(07-14-2017 06:09 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  

(07-14-2017 06:08 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  But most small schools don't have single sport tunnel vision.

And I would agree that football is where D2 has the biggest advantage over the NAIA, given the scholarship difference. Overall it's pretty even.

I actually would give the NAIA a decent advantage over D2.

Even though the biggest difference is the football limits between the NAIA and D2, and though both organizations allow an athlete to not count to the limits if they are getting outside institution help (Federal/State Grants), the NAIA allows an athlete to not be counted to the limit if that athlete is an excellent academic student.
For example, NAIA D1 basketball limit is 11 and NCAA D2 is 10. However, a NAIA school could be allowed to give athletic aid to 15 players if 4 of them meet the academic exemption.
The exemption goes for all sports. Even without the academic exemption, the NAIA still has some significant limits in quite a few sports.
Here is the by from the NAIA manual about the academic exemption.

"F. Academic Exemption
1. Academically gifted students will be exempt from the aid counted by use of the following criteria:
a. Aid to continuing students with a 3.60 cumulative GPA or who are in the top 10% of the class will not count against the limits.
b. Only one-half of the aid to continuing students with a 3.30 - 3.59 cumulative GPA or who are in the upper 11% - 25% of the
class will count against the limits.
c. Aid to entering freshmen will be exempt upon achievement of the following:
1) Minimum SAT/ACT score: 1130 SAT/23 ACT = half exemption, 1270 SAT/27 ACT = full exemption;
2) Cumulative high school GPA: 3.50 - 3.74 = half exemption, 3.75 - 4.0 = full exemption; or
3) High school class rank: top 11% - 25% = half exemption, top 10% = full exemption"

However, although the NAIA has made progress in branding and marketing, the NCAA D2 still holds the 'prestige' value just because of the NCAA D1 branding.

But the bigger advantage for a non-football school in the NAIA is the need to only sponsor 6 sports (3 men's/3 women's) vs 10 for NCAA D2 (5/5 or 4/6).