NAIA BB Changes

If you want to talk about Monmouth University Football, Quincy University Basketball, Notre Dame Men's Soccer, or whatever, this is the place.
wiu712
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Big changes are on the horizon for men's and women's basketball teams in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

First, the NAIA will consolidate its two divisions into one for the 2020-2021 season after member schools voted in April to make the change.

Division I schools now can offer up to 11 scholarships to players who actually get playing time.

Division II schools can currently offer up to six scholarships.

When the merger of the divisions takes place, schools would be able offer up to eight scholarships.

The NAIA handles scholarships differently than NCAA schools. Players on NCAA teams who receive scholarships must be counted toward the school's limit, whether they play or not. Players on NAIA teams who receive scholarships are only counted if they play.

The merger also affects the crown jewel of the NAIA's post-season offerings -- the 32-team Division I men's tournament. The first NAIA bracket had just eight teams in 1937, and a year later, it went to 32 teams. It has since remained that way. The past 54 tournaments have been played at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.

The Division II men's tournament, as well as both women's tournaments, also have 32 teams.

In 2020-21, however, 64 teams will qualify for the NAIA men's and women's tournaments. The new format will have 16 regional sites of four teams each. Those games will be played on a campus or a neutral setting, the sites awarded by bid. Sixteen winners will advance to the finals sites.

Twenty-one conferences are afffiliated with the NAIA. Current thinking is that each conference will get two bids to the 64-team field, with the rest filled by at-large teams.
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Western_101
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I am curious what the NAIA will look like in 20 years. I wonder if it will exist. It seems like NCAA is this great giant entity and perception is that if a school is not part of NCAA they are 2nd tier or an after thought.

It's as if there isn't any prestige anymore in being in that association. In Illinois at least, NAIA seems to be viewed as just a stepping stone to the NCAA. In not so distant memory Quincy University, UIS, and Mckendree University all were participants in NAIA.

NAIA had the first major national tournament before the NCAA. Heck even long ago Western was an NAIA member (not sure when we transitioned, late 60s?). Just kinda sad to see a once prominent athletic governing body seem to be vanishing before our very eyes :shock:
wiu712
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RedNeck wrote: Sun Aug 05, 2018 11:06 amWestern was an NAIA member (not sure when we transitioned, late 60s?).
Western's Men's Basketball team played in the NAIA championship game twice:
1954: Losing to St Benedict's (Kansas) 62-56.
1958: Losing to Tennessee State 85-73.

There are some NAIA banners for the 1969 Men's Water Polo team hanging in the Rec Center.
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RedNeck wrote:I am curious what the NAIA will look like in 20 years. I wonder if it will exist. It seems like NCAA is this great giant entity and perception is that if a school is not part of NCAA they are 2nd tier or an after thought.

It's as if there isn't any prestige anymore in being in that association. In Illinois at least, NAIA seems to be viewed as just a stepping stone to the NCAA. In not so distant memory Quincy University, UIS, and Mckendree University all were participants in NAIA.

NAIA had the first major national tournament before the NCAA. Heck even long ago Western was an NAIA member (not sure when we transitioned, late 60s?). Just kinda sad to see a once prominent athletic governing body seem to be vanishing before our very eyes :shock:
Honestly, I've always thought of the NAIA as below NCAA DIII. Somewhere around the level of the Christian School leagues. Primarily that's because I've never known a time when NAIA teams got any press whatsoever. Outside of Saint Xavier (who were on our football schedule for a while for last year and are currently on ILSU's schedule), I don't think I could name a one off the top of my head.

I'd honestly never even heard of the league until maybe the last decade or so, because we occasionally played one in basketball.


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wiu712
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The NAIA includes more than 260 colleges and universities. Long-time Western fans will remember that Western was an NAIA member until going to NCAA Division 2 in the early 70's.

The NAIA also oversees 23 national championships in 13 different sports.

