Lindenwood joins an exclusive fraternity when it competes in the 54th annual Russell Athletic-NAIA Football National Championship. Ninety-one programs competed in football at the NAIA level in 2009. Out of those 91 programs, only 13 have appeared in a NAIA football title game. Lindenwood will become the 14th when the ball is kicked off at 12 p.m. (EST) next Saturday in Rome, Ga.

As Lindenwood and Sioux Falls prepare to write the next chapter in NAIA Football National Championships history, here is a look back at some of the previous chapters.

Aluminum Bowl
The inaugural NAIA Football National Championship Game was played in 1956 in the Aluminum Bowl, a one-time football bowl that was held in Little Rock, Ark. Montana State and St. Joseph's played for the first title and the first points in NAIA National Champion history were scored by Charles Norris of … Kansas State Teachers College (now Pittsburg State). Norris gets credit for the first points because of a scoreless tie in the first ever title contest between the Bobcats and Pumas. Due to muddy field conditions, both teams were stuck running the ball (there were only three passes with two incompletes and one interception) and neither team could put points on the board, resulting in co-champions for the 1956 season.

Early Championship Games
For the first 14 years of the NAIA Football National Championships, the postseason field was very limited. The first two years saw just two teams selected to decide the national championship. The field was expanded to four teams in 1958.

The first years saw a lot of new faces in the title contest as 20 different teams appeared in the first 14 games. There were 13 national champions in that time, with only three teams winning multiple titles (two years had co-champions due to a tie). Pittsburg State was the first team to win its second title after taking the 1957 and 1961 national championships, and Texas A&M-Kingsville and St. John's (Minn.) each won two titles in those early years. Texas A&M-Kingsville and Lenoir-Rhyne led the way with three appearances, and Lenoir-Rhyne and Linfield had the bad fortune to lose two title games in the early years.

Division Split
In 1970, the national championship game became twice as fun when the NAIA split into two divisions for football, and there was both a Division I and Division II national championship.

The 1970s was dominated by Texas schools at the Division I level, with schools from that state taking nine of the 10 titles during that decade. The Division II games were a bit more balanced, with six teams winning national championships, led by three by Pennsylvania's Westminster. Later in that decade, both the Division I and Division II fields expanded to eight teams.

Elon ended the Texas streak in 1980 and a few years later, Carson-Newman became the powerhouse at the Division I level, winning five titles that decade. Linfield became the perennial favorite at the Division II level, winning titles three times in the 1980s. The field expanded one more time to 16 teams, this change coming in 1987.

The final year with two divisions of NAIA football was in 1996, when Southwestern Oklahoma won the Diviison I title and Sioux Falls won its first national championship after winning the Division II Championship.

HAAC – National Championship Game
The Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) played at the Division II level during the years of the split. Three times, a HAAC school reached the championship game, but each time ended in a runner-up finish.

The first HAAC school in the title game came in 1974 when Missouri Valley advanced after a 37-29 win over Hanover in the semifinals. The Vikings were trounced though in the title game by a 42-0 score against Texas Lutheran, the first of two straight titles for the Bulldogs.

In 1982, William Jewell was rewarded for defeating Sul Ross State in the quarterfinals and Northwestern in the semifinals by being sent out to Oregon to play Linfield on its home field. Linfield won its first national championship with a 33-15 victory over William Jewell.

Linfield's third and final NAIA national championship also came at the expense of another HAAC school. Baker advanced to the finals after wins over Huron and Wisconsin-La Crosse, but was shutout 17-0 in the championship game.

Texas A&M-Kingsville
The Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas are the most decorated NAIA National Championship team, winning seven titles between 1959-1979. The team appeared in eight NAIA Football Championship series and had a 16-1 record, including reaching the national championship game all eight times and going 7-1 in the finals.

The program's first title came in 1959 with a 20-7 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne. Texas A&M-Kingsville, now a NCAA Division II school, won back-to-back titles in 1969 and 1970, and had a three-peat from 1974-1976. Its final championship series appearance came in 1979 and ended with a 20-14 win over Central State.

Westminster is second in NAIA history with six national championships. Among active NAIA schools, Carroll leads the way with five titles, two more than Georgetown and Sioux Falls. Other current NAIA programs that have won the national championship game are Northwestern (Iowa) (2), Azusa Pacific, Northwestern Oklahoma State, and Peru State.

Recent History
The NAIA returned to one division of play in 1997 and from 1997-2008, only nine programs have appeared in the title game. From 1999-2008, parity was even worse, as only five schools, Northwestern Oklahoma State, Georgetown, Sioux Falls, Carroll and St. Francis (Ind.), have made it to the final Saturday of the NAIA season.

In 1999-2000, Georgetown and Northwestern Oklahoma State advanced to the finals both years, with Northwestern Oklahoma State winning the first game and Georgetown taking the rematch. Georgetown repeated in 2001 before Carroll started a string of four straight titles. St. Francis was on the wrong side of the scoreboard for three straight games in this span, losing twice to Carroll in 2004 and 2005, and to Sioux Falls in 2006. The last two games have pitted Carroll and Sioux Falls, with Carroll winning in 2007 and Sioux Falls taking last year's title.

Many people forecasted round three between Carroll and Sioux Falls this year in Rome, Ga., but Lindenwood crashed the party with a 42-35 semifinal victory over Carroll. That win allows the Lions to be just the 10th program since the return of one division play to compete for the national tournament, an exclusive club that head coach Patrick Ross and his Lions are happy to join.