the national association of intercollegiate athletics football national championship is decided by a post-season playoff system featuring the best naia college football teams in the united states. under sponsorship of the national association of intercollegiate athletics, the championship game has been played annually since 1956. in 1970, naia football was divided into two divisions, division i and division ii, with a championship game played in each division. in 1997, naia football was again consolidated into one division. the game is currently played at barron stadium in rome, georgia. == champions by year == over the years, the naia championship games were played under a variety of names: *aluminum bowl (1956) *holiday bowl (1957â1960, not to be confused with the ncaa division i bowl of the same name) *camellia bowl (1961â1963) *championship bowl (1964â1976 and 1980â1996, division i games only) *apple bowl (1977, division i game only) *palm bowl (1978â1979, division i games only) {| class="wikitable" !|date||champion||score||defeated||site |- |december 22, 1956|| montana state saint joseph's (in) || 0â01|| ||little rock, arkansas |- |december 21, 1957|| pittsburg state|| 27â26|| hillsdale ||saint petersburg, florida |- |december 20, 1958|| northeastern state|| 19â13|| arizona state-flagstaff||saint petersburg, florida |- |december 19, 1959|| texas a&i|| 20â7||lenoir-rhyne||saint petersburg, florida |- |december 10, 1960|| lenoir-rhyne|| 15â14|| humboldt state||saint petersburg, florida |- |december 9, 1961|| pittsburg state|| 12â7|| linfield || sacramento, california |- |december 8, 1962|| central state|| 28â13|| lenoir-rhyne|| sacramento, california |- |december 14, 1963|| saint johnâs|| 33â27|| prairie view a&m|| sacramento, california |- |1964||concordia-moorhead [[sam houston state university|sam houston
NAIA_Football_National_Championship