New NAIA Eligibility Center homepage.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Eligibility Center is responsible for determining the eligibility of first-time NAIA student-athletes and will begin taking registrations on Sept. 1, 2010 for any student interested in playing NAIA sports for the first time in 2011-12 or after.
“This is a significant change for our organization,” Eastern Oregon University Director of Athletics, Rob Cashell said. “It will be the first time that determination of initial eligibility is not done solely on each university campus and then submitted to the NAIA.”
Mountaineer Athletics has provided links to the registration site on all of their individual sports web pages as well as the main athletics page to alert prospects and parents of the change that will take effect on September 1, 2010. The link will take you to www.playnaia.org where valuable information for potential student athletes, parent’s high schools and member institutions can be found.
Once initial eligibility is determined by the NAIA, institutions will still have the responsibility to verify continued eligibility beyond a student athlete’s initial participation at a NAIA school.
The NAIA has 50,000 student-athletes participating at nearly 300 member colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. Divided into 25 conferences and the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.), the NAIA offers 23 championships in 13 sports. More information can be found at www.naia.org.