NAIA: In a League of Its Own
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.”
What’s it about?
Like the NCAA, the NAIA is another collegiate athletics association, only it serves a smaller number of four-year colleges and hosts two divisions instead of three. Nearly 300 colleges are members of the NAIA and the top NAIA programs are generally located in the Midwest. The level of competition in the NAIA is similar to that of the NCAA Division III.The NAIA “seeks to fully integrate life, academics, sport and fitness into the higher education environment.” So make sure you are wearing your sneakers when you hit the books!
The NAIA was the first national organization to open its intercollegiate postseason to black student athletes and was the first to tackle racial integration in college sports, and invited historically black institutions into its membership. It was also the first athletic association to sponsor intercollegiate championships for women. The NAIA is the only collegiate athletic association to admit international members, with the acceptance of five Canadian members and the recent acceptance of the College of the Bahamas.
The NAIA offers national championships for men in cross country, soccer, football, indoor and outdoor track and field, swimming and diving, wrestling, basketball, baseball, tennis, and golf. Women’s national championships include volleyball, soccer, cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field, swimming and diving, basketball, softball, tennis, and golf. The NAIA also provides scholarships and financial aid, but these are awarded directly through the college.
The NAIA has two divisions. The big difference between NAIA Division I and II institutions is in the amount of scholarships that each can give. Division I can offer a total of 11 full tuition, room and board scholarships. Division II can offer six.
NAIA colleges have a few things in common. They are often private or religious based, have a liberal arts curriculum, have an enrollment of under 2,000 students, and have higher graduation rates for athletes than NCAA Division I or Division II colleges.
Making the Cut
To get into an NAIA school, you have to score a minimum of 18 on the ACT or 860 or higher on the SAT (on the combined Critical Reading and Math sections). You also must have a minimum 2.0 GPA out of 4.0, graduate in the upper half of your class, and must be an amateur, which means that you have not played sports professionally and that you haven’t signed anything saying that you will.
Get pumped for our third blog on NJCAA!
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Athletic Associations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:19 am
scholarships for wrestling schools…
Although I understand the gist of what you are trying to say, there are still a few points that I need further clarification on….