College Volleyball Recruiting Newsletter – VIII
The term “College Volleyball” encompasses five categories and multiple collegiate athletic governing bodies. Families should have an understanding of all the College Volleyball opportunities; we have listed the various links and a snapshot of each category! It is a bunch of information to digest but worth the effort to better manage your College Volleyball process.
Because of the sports media and television, folks tend to have a better grasp of DI athletics, but be aware that each DI sport has its own recruiting rules and scholarship limits.
Want to know the DI rules? http://www.ncaa.org/d1
Curious about how your favorite DI team is rated? https://www.ncaa.com/
Are you eligible to play DI? https://web3.ncaa.org/ecwr3/
If you want to have a better balance of academics and high level Volleyball, then DII is a good fit.
DII rules – http://www.ncaa.org/d2
See the DII Volleyball regional rankings – https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d2/regional-rankings
What do you need to be eligible? https://web3.ncaa.org/ecwr3/
The “academic” division of the NCAA; when school is your priority and focus, but you still want to play college volleyball. Please remember that DIII offers no athletic scholarship support.
Even DIII has rules – http://www.ncaa.org/d3
There are more DIII volleyball teams than any other category – https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d3/avca-coaches
Eligibility is determined by each school, as opposed to the NCAA Eligibility Center.
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics – Commonly known as the NAIA. For Volleyball, the NAIA and NCAA DII have many similarities in terms of level of play and scholarship support.
Learn more about the NAIA – https://www.naia.org/landing/index
Are you eligible? https://play.mynaia.org/
Rankings – https://www.naia.org/sports/wvball/2019-20/releases/Polls and https://www.naia.org/sports/mvball/2020-21/releases/Ratings
Junior College
The “JC” category includes a few different governing bodies, based upon geographic location and scholarship support. If you haven’t found that best fit 4 year school or still developing your skill sets, a JC is a great 1st step into collegiate athletics