KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) releases the qualifiers for the 17th Annual NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship.  The tournament will be held at the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa on March 12-18, 2008.

This year's 32 teams include 23 automatic qualifiers and nine at-large bids.  The at-large berths are selected using the final regular-season rating released on Feb. 27th.

The 23 automatic qualifiers include: Aquinas (Mich.), Benedictine (Kan.), Berea (Ky.), Bethel (Ind.), Black Hills (S.D.), Cardinal Stritch (Wis.), Daemen (N.Y.), Eastern Oregon, Holy Names (Calif.), King (Tenn.), Maine at Fort Kent, MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), Morningside (Iowa), Northwestern (Iowa), Northwood (Fla.), Ohio Dominican, Ozarks (Mo.), Shawnee State (Ohio), Southern Oregon, Southwestern (Kan.), Saint Ambrose (Iowa), Sterling (Kan.) and Union (Ky.).

Concordia (Neb.), Cornerstone (Mich.), Dakota State (S.D.), Davenport (Mich.), Hastings (Neb.), Indiana Wesleyan, Minot (N.D.), Rio Grande (Ohio) and William Jewell (Mo.) received an at-large bid into the tournament.

The official tournament bracket will be released by 5 p.m. (CST) on Wednesday, March 5th.