NAIA Eligibility Center

How to Determine Your NAIA Eligibility

The NAIA Eligibility Center is responsible for ensuring student-athletes are academically eligible to compete at its member schools. Athletes must register with the NAIA Eligibility Center, creating an online profile and sending in the appropriate documentation to prove they meet the eligibility requirements. Most recruits will create their NAIA profile during their high school years, starting as early as freshmen year. Students can receive their official eligible decision as early as after their junior year for high academic achievers. It’s important to note that the NAIA Eligibility Center is only responsible for making sure recruits meet the academic requirements. It’s up to the student-athlete to understand the academic requirements and make sure they are on track to meet those requirements, with the help of their high school guidance counselor and administrators.

What is the NAIA Eligibility Center for?

The NAIA Eligibility Center is responsible for ensuring that prospective college athletes meet all the requirements to be academically eligible to compete in college sports at one of its member schools. Any student-athlete playing NAIA championship sports for the first time must meet all eligibility center requirements, and all NAIA member schools are bound by the center’s decisions.

Learn more about the NAIA and what it offers student-athletes.

How do I register for the NAIA Eligibility Center, mistakenly known as the NAIA Clearinghouse?

There are three main steps recruits need to take to register with the NAIA Eligibility Center:

1. Create their profile at www.PlayNAIA.org.
2. Have their high school send all required records and documents to the NAIA Eligibility Center via the NAIA High School Portal. If your high school needs guidance with the NAIA High School Portal, please have them contact the NAIA Eligibility Center or provide our helpful registration guide to them.
3. Secure a spot on their future NAIA coach’s short list, or the list of student-athletes who are currently being recruited, which gives them priority for the eligibility center to begin the decision-making process.

While these three steps seem simple enough, there are many actions recruits must take to ensure each of these steps are completed correctly. We’ve laid out the entire NAIA registration process.

Who needs to register with the NAIA?

• The following student-athletes need to register with the NAIA:
  • Any student who intends to play at an NAIA member institution for the first time, including:
  • College-bound high school freshmen, sophomore, juniors and seniors (U.S. and international)
  • Home schooled and GED students
  • Current NAIA students who will be playing sports for the first time at an NAIA school
  • Transfers from two-year colleges
  • Transfers from four-year colleges
  • International transfer students

Do I need to register with the NAIA Eligibility Center if I’m registering with the NCAA?

Yes, the NAIA and NCAA are two separate governing bodies, with different sets of rules and a different certification process. Recruits interested in competing at NAIA schools, must register with the NAIA Eligibility Center.

How long does the NAIA Eligibility Center take?

It takes about 10 minutes for athletes to set up their eligibility center account. Once athletes have created their account and all of their documents have arrived at the NAIA Eligibility Center, it generally takes three to seven business days for the NAIA to complete the review process from the date completed records are submitted for incoming freshmen. This time frame can be longer for transfer students and depending on the time of the year and the number of transcripts that a student has.

How do I contact the NAIA?

Families can contact the customer relations team Monday through Friday, from 8:30 am to 5 pm CT by:

• Filling out the NAIA Contact Us form on PlayNAIA.org
• Twitter: @PlayNAIANAIA
• Eligibility Center transcript address (mailing address may take 7-10 business days):

NAIA Eligibility Center – Mailroom
120 W. 12th Street, Level S1
Kansas City, MO 64105

Find out if you are on track to meet the NAIA Eligibility Requirements

To help student-athletes and college coaches determine if a recruit is on track to be academically eligible, the NAIA and NCSA teamed up to create the “NAIA Eligibility Projection.” This tool lives in athletes’ NCSA online profile and gives student-athletes and college coaches an easy way to know if the athlete is on track to meet the NAIA eligibility requirements.

More than 5,000 recruits completed the drill in the few weeks following its launch. To learn more about how this tool works, visit our NAIA eligibility requirements page.