The NAIA is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs across the U.S and Canada. The NAIA has 250 member institutions, sponsors 14 sports in which it conducts 25 national championships and has its headquarters in Kansas City. It has 21 member conferences and the Association of Independent Institutions.
What is the difference between NAIA and NCAA?
One common question that most young athletes ask, when considering College Sports, is what the differences are in the divisions? In most of the world Division 1 is better than Division 2 but this is not how it works in College Sports. Each university offering college sports must apply for an affiliation to a college sports division. There is a lot of criteria considered when a university decides on what division it will compete in, like finances, location and preference. Whatever division the university decides to compete in normally ALL the other sports following and compete in that division. Being in NCAA Division 1 does not automatically make the program better. Just because a soccer team competes in NCAA Division 1, it does not automatically make them better than all NCAA Division 2 & 3 and NAIA programs. NAIA schools are typically can range from $30,000-50,000 a year a year for tuition, food and housing without scholarship. Check out our page on Choosing a University for more information.
NAIA Academic Eligibility
Prospective student-athletes need to achieve a C or 3 grade average overall in GCSE subjects, Scottish Standards, or an alternative qualification such as GNVQ or GSVQ if the school authorities can confirm that his/her marks were in the “Top Half” of the class.
To meet the SAT eligibility requirements a student must have a minimum score of 18 on the ACT or 940 on the SAT (if you take the SAT more than once, combining scores is NOT acceptable) to compete at a NAIA institution.