BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – As spring NCAA Championship competition draws to a close, national data indicate that the 2025-26 academic year has been among the most successful in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) history.
Across the 14 MIAC sports that feature automatic qualifiers to the NCAA Championships, a conference-record 28 teams (14 automatic qualifiers, 14 at-large) were selected for national tournament competition during the 2025-26 campaign. The previous conference-high was 25 teams with 14 AQs and 11 at-large berths during the 2005-06, 2017-18, and 2018-19 seasons.
Of those 28 teams that qualified for NCAA Tournaments, 18 won at least one game and advanced to the second round, winners' bracket, or cut line. Fifteen MIAC squads finished among the top 16 teams in the nation in their respective sports, with six reaching the Elite Eight and one MIAC team earning a Final Four appearance.
Additionally, 12 different MIAC institutions competed in at least one NCAA Tournament game during the 2025-26 academic year. The conference had never had more than ten institutions represented at NCAA team championships in a single academic year before.
Between team and individual NCAA selections, all 13 MIAC institutions were represented at NCAA Championships during the 2025-26 academic year, as the MIAC also totaled 93 individual qualifiers for NCAA meet-sport championships. Those 93 qualifiers resulted in 69 individual top-16 finishes, seven individual national runner-up performances, and three individual national championships.
The conference has now collected 15 individual national titles over the last five seasons, four more than were won during the previous five-year period. The three team championships won by MIAC squads since 2022 are equal to the number of national titles won by MIAC teams during the entire preceding decade, and just one trophy shy of the number won during the previous 17 years combined.
The 2026-27 season is set to begin on Tuesday, September 1.