ATLANTA – A total of 25 teams were certified to be under consideration for the 2021 MCLA Invitational as the deadline passed on April 15.

Twenty-four of those teams will now go before the 17-man selection committee with the most deserving eight programs earning a bid to the three-day event from May 12-14 in Round Rock, Texas.

West Virginia has already removed itself from consideration.

“We’ll have a strong field for this hopefully one-time event and it’s great that all nine of our conferences have at least one representative in the field,” said MCLA president Ken Lovic. “It shows that we’re slowly swinging in the right direction and on pace for a normal 2022.”

There will be 18 Division I teams and seven D-II teams that will go before the selection committee, which will make its decision on the evening of April 28. The committee will use all of the data in front of it – some of it non-traditional – to create the best bracket possible.

“This will be a daunting task,” said competition director Gary Podesta. “Trying to measure teams with limited inter-conference games is very difficult. As with our championships, there will be several deserving teams not invited to the Invitational.”

The 2021 MCLA Invitational will be streamed live via its Watch Party, although no fans will be allowed on site. Regardless of local and state regulations, the Invitational will have strict safety protocols in order to fulfill obligations established during the certification process.

Certified Division I Teams
Arizona
Brigham Young
Chapman
Clemson
Concordia-Irvine
Dominican
Georgia Tech
Liberty
LSU
Oregon
Tennessee
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Christian
Texas Tech
Utah Valley
West Virginia *
Western Michigan

Certified Division II Teams
Dallas Baptist
Montana
Missouri State
North Dakota State
Rhode Island
St. Thomas
Utah State

* - removed itself from consideration