Rules

Team Selection

Teams (32 per gender) will be selected in the following manner:

16 teams will automatically qualify (two per region)
Sixteen at-large teams will be selected by the committee to be determined using the criteria listed below
Only the top five teams in each regional will be considered
Regional performance/place is the primary piece of the criteria, as a team cannot be selected to the championships over a team it finished behind at its respective regional.

The selection criteria below (not listed in preferential order) will be considered to select the at-large teams:

Regional place/performance
Late-season performance (A team's last three regular-season meets prior to regionals that meet the following criteria will be used during the selection process.)
A team runs at least three of its student-athletes who will compete for their institution at regionals
The race length must be at least 5 kilometers or 3 miles for the women and 6 kilometers or 4 miles for the men
The meet must be scored in accordance with the scoring procedures in the NCAA Men's and Women's Cross Country/Track and Field Rules book
Head-to-head competition with teams already in the championships field and other potential at-large teams using late-season performance comparisons
Common opponents using late-season performance comparisons
Regional meet results - point gap for places of a team's finish and total team score versus the team that placed ahead of and behind it
Late-season meet results - point gap for places of a team's finish versus the team that placed ahead of and behind it.