Can NAIA Schools Offer Full Ride Scholarships?
The NAIA is similar to the NCAA in the sense that it serves as the governing body over the athletics of hundreds of different colleges or universities.
Most NAIA schools have the ability to offer full-ride scholarships, but it’s extremely uncommon for them to offer one. Similar to the NCAA, the NAIA sets a maximum number of full scholarships allowed to be distributed for each sport. Coaches typically take this dollar value and distribute it relatively evenly across recruits rather than handing specific student-athletes full ride scholarships. Additionally, the amount of scholarship money allowed by the NAIA doesn’t have to be used. Many schools may choose not to distribute as much scholarship money as is allowed by the NAIA.
Included below is some additional detailed information on how NAIA scholarships are awarded, NAIA eligibility requirements, and the differences between the NAIA and NCAA.
How Are NAIA Scholarships Awarded
NAIA schools often take a different approach in awarding scholarship money than NCAA schools. There still remains a maximum of scholarship dollars that can be awarded, but colleges in the NAIA spend scholarship money much more independently than school’s governed by the NCAA.
Total Dollar Value: The NAIA sets limits for the amount of scholarships that can be distributed for each sport. For example, the NAIA has set the limit to 12 baseball scholarships and to 10 softball scholarships annually. Coaches take these scholarship numbers and calculate the total value of them and distribute that amount across prospective student-athletes. With that being said, full scholarships are an extremely rare occurrence. More often than not, coaches take the allotted scholarship money and distribute it fairly evenly amongst prospective student-athletes whom they’re recruiting.
Coach Discretion: Within the NAIA, schools decide independently how to distribute money to different prospective student-athletes as well as how much. Since there is no specific number, coaches analyze a variety of things when deciding how much scholarship money to offer a prospective student-athlete. Coaches will consider things like the teams overall and positional needs, as well as the qualities that an athlete brings to the table. Weighing all of these inputs, the coach will formulate a scholarship offer, present it to the Athletic Director, and if approved will award the scholarship.
NAIA VS. NCAA Scholarships: Depending on the sport, the NAIA allows schools to offer different numbers of scholarships. While this is done the exact same way as the NCAA, the NAIA allows schools to typically grant quite a few less scholarships. When taking a closer look, NCAA Division I athletic programs are allowed to distribute the equivalent of 85 full scholarships for football, while for the NAIA only 24 are permitted. Keep in mind that there are a few sports where the NAIA allows more scholarships than the NCAA. Soccer is one of these as at the Division I level, schools governed by the NCAA are only allowed 9.9 scholarships, while NAIA schools are granted 12.
The NAIA and NCAA are completely separate organizations, so their scholarship regulations won’t be the same. Be sure to do your research and know how scholarships work for each.
NAIA Eligibility Requirements
The NAIA requires students to meet certain academic criteria to be awarded an athletic scholarship. Just as the NCAA does, the NAIA takes athletic scholarships year by year as they can be reviewed by coaches who have the decision of whether or not to renew them.
High School Graduates And International Students: Both U.S high school graduates and international students have the same academic requirements for receiving an athletic scholarship from an NAIA school. As opposed to the NCAA sliding scales, the NAIA has three requirements of which a prospective student-athlete must meet at least two of. You must score at least an 18 on the ACT or an 860 on the SAT. You must achieve a minimum of a 2.0 GPA on a 4.0 GPA scale. You must graduate in the top half of your high school class.
GED And Homeschool Student Requirements: First and foremost, if you are a GED student, there are no GPA requirements. You must, however, still meet the test score minimums of at least an 18 on the ACT or an 860 on the SAT. For homeschool students, the requirements are just a bit more strenuous. To be considered eligible to receive athletic scholarships, homeschool students must achieve at least a score of 20 on the ACT or a 950 SAT score.
Steps To Become Eligible: If students meet the academic requirements discussed above, then there is little additional work that goes along with becoming eligible. The only things that needs to be done by a prospective student-athlete besides what is listed above is to create an eligibility center account and send all academic information to the NAIA, including your transcript and test scores.
The NAIA has much less strenuous requirements to be considered eligible. As long as you meet these basic academic requirements and complete any other necessary tasks, you will be eligible your first year without problem.
NAIA VS. NCAA
The NCAA and NAIA are both governing bodies over different universities for collegiate athletics. The NCAA is much larger as it governs over approximately 1200 schools and 23 sports while in comparison the NAIA only governs approximately 300 schools and distributes scholarships for 13 sports.
Competition Comparison: While you may assume that the competition at NAIA schools is much weaker than at the NCAA level, this isn’t true. The common belief is that NAIA competition is roughly comparable to the NCAA Division III level with top NAIA programs being similar to Division II. With the recruiting tools seen today such as highlight tapes and in-depth recruiting profiles, the athletic skill level at NAIA schools is only growing.
Scholarship Comparison: In the paragraph above, NAIA schools were compared to NCAA Division III schools. While this comparison deals with the competition level, it does not touch on the scholarship money that is granted at each. One of the major pros of NAIA in comparison to NCAA Division III schools is that they are permitted to grant athletic scholarships. NCAA Division III schools are still permitted to give out merit-based scholarships, but many prospective student-athletes don’t meet the requirements to receive those. Over 90% of schools within the NAIA award athletic scholarships with an average of around $7,000.
Different Divisions: The NAIA also differs from the NCAA in terms of the various levels seen. The NAIA is broken down into two divisions (D1 and D2), while the NCAA has three different levels of competition (D1, D2, and D3).
Recruiting Calendars: The NCAA follows strict recruiting calendars for each sport, covering in detail when coaches are allowed to communicate with prospective student-athletes. At NAIA schools this is made simple. When recruiting a high school student, coaches at NAIA affiliated schools can communicate whenever and however as the NAIA does not regulate any coach and player contact at the high school level. This is however a bit different for students enrolled in junior college or at a four-year university. If an NAIA coach wants to communicate with an athlete currently enrolled in junior college, they must wait until that athlete completes their first full academic year. Coaches aren’t allowed to make any contact with students at a four-year university, unless students reach out to them after contacting their university’s Athletic Director.
These are just a few big differences between the NAIA and the NCAA. Make sure to clearly understand these differences as they affect how the recruiting process works.
Things To Keep In Mind
Consider All Of Your Options: While you may initially want to go to an NCAA school, do your research before eliminating the prospect of going to an NAIA school. If you’re only receiving interest at the NCAA Division III level, be sure to put some thought into the NAIA. As mentioned above, NAIA schools offer athletic scholarship money while NCAA Division III schools will not. Additionally, coaches of NAIA schools are much easier to reach. The recruiting rules for the NAIA are much different, and allow for coaches to talk to prospective recruits whenever and as much as they want to.
Fewer Eligibility Requirements: This is one of the greatest upsides of attending an NAIA school. If you are a prospective student-athlete who is struggling in school, NAIA schools have less strenuous academic requirements to be considered eligible. It is only required that you meet two out of the three academic requirements mentioned above.
It’s Not Too Late: NAIA schools offer a great opportunity for students who are late in the recruiting process to have an opportunity to play collegiate athletics. At NCAA schools there are quite a few steps in the recruitment process that have specific timelines in which they need to be completed. NAIA schools permit coaches to communicate with students whenever they desire and have very few eligibility requirements. This allows students who may not have gotten an NCAA scholarship or roster spot another opportunity to play sports at the next level.