NCAA, NAIA and sports scholarships NCAA--main site The NCAA has once again completely revised its website. The new site has a simpler introduction to the important areas of interest to student athletes and college sports fans. It is harder to link to specific pages than in the past but it is easier for you to browse the site. Choose "Academics and Athletes" and start exploring the subject of eligibility and recruiting. 2007-2008 NCAA Guide for the College Bound Student Athlete As usual, the 2006-2007 is not yet available. Keep posted. Get the earlier version and be aware when the new edition is released. Get it from your counseling office, call the NCAA and request a copy, or download it from the above link.  This brief overview of the recruiting process is essential reading for student athletes. You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader to view and print the online version. Some details of recruiting rules and dates change every year. Always get the most recent version. New versions for the coming school year are usually available online in August or September. The NCAA Guide tells the recruiting story from the NCAA's idealized point of view. Actual recruiting practices vary from this idealized picture and so you should get additional perspectives like those in The Sports Scholarship Handbook. NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse This is where you establish your academic eligibility for NCAA Divisions I & II. The 2004-2005 NCAA Guide has an incorrect link for the Clearinghouse. The link above is correct. NCAA database of colleges and universities sponsoring sports This link provides access to the NCAA database of schools sponsoring various sports. It allows you to select by NCAA Division, conference and region of the country and then gives you a list of schools with links to some information about the schools. You can also find the competition schedule for a particular sport at a particular school. The database does not provide direct links to the schools's webpages or the schools sports pages. For that you should look at the American Colleges and Universities link or perform a "google" search. NCAA Sports News This site provides news stories and photos from NCAA competitions. It is a lot of fun, but it does not provide links back to the schools' sports websites or to their main webpages. NCAA Divisional Manuals and other references This is a mother-lode of NCAA rules and information. Much of it is pretty technical but it is the authoritative source when you really need to know an NCAA rule. NCAA College Transfer Guide This guide is especially useful to student-athletes who plan to attend 2-year colleges before transferring to a 4-year school. The guide lists the eligibility requirements for being able to practice with and compete for college team after transferring. There are important differences depending upon whether one starts at a 2-year college or a 4-year college. There is even distinction of transferring from a 4-year school to a 2-year school and then to another 4-year school. National Letter of Intent The college recruiting scholarship agreement that most Division I and all active Division II schools use when offering scholarships. NAIA--main website College recruiting and athletic scholarship information for students considering NAIA schools. NAIA Guide for the College-Bound Athlete Information and advice from the NAIA for student athletes considering NAIA schools. NIAAA--A Guide for College-Bound Student-athletes and Their Parents The National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (high school sports administrators) has produced this booklet to advise student athletes about college sports and recruiting. Getting started If you are interested in competing in college sports and in receiving a sports scholarship it is never too early to start.

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