If you are a top high school athlete on the sports scholarship track to college, chances are you’ve already memorized the distinctions between each of the four college sports divisions. But for those of us who play for fun or simply want to know if our campus teams will get to play their games on national television, here’s a helpful little breakdown of the NCAA and NAIA divisions:

The NCAA is the National Collegiate Athletic Association and contains three of the four college sports divisions:

Division I is home to many of the nation’s biggest and best colleges, including University of Michigan, Boston College, and UCLA. Full scholarships abound in Division I and the competition is fierce. If you follow professional sports, you’ll know that many of the rookies come from Division I schools.
Division II’s membership includes many smaller colleges and universities, like San Francisco State University, Adelphi University, and Morehouse College. Unlike Division I, there is no age limit for players in Division II, although there is a limit to how many semesters you can stay. The highest-ranking NCAA II teams are often of a higher caliber than the lowest-ranking teams of Division I, so it’s safe to say that there’s a lot of talent in Division II as well. This division also offers scholarships for top college athletes.
Division III does not offer scholarships, so its recruiting tactics are limited and the level of play varies greatly from team to team. Schools in this division include Franklin & Marshall College, Emerson College, and Catholic University.

The NAIA is the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics. It offers fewer sports and recruiting restrictions than the NCAA, but its level of play is similiar to that of the NCAA II division. There are close to 300 schools in the NAIA, including Azusa Pacific University, Fisher College, and Eastern Oregon University. Schools that are part of the NAIA tend to be smaller in campus size and student enrollment, making this division a good choice for students looking for a supportive environment both on and off the playing field.

Want to know your chances of scoring an acceptance letter to a big-time sports school? CampusCompare will soon debut its new tool, What Are My Chances?, which allows you to enter information about your GPA, test scores, etc. in order to get an idea of where you stand with your dream school.

If you aren’t into running towards the NCAA and the NAIA, that doesn’t mean that you have to abandon sports completely and lazily sit on the couch during your college years. There are a few other options for playing competitive sports in college.

To exercise your options, read our third installment on college athletics associations. This one covers the rest of the bases: the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletics Association), the NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association), and a couple of other ideas to help you play with your education.

NJCAA: Unabbreviated

The NJCAA is exclusively for two-year colleges and can serve as a gateway towards playing competitively at four-year colleges. So basically, if you excel at the junior college level you get a better shot at receiving a scholarship at college.

 About 550 institutions belong to the NJCAA. The sports organized by the NJCAA include baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, football, golf, half marathon, ice hockey, track and field, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, diving, tennis, wrestling, and volleyball.  Like the NCAA, the NJCAA has three divisions, with Division 1 being the most competitive.

NCCAA: Unabbreviated

The NCCAA is an athletic association for Christian-centered collegiate institutions. Many NCCAA colleges are also NCAA or NAIA members. The NCCAA is divided into Division I and II schools. Division I colleges offer athletic scholarships; Division II colleges do not. The NCCAA is an association of Christian-centered collegiate institutions whose mission is to use athletic competition as an integral component of education, evangelism and encouragement. It’s all about teaming up sports with lessons in the “game of life.”

Sports Club: Playing for fun!

Not sure if you have what it takes to compete at such a competitive level? That doesn’t mean that you have to give up on your sports goals. Consider joining a sports club and association at your college. It’s a great way to get exercise, get involved, meet new people, and take a break from all that studying!

Don’t forget to check out our first two blogs on the NCAA and the NAIA to help you make your game plan! With these tips you’ll be sure to cross the finish line in first place!

The NAIA is our second blog in a four-part series on collegiate athletics associations. So here’s your front-row seat to info on the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), whose overall goal is “to advance character-driven intercollegiate athletics.”

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