New National Qualifying Rules

Qualification Rules for Nationals 2025

To be eligible for Nationals you must accrue six (6) points. One accrues these points by:

1. Being in the top 50% at Regionals (if three or fewer couples, all qualify) = 6 points – Qualified!
2. Attend one Regional without reaching the top 50%, = 4 points, and one other competition to gain an additional 2 points (Sanctioned Local, Collegiate Challenge, Challenge, or another Regional Championship) – Qualified regardless of placement.
3. Attend any three competitions to reach 6 points (sanctioned Local, Collegiate Challenge, Challenge, or Regional Championship) – Qualified regardless of placement.
4. Hawaii / Alaska – Attend one sanctioned competition (Sanctioned Collegiate Challenge, Challenge, Regional Championship) – Qualified regardless of placement.
5. Senior V couples who want to compete only in Senior V events do not have to qualify for Nationals. If a Senior V couple wants to compete in any other age category, they must qualify in that age level to compete at Nationals.
6. No qualification is needed for Showdance, Solo, Pro/Am, Teacher/Student, Mixed Proficiency, and Professional events.

College Students – Additional Registration and Qualifying Rules:

• Full-time college students (35 and under) automatically qualify, without attending qualifying events, for one collegiate level/style and will get the same level/style in Adult categories, this is considered your “registration fee event.”
• For a second level/style of collegiate events, which must be consecutive to your “registration fee event” level,” you will have to qualify by achieving at least 6 qualifying points in each style you want to compete.
  • If you achieve at least 6 qualifying points/style, you will also be entitled to dance in both the Collegiate and Adult events. This second collegiate level is not part of your registration fee, and you will be charged the per-dance Collegiate fee. You will also be able to dance the second Adult level for no additional charge.
• The exception is for Championship-Level events where Collegiate students must qualify like all other couples for the non-collegiate Championship events.
• Those couples with mixed (one full-time college student and one non-college student) must qualify like all other couples for the non-collegiate events.

Regional Competitions = 6 points if you reach the top 50% in your category and = 4 points if you do not.

All Challenge (Collegiate & non-Collegiate) Competitions = 2 points

Local Competitions = 1 point