Recruiting Tips – NCAA Division Levels

Welcome back to recruiting tip Tuesday! Today we are going to breakdown the difference in Divisions at the NCAA and NAIA level.

During the recruiting process, it is very important to identify the schools and the divisions that would best suit your interest and your abilities. Most times this comes with a lot of confusion between the numerical divisions. Some schools have certain guidelines, rules and regulations that differ from others. When talking to coaches, it’s crucial for you, the potential athlete to be knowledgeable about the NCAA recruiting rules. Colleges are in one of 3 NCAA Divisions, because they either are, or are not, able to field a minimum number of teams in both men’s and women’s intercollegiate sports. Here’s a small breakdown in the NCAA Divisions:

NCAA Division I
-Biggest student bodies
-Largest athletic budgets
-Most athletic scholarships
-No official/unofficial visits until September 1st of junior year
-Earn an SAT combined score or ACT sum score
-2.3 GPA or higher

NCAA Division II
-Most athletes receive partial scholarships
-Smaller athletic budges
-Similar rules to Division I, but are more lenient
-Can recruit at all times except for dead periods
-Must be upper 20% of high school class
-2.0 GPA or higher

NCAA Division III
-Largest of all NCAA Divisions
-No athletic scholarships
-Shorter practice hours and less travel

NAIA
-Offer athletic scholarships
-2.5 GPA or higher
-Meet minimum ACT or SAT test score requirements

Click these links below to see more on NCAA Recruiting Guidelines!\

http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/resources/recruiting-calendars

http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/future/recruiting

As always,

Fairways & Greens

-Maty