I wanted to share NAIA policy regarding financial aid to athletes. The way I am interpreting this indicates that the “12 full scholarship limit” has some variables that I wasn’t aware of when my son made his choice to play at an NAIA school.
I think this information may be valuable, especially to recruits interested in going the NAIA route. If a player has high academic achievement and can maintain that during his college career; the financial aid package given by the college doesn’t necessarily count towards the 12 “upper limits for institutional aid” (quoted from NAIA handbook)
Here are some excerpts from the NAIA handbook:
A. Definition of Institutional Financial Aid-All aid institutionally managed or controlled, exclusive of Pell grants, state grants, SEO grants and loans not controlled by the
Institutions.
C. Countable Aid
Any and all financial assistance to student-athletes that is funded by the institution, controlled or allocated by the institution,
Regardless of category, title or original source. Countable aid includes athletic grants or scholarships, academic scholarships,
Leadership and/or performance scholarships, outside scholarships administered by the institution, tuition waivers, benefits, room
credits, meal credits, institutional loans and work study, as defined in financial aid packages and funded by the institution or
Government.
F. Academic Exemption
Academically gifted students will be exempted from the aid counted by use of the following criteria.
1. Aid to continuing students with a 3.60 cumulative GPA or top 10% of class will not count against the limits.
2. Only one-half of the aid to continuing students with a 3.30 - 3.59 cumulative GPA or upper 11%-25% class ranking will count
against the limits.
3. Aid to entering freshmen will be exempted upon achievement of minimum SAT/ACT scores (1050/23=half exemption,
1200/27=full exemption) or cumulative high school GPA (3.50-3.74=half exemption, 3.75-4.0=full exemption) or high school
class rank (top 11%-25%=half exemption, top 10%=full exemption).
In the case of my son, who is currently a freshman. He had a 3.78 GPD and scored 28 on his ACT. Based on the way I am reading these guidelines. His financial aid package was not counted toward the teams limits. He currently has a 3.4 GPA in his freshman year. Based on the guidelines, only half of his aid counts towards the limits.
It is also interesting that the whole financial aid package counts towards the limit of 12. In my son’s case he received a total package worth about 65% of costs and the majority of that was academic money.
It would be interesting to find out how coaches manage this. My thought is that coaches would be willing to recruit a player who they feel isn’t quite there yet skill wise but has potential if that player has hig academic achievement and his financial package won’t count towards the limit of 12.
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