representing Marian University from

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

, and the undefeated No. 1

Morningside Mustangs Morningside University is a private university affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Sioux City, Iowa. Founded in 1894 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, Morningside University has 21 buildings on a campus in Sioux City (ar ...

, representing

Morningside College Morningside University is a private university affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Sioux City, Iowa. Founded in 1894 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, Morningside University has 21 buildings on a campus in Sioux City (ar ...

from

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County ...

. This was the first time the championship game was played at this venue after the prior five games had been played at Municipal Stadium in Daytona Beach, Florida. The game was played on December 21, 2019, with kickoff at 7:00 p.m. EST (6:00 p.m. local CST) on ESPN3.

Teams

Marian

The Marian Knights, led by 7th-year head coach

Mark Henninger Mark Henninger is an American college athletics administrator and former football coach. He is the assistant athletic director at Marian University in Indianapolis, a position he has held since December 2022. Henninger served as the head football ...

, entered the national championship game as the #2 seed. They were seeking to win their third national championship, having won in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

and 2015. They entered the game 12–0, 8–0 in MSFA play.

Morningside

The

, led by 19th-year head coach Steve Ryan, entered the national championship game as the #1 seed and the defending champions, having won their first national championship the year prior. They entered the game 13–0, 9–0 in GPAC play.

Series history

Game summary

Statistics

Postseason playoffs

A total of sixteen teams were selected to participate in the

single-elimination A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

from across the country, with invitations that were revealed on Sunday, November 17, 2019. The field included twelve conference champions who received automatic bids. The field was then filled with at-large selections that were awarded to the highest ranked teams that were not conference champions. First-round seedings were based on the final regular-season edition of the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

NAIA Coaches' Poll The NAIA Coaches' Poll typically refers to a weekly ranking of the top 25 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) college football and college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate at ...

, with certain minor modifications given based on travel and geographic considerations. Each subsequent round also saw minor modifications based on travel and the geography of the remaining teams. Quarterfinal pairings were announced by the NAIA on November 23, after the first round results were known. Semifinal pairings were announced by the NAIA on November 30, soon after completion of the day's quarterfinal games.

References

{{NAIA football navbox * NAIA Football National Championship Morningside Mustangs football Marian Knights football Sports in Grambling, Louisiana December 2019 sports events in the United States

NAIA Football National Championship The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Football National Championship is decided by a post-season playoff system featuring the best NAIA college football teams in the United States. Under sponsorship of the National Associ ...