DIVISION III

'Division III' (or 'DIII') is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association of the United States.

Contents

Membership

Division III schools with Division I programs

Recent changes

See also

External links

Membership

The division consists of colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletically related financial aid (athletic scholarships) to their student-athletes. There are over 420 member institutions, making Division III (D-III) the largest of the three divisions sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
D-III schools range in size from less than 500 to over 10,000 students. D-III schools compete in athletics as a non-revenue making, extracurricular activity for students; hence, they may not offer athletic scholarships, they may not redshirt freshmen and they may not use endowments or funds whose primary purpose is to benefit their athletic programs.
:'Conferences competing in Division III'
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★ Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference
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★ American Southwest Conference
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★ Atlantic Central Football Conference
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★ Capital Athletic Conference
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★ Centennial Conference
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★ City University of New York Athletic Conference
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★ College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
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★ Commonwealth Coast Conference
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★ Empire 8 Conference
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★ Great South Athletic Conference
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★ Great Northeast Athletic Conference
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★ Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference
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★ Illini-Badger Football Conference
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★ Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
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★ Lake Michigan Conference
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★ Landmark Conference
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★ Liberty League
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★ Little East Conference
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★ Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference
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★ Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
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★ Middle Atlantic Conference
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★ Midwest Conference
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★ Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
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★ New England Football Conference
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★ New England Small College Athletic Conference
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★ New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference
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★ New Jersey Athletic Conference
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★ North Atlantic Conference
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★ North Coast Athletic Conference
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★ North Eastern Athletic Conference
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★ Northern Athletics Conference
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★ Northwest Conference
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★ Ohio Athletic Conference
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★ Old Dominion Athletic Conference
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★ Pennsylvania Athletic Conference
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★ Presidents' Athletic Conference
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★ Saint Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
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★ Skyline Conference (New York)
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★ Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
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★ Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
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★ State University of New York Athletic Conference
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★ USA South Athletic Conference
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★ University Athletic Association
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★ Upper Midwest Athletic Conference
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★ Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

Division III schools with Division I programs

Nine D-III schools have traditionally competed at the highest level of a particular sport and since the 1960s, when the NCAA separated into divisions, these schools' Division I programs have been allowed to continue as such while the remainder of their athletic program remains at Division III. They are:

★ Clarkson University (men's and women's ice hockey)

★ Colorado College (men's ice hockey, women's soccer)

★ Hartwick College (men's soccer, women's water polo)

★ Hobart College (men's lacrosse)

★ Johns Hopkins University (men's and women's lacrosse)

★ Lawrence University (fencing)

★ Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (men's and women's ice hockey)

★ Rochester Institute of Technology (men's ice hockey)

★ Rutgers University-Newark (men's volleyball)

★ St. Lawrence University (men's and women's ice hockey)

★ Union College (men's and women's ice hockey)
No other Division III school may also elevate individual sports programs to a higher level, and the above schools are limited to competing in D-I in those programs they traditionally have done so in. Rochester Institute of Technology and Rutgers-Newark, which currently do not offer a women's sport at the D-I level, may choose to elevate a single women's program in the future if necessary for gender equity.
Football and basketball may not be grandfathered Division I programs because their revenue-enhancing potential would give them an unfair advantage over other Division III schools. In 1982, several Division III schools who competed at the Division I level in basketball, most notably Georgetown University, were forced to upgrade the rest of their athletic program to a Division I level.

Recent changes

In 2003, concerned about the direction of the Division, the Division III Presidents' Council, led by Middlebury College President John McCardell, acted to limit the length of the traditional and non-traditional seasons, eliminate redshirting, and redefine a season of participation, all of which were approved by a majority vote of the membership.
An additional proposal which would have eliminated the ability of the institutions listed above to offer athletic scholarships was rejected, though rules limiting the exception to only those schools currently offering D-I programs was approved. These actions took place at the January 2004 NCAA Convention.

See also

★ Division I

★ Division II

★ NCAA Division III national football championship

★ NCAA Men's Division III Basketball Championship

★ NESCAC

External links

NCAA official website

NCAA official sports website

D3football.com, covers Division III football

D3hoops.com, covers Division III men's and women's basketball

D3baseball.com, covers Division III baseball

D3Kicks.com, covers Division III soccer