NCAA Division II Institutions: A Comprehensive Overview

NCAA Division II (D-II) represents the intermediate level of intercollegiate athletic competition within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers a unique blend of competitive athletics and academic focus for student-athletes. This article delves into the characteristics, requirements, and landscape of Division II institutions.

Historical Context and Evolution

Before 1973, smaller schools within the NCAA were collectively known as the College Division. In 1973, the NCAA restructured its divisions, introducing numeric designations. This division occurred in 1956, when the NCAA divided schools into the University and College Divisions. The NCAA created divisions in order to have competitive balance and level the playing field in NCAA sports. This restructuring led to the creation of Division II as we know it today.

Membership and Institutional Profile

As of the current academic year, Division II comprises 303 full members, seven reclassifying members, and two provisional members. Division II schools tend to be public universities with less than 15,000 students and many private institutions. A significant portion of Division II institutions, approximately 30% (91 schools), have fewer than 2,499 students. Conversely, only a small number, 18 institutions, have more than 15,000 undergraduates, with just five exceeding 25,000, Simon Fraser University being the largest.

Division II boasts a diverse membership, including institutions in Alaska and Hawaii. Notably, it holds the distinction of being the only division with member institutions in Puerto Rico and the first to include an international member, Simon Fraser University from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Simon Fraser's membership process began after its application was accepted in July 2009, with a two-year candidacy period commencing on September 1, 2009. Prospective members are required to complete at least one year of provisional status before attaining full-time Division II membership.

Conference Affiliations and Changes

The landscape of Division II conferences has seen recent changes. The Mountain East Conference (MEC) was established in 2012 after football-sponsoring schools from the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) decided to form a new league, leading to the WVIAC's dissolution. More recently, the Heartland Conference ceased operations at the end of the 2018-19 school year, with eight of its nine members moving to the Lone Star Conference (LSC) in August 2017. Newman University, the remaining Heartland member, became a de facto member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA). The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) discontinued its football program after the 2021-22 school year.

Unique Features of Division II

One of the defining characteristics of Division II is the "National Championships Festival," an annual event modeled after the Olympics. This festival brings together national championship finals in multiple sports in a single city over several days. The event includes formal opening and closing ceremonies, and athletes are housed in a central hotel, creating a village-like atmosphere. The inaugural festival was held in Orlando, Florida, in 2004 for spring sports, and it has been an annual event since the 2006-07 school year, except for 2009-10, 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sports Sponsorship and Requirements

Division II institutions must sponsor a minimum of five sports for men and five for women (or four for men and six for women), including two team sports for each sex, with representation from each playing season. Teams consisting of both men and women are counted as men's teams for sports sponsorship purposes. There are also minimum contest and participant requirements for each sport, along with specific scheduling criteria. Football and men's and women's basketball teams must play at least 50 percent of their games against Division II, Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), or Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponents. For other sports, there are no scheduling requirements, provided that each contest involves full varsity teams. Women's rugby is the only NCAA sport where contests against club teams can count toward a team's contest minimum, with a limit of two such contests per school year.

Financial Aid and Scholarship Limits

Division II institutions operate under specific regulations regarding financial aid. There are maximum financial aid awards for each sport, as well as a separate limit on financial aid awards in men's sports, which a Division II school must not exceed. Athletic scholarships are offered in most sponsored sports at most institutions, but with more stringent limits as to the numbers offered in any one sport than at the Division I level. For example, Division II schools may give financial aid in football equivalent to 36 full scholarships, whereas Division I FBS schools are allowed 85 individuals receiving financial aid for football. Some Division II conferences further restrict the number of scholarships to a lower level.

Division II scholarship programs often attract student-athletes transferring from Division I schools. A transfer student does not have to sit out a year before resuming sports participation, as would usually be the case when transferring from one Division I institution to another. Exceptions to this rule exist. Football players transferring from a Division I FBS school to a Division I FCS school do not have to sit out a year if they have at least two remaining seasons of athletic eligibility. A first-time transfer also does not have to sit out a year if the player's former institution grants a scholarship release. Additionally, student-athletes in any sport who complete a bachelor's degree and still have athletic eligibility remaining can transfer to another school and be immediately eligible, provided they enroll in a separate degree program at the new institution.

The NCAA imposes limits on the total financial aid each Division II member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. All Division II sports are classified as "equivalency" sports, meaning that the NCAA restricts the total financial aid that a school can offer in a given sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships. This differs from Division I, in which some sports are "head-count" sports in which the NCAA limits the total number of individuals who can receive athletic aid. However, D2 colleges and universities offer some athletic scholarships for their student-athletes, it’s important to note that your student-athlete might be less likely to get a full-ride sports scholarship at a D2 school. However, D2 schools provide reduced tuition costs and financial aid options.

Read also: Crafting Your NCAA Profile

Competition and Scheduling

Many Division II schools frequently schedule matches against members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). In football, Division II teams once occasionally played games against schools that are now in Division I FBS, but this practice has ended because FBS schools cannot use victories over schools below the FCS level for establishing bowl eligibility. Today, Division II "money games" are exclusively against FCS schools, whose postseason eligibility is less seriously impacted by scheduling a Division II opponent. In any event, the Division II school is almost invariably the visiting team, and is invited to play with the knowledge that it will likely be defeated but will receive a substantial monetary reward which will help to finance much of the rest of the season and perhaps other sports as well.

In recent years, "money games" in men's basketball have also included preseason exhibitions against Division I programs, typically in the same region, that do not count in official statistics for either team. The University of Kansas helps the state's four Division II members by rotating them onto the Jayhawks' exhibition schedule annually. When these exhibition games do happen, there are times when the Division II team does win, and against a well-respected Division I program.