Over 90% of schools in the NAIA offer scholarships.
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Western_101
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ST_Lawson wrote: Sun Aug 05, 2018 6:58 pm
RedNeck wrote:I am curious what the NAIA will look like in 20 years. I wonder if it will exist. It seems like NCAA is this great giant entity and perception is that if a school is not part of NCAA they are 2nd tier or an after thought.

It's as if there isn't any prestige anymore in being in that association. In Illinois at least, NAIA seems to be viewed as just a stepping stone to the NCAA. In not so distant memory Quincy University, UIS, and Mckendree University all were participants in NAIA.

NAIA had the first major national tournament before the NCAA. Heck even long ago Western was an NAIA member (not sure when we transitioned, late 60s?). Just kinda sad to see a once prominent athletic governing body seem to be vanishing before our very eyes :shock:
Honestly, I've always thought of the NAIA as below NCAA DIII. Somewhere around the level of the Christian School leagues. Primarily that's because I've never known a time when NAIA teams got any press whatsoever. Outside of Saint Xavier (who were on our football schedule for a while for last year and are currently on ILSU's schedule), I don't think I could name a one off the top of my head.

I'd honestly never even heard of the league until maybe the last decade or so, because we occasionally played one in basketball.


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Yikes, Lawson, Western had some nice sports accolades in NAIA only a decade before you were born.

NAIA offers scholarship currently in DI and DII... that is being streamlined. NCAA D-III offers zero (official) money to student athlete.

There is part of me that loves the March Madness field of 68, and part of me that has contempt for an organization that wants to cast the largest net
yet really doesn't fully accept Western as D-I. Just my uninformed humble opinion.
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Western_101
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Thank you for your transparency Lawson.

Obviously that is why NAIA is struggling. I was curious about the why. I would say T.V. deals but it already started eroding in the 60s-70s. Why?
wiu712
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One of Illinois' state universities plays NAIA Athletics ==> Governors State University is a member of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.

The closest NAIA-affiliated conference to Macomb is the Heart of America Conference. Member institutions are located in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. The closest would be Culver-Stockton College in Canton, MO.
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RedNeck wrote:Thank you for your transparency Lawson.

Obviously that is why NAIA is struggling. I was curious about the why. I would say T.V. deals but it already started eroding in the 60s-70s. Why?
I don't really know, but I wonder if it has something to do with the NCAA splitting into three divisions in 1973? Maybe it kinda pushed the NAIA down in terms of visibility.

For those that don't know (and no, I'm not trying to make anyone feel old...just putting this out there as a point of reference as it relates to how I'd viewed the NAIA), I was born in '78 and even though I grew up essentially in the shadow of Thompson & Higgins halls, my parents weren't really interested in WIU athletics at that point, so I didn't really pay any attention to it until I started as a freshman at WIU in '96. Well past any of our successes in NAIA.

I think once the divisions split in the NCAA and the TV contracts for the "big boys" started coming in, the lower/other division teams pretty much got lost in the shuffle.

Something else I noticed was that the predecessor to the NAIA was a basketball tournament where "The goal of the tournament was to establish a forum for small colleges and universities to determine a national basketball champion." So it looks like it was always intended to be for small institutions and would allow them to compete against schools that were closer to their enrollment levels/support capabilities. So you didn't have schools like Western State Teacher's College or Central Missouri State having to compete with Illinois, Iowa, or Indiana in the NCAA. When the NCAA split out divisions to DI, DII, and DIII, there was a place for smaller schools to compete against each other within the NCAA and they didn't have to stay with NAIA. Since the NCAA was already dominant nationally because they had the "big boys", it was more advantageous for schools to join a lower division of NCAA than to stay NAIA, because of name recognition.

Idk if that's really the case, but that's my guess, based on the timing of things.
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sealhall74
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National Football Championships

Saint Xavier University 1 (2011)
Western Illinois University 0

Just saying.

I dont think the NAIA is struggling to provide all of its members a realistic shot to win at the national level. Cant say that about NCAA D1 schools.
Embrace the pace of the race.
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