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Spring 2020 Eligibility

 

SPRING 2020 SPORT ELIGIBILITY

 

Q: What does it mean when you say the NAIA is not charging students for spring competition?

A: Due to the unforeseeable and uncontrollable events related to COVID-19 that resulted in the cancellation of all spring sports on March 16, the NAIA Council of Presidents, (COP) determined students competing in spring sports should not be charged a season of competition for the 2019-20 academic year. To be equitable, this policy applies to all spring sports teams on all NAIA campuses, regardless of how many competitions a team or student may have participated in, and even if the team/student participated in the fall. In its simplest terms, no NAIA student-athlete will be charged a season of competition for a spring sport in 2019-20.

Q: Are fall or winter sports from the 2019-2020 academic year getting any eligibility extensions or exceptions? (Added 4/3/2020)

A: No. The NAIA’s decisions to waive the spring sport season and to extend terms of attendance for spring sport competition do not apply to fall or winter sport student-athletes.

Q: What is the definition of a spring sport?

A: Any sport that has its championship in the spring. NAIA spring sports are baseball, men’s and women’s golf,  men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, and men’s volleyball.

Q: How are non-intercollegiate seasons of competition (e.g. outside competition) implicated with the waiver of the spring 2020 season? (Updated 4/3/2020)

A: By extension, the National Eligibility Committee has determined that no non-intercollegiate seasons of competition for spring sports will be charged from May 16, 2019 to May 15, 2020. This is in recognition of the fact that many students may have played in non-intercollegiate competition during the summer or fall of 2019 expecting for that play to be grouped into the same season of competition as the Spring 2020 collegiate season. Waiving the intercollegiate season but still charging for the outside play would prevent the students from being able to take advantage of the waived Spring 2020 season.

This applies to all student-athletes for any spring sport during the time period of May 16, 2019 – May 15, 2020, regardless of whether the student was identified with an NAIA institution at the time of competition or in the Spring of 2020.

Q: We have a baseball player who played in a chargeable league last summer 2019 and into the fall 2019. We knew it was a chargeable league, but we expected that he’d also be playing for our school in spring 2020, and it would all be rolled into one season of competition. What happens to him now?

A: As long as all of his competition on the summer team occurred on or after May 16, 2019, he will not be charged a season of competition for either this outside competition or his participation on your school team so far this spring. He will not be charged with any seasons of competition during this time period. However, if he played on the chargeable summer team prior to May 16, 2019 that could result in him being charged a season for outside competition since that participation could not have been expected to fit within the same 12-month window as the spring 2020 season.

Q: Can the Spring 2020 term be waived for fall 2019 or winter 2020 athletes? (Added 8/20/2020)

A: No. The ability to waive Spring 2020 (or Winter 2020 quarter/ Spring 2020 quarter) is reserved for spring sport student-athletes only.

Q: There is a spring sport student-athlete on our campus who competed Spring 2020, but isn’t going to pass all 12 institutional credit hours in which she was enrolled. Can she use the ‘first time participant’ exception to the 24/36-Hour Rule (Article V, Section C, Item 6) for Fall 2020 certification? (Added 4/17/2020)

A: No. Since the student did actually compete spring 2020, she would not meet the 24/36-Hour Rule exception for first-time participants even though she was not charged a season of competition.

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