Matches between the different collegiate divisions in non-revenue sports are often quite competitive. Indeed, in some sports, among them ice hockey and men's volleyball, there is no Division II national championship. In hockey, many schools whose athletic programs are otherwise Division II compete in Division I, and men's volleyball has a truncated divisional structure with a Division III championship but no Division II championship. In any sport that does not have a Division II national championship, Division II members are allowed to award the same number of scholarships as Division I members.

Division II Institutions: A List of Examples

The following is a list of Division II institutions that participate in NCAA athletics. This list is not exhaustive but provides a representative sample of the diverse institutions that comprise Division II.

Adelphi University
Albany State University
American International College
Anderson University
Arkansas Tech University
Ashland University
Assumption University
Augusta University
Augustana University
Azusa Pacific University
Bentley University
Bemidji State University
Biola University
Bloomfield College
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Bluefield State University
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt
California State University, Chico
California State University, Dominguez Hills
California State University, East Bay
California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Monterey Bay
California State University, San Bernardino
California State University, San Marcos
California State University, Stanislaus
Carson-Newman University
Catawba College
Cedarville University
Central State University
Chaminade University of Honolulu
Charleston Southern University
Christian Brothers University
Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Colorado Christian University
Colorado Mesa University
Colorado School of Mines
Columbus State University
Concord University
Concordia College
Daemen University
D'Youville University
Dallas Baptist University
Dominican University of California
East Central University
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
Eastern New Mexico University
Eckerd College
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
Elizabeth City State University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Emory & Henry College
Emporia State University
Erskine College
Fairmont State University
Fayetteville State University
Ferris State University
Florida Institute of Technology
Florida Southern College
Fort Hays State University
Fort Valley State University
Francis Marion University
Franklin Pierce University
Fresno Pacific University
Frostburg State University
Gannon University
Georgian Court University
Glenville State University
Goldey-Beacom College
Grand Valley State University
Great Lakes Christian College
Greensboro College
Harding University
Hawaii Pacific University
Henderson State University
Hillsdale College
Holy Family University
Houghton University
Indianapolis University
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Jefferson University
King University
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Lake Erie College
Lake Superior State University
Lakeland University
Le Moyne College
Lewis University
Limestone University
Lincoln Memorial University
Lincoln University of Pennsylvania
Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
Lynn University
Malone University
Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
Mars Hill University
Maryville University
Maryville College
Mercy College
Mercyhurst University
Michigan Technological University
Millersville University of Pennsylvania
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Minnesota State University, Moorhead
Minot State University
Mississippi College
Missouri Southern State University
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Missouri Western State University
Molloy University
Montana State University Billings
Mount Olive University
Newberry College
Newman University
New Haven University
North Greenville University
Northwest Nazarene University
Notre Dame de Namur University
Northern Michigan University
Northern State University
Nyack College
Oklahoma Baptist University
Oklahoma Christian University
Ouachita Baptist University
Pace University
Palm Beach Atlantic University
Parkside University
Pennsylvania Western University
Pfeiffer University
Pittsburg State University
Post University
Queens University of Charlotte
Quincy University
Regis University
Roberts Wesleyan University
Rockhurst University
Rollins College
Saint Anselm College
Saint Cloud State University
Saint Edwards University
Saint Leo University
Saint Martin's University
Saint Michael's College
Saint Thomas Aquinas College
Salem University
San Francisco State University
Sanoma State University
Saginaw Valley State University
Savannah State University
Seton Hill University
Shepherd University
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
Simon Fraser University
Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Southern Connecticut State University
Southern Nazarene University
Southern New Hampshire University
Southwest Baptist University
Southeastern Oklahoma State University
Spring Hill College
St Cloud State University
St Johns University
St Marys University
Stonehill College
Texas A&M International University
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Texas Permian Basin University
Thomas Jefferson University
Tiffin University
Truman State University
Tuskegee University
Union University
Upper Iowa University
Ursuline College
University of Alaska Anchorage
University of Alaska Fairbanks
University of Bridgeport
University of Charleston
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
University of Colorado Denver
University of District Columbia
University of Findlay
University of Fort Lauderdale
University of Hawaii at Hilo
University of Illinois Springfield
University of Indianapolis
University of Mary
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
University of Montevallo
University of Mount Olive
University of Nebraska, Kearney
University of New Haven
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
University of North Georgia
University of Northern Colorado
University of Notre Dame de Namur
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
University of Puerto Rico at Bayamon
University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez
University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras
University of Quincy
University of Rollins
University of Saint Katherine
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
University of Sioux Falls
University of Tampa
University of Texas at Tyler
University of the District of Columbia
University of Virginia's College at Wise
University of West Alabama
University of West Florida
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Valdosta State University
Walsh University
Wayne State College
Wayne State University
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
West Liberty University
West Texas A&M University
West Virginia State University
West Virginia Wesleyan College
Westminster College
Westmont College
Wheeling University
William Jewell College
Wingate University

Eligibility and Recruitment

All Division II student-athletes must register with the NCAA Eligibility Center to determine eligibility based on grades and amateurism status. Division II coaches must adhere to specific rules when recruiting new athletes, including the ability to reach out at any time.

Advantages of Division II

Division II colleges and universities offer a balanced approach to academics and sports for student-athletes. They can be a fantastic choice for students who love to play their favorite sport competitively but also want a solid education. D2 schools also tend to have smaller class sizes, smaller campuses, and less students attending overall compared to D1 colleges.

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