The following is a list of current National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) schools that have participated in the playoffs (also known as the championship series) leading to the NAIA football national championship since 1956.
The playoffs featured two teams in 1956, four teams from 1958, eight teams from 1978, sixteen teams from 1987, and twenty teams from 2023 until the present.
A separate NAIA Division II football national championship was also held between 1970 and 1996, with the same number of teams competing in its annual playoffs.
[1] Many of the teams who participated in past editions of the playoffs have subsequently joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or disbanded their programs.