By Chad Waller, Director of Communications and Sports Information

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially announced the 40-team field for the 2014 Softball National Championship Opening Round. The event will take place from May 12 - 14 at 10 different locations. The format is a double-elimination, four-team tournament. For more information on the 10 host sites, click here.

The officials pairings for the opening round will be announced with a video bracket show today at 7 p.m. CDT. Click here to access the show.

The 10 Opening Round champions will punch their ticket for the 34th annual NAIA Softball World Series in Columbus, Ga., from May 23 - 29.

Defending national champion Concordia (Calif.) returns to the National Championship Opening Round for the second-straight year. The Eagles, who have been ranked No. 1 in each of the nine polls this year and 17 in-a-row dating back to last season, bring a 48-5 overall record into the event. Concordia is one of three repeat Opening Round hosts as the Eagles went 3-0 last year in winning the Concordia Opening Round bracket.

The two other repeat hosts from last year are Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) and Oklahoma City. The Blue Raiders, who qualified as the Mid-South Conference regular-season champion, look to bounce back after falling at home in the 2013 Lindsey Wilson Opening Round bracket. Oklahoma City advanced out of its own Opening Round bracket in 2013 behind a 3-1 record.

The 2013 Opening Round hosts recorded a 23-14 combined record, but went just 5-8 on the third and final day of the event. Overall, the No. 1 seeds last year went a combined 30-7 in the Opening Round.

Overall, 23 teams are back after a 2013 National Championship Opening Round appearance. There are three teams in this year's field with an undefeated Opening Round all-time record at 3-0: Auburn Montgomery (Ala.), Cal State San Marcos and Concordia.

The Southern States Athletic Conference leads all conferences, independents and unaffiliated groups with four qualifiers in the National Championship field. The Association of Independent Institutions, Cascade Collegiate Conference and Sooner Athletic Conference each landed a trio of programs.

The Opening Round field is comprised of 32 automatic qualifiers and eight at-large berths. Automatic qualification is given to conference regular-season champions, regular-season runners-up, tournament champions or tournament runners-up depending on the league. Conferences with 10 or more members earned two automatic qualifiers and conferences with less than 10 landed one auto berth. At-large teams were determined using the final regular-season Coaches’ Top 25 Poll released earlier today.

The 2014 Opening Round marks the second  year of this format with 40 teams at 10 different sites.

For more information on the 2014 NAIA Softball National Championship, click here. 

2014 Softball National Championship Opening Round Qualifiers