(10-12-2016 04:36 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  Sounds like some interesting changes are going to happen. One that is significant looks like having 1 division for basketball. The other is revising the limits for financial aid... could be some increases in the limits for football and other sports.

Since my college days in the late 80's and early 90's, the NAIA is more organized than ever and looks to be getting much stronger as an organization.

Good to see that they only require 6 sports minimum (3 men and 3 women). That helps the smaller schools and they are able to focus o the main sports (football/soccer, basketball, baseball/softball or track.)

The sport minimums are actually newish. It used to be that you could have a men's basketball team and women's volleyball (for Title IX purposes) and that'd be it. Pretty rare, because there was no hope of joining a conference like that, but there were a handful.

Combining the divisions has been a topic of conversation and study off and on for many years. I am in favor if they can work out how to keep the fantastic tournament format - 32 (plus?) teams, 7 days, 1 court. It's a great fan experience to sit in the same seat all week and watch all the teams match up and advance before your eyes. There are people that come from all over every year no matter who qualifies. I would love to see 64 teams in that format, although they'd probably have to split the 1st round or two between two courts. But probably they'd do a regional elimination round to get to 32. The scholarship study (I think) goes hand in hand with this, and it's probably not about increasing football scholarships. It's about reconciling basketball DI's 11 scholly limit with DII's 6 scholly limit. Their notes are suggesting that the true gap is narrowing; fewer DI's fully funded, more DII's fully funded. I'd bet that's the biggest obstacle to combining the divisions.