Important Dates

July 15, 2023

• Catastrophic insurance enrollment and payment deadline. Click here for details.
• Deadline for conferences to submit Hall of Fame nominations to the national office. Click here for details.

News

New NAIA-ADA Board Elected

The NAIA Athletics Directors Association (NAIA-ADA) has selected Jason Horn, director of athletics at Florida Memorial University, to serve as President for the the 2023-24 membership year.

Horn takes the reins from Drew Watson, director of athletics at Southeastern University, who will transition to Immediate Past President. Serving alongside Horn will be:

• 1st VP Reagan Rossi, VP of athletics at College of Idaho
• 2nd VP Nik Rules, director of athletics at William Penn University
• 3rd VP Jesse Godding, director of athletics at Southwestern Assemblies of God University

The Room: Leadership Principles

Do you facilitate your campus Association for Student-Athletes or SAAC group? Or maybe you want to help student-athletes continue to grow in their leadership development? If so, The Room is for you. The Room is a leadership speaker series specifically for NAIA student-athletes. Join NAIA staff and our partners at Catalyst Development for a conversation on how to utilize The Room's leadership principles to help your student-athletes on their leadership journey. We’ll cover the LEADERs (Lead, Engage, Accept, Develop, Effective, Resilient) philosophy, facilitator resources, and best practices.

Discussion sessions will be held on Tuesday, July 25 noon Central and Tuesday, August 2 p.m. Central.

Zoom Link (for both meetings)

Meeting ID: 835 0562 7995

Collegiate Student-Athlete of Character Nomination

The NAIA is seeking nominations for the Collegiate Student-Athlete of Character Award. This award recognizes a student-athlete for a specific of act of character displayed during competition or practice which reflects at least one of the five Champions of Character® core values. Teams are eligible to be nominated for this award. One overall winner will be chosen and recognized at the 2023 Champions of Character Foundation Luncheon in November. The deadline submission is September 15.

Brandt McCall Joins NAIA Athletics Communications

The national office is excited to welcome Brandt McCall as the newest athletics communications manager. Brandt comes to the NAIA from Dakota Wesleyan University, where he was the director of sports information since 2021. Prior to that, he served in communications roles at both Northern State University (SD) and Presentation College (SD). Welcome Brandt!

Legislative Services

Coffee & Compliance

Join Legislative Services for a “Coffee & Compliance” session on Thursday, July 20 at 12pm central. Members of the ACAA Leadership group will be discussing best practices and successful strategies used to ensure compliance on their campuses. Legislative Services will also provide an overview of approved legislation, ECP, and other legislative updates.  

Coffee & Compliance Zoom Meeting Link

Meeting ID: 860 2097 7427

Passcode: NAIA

Rules Education Updates

Check out Legislative Services Rules Ed page for updated rules PPTs and quizzes. We are starting with initial eligibility and will be adding presentations for continuing eligibility and seasons of competition. We encourage athletics directors to ask their staff members to take the quizzes. Legislative Services can let you know who takes the quizzes and how they fare on various topics. More quizzes will be added weekly!

ECP Certification Open

The Eligibility Certification Process (ECP) is now live and ready for members to start certifying for the Fall 2023 term. Multiple updates were passed at the convention in April, the details of which can be found here.

Membership Value - Did You Know?

Eligibility Center Advisory Group

Did you know that the eligibility center maintains an active feedback loop with NAIA membership through the EC Advisory Group? This group meets regularly to share their campus and conference perspectives, help identify improvements to EC processes and PlayNAIA, and communication needs. A variety of roles and conferences are represented to ensure ongoing collaboration between the eligibility center and NAIA members.

Eligibility

July Eligibility Edge

Check out the most recent issue of the Eligibility Edge, a newsletter dedicated exclusively to NAIA eligibility topics. For questions regarding newsletter distribution or to add someone to the email list before the May issue, please contact Jen Saab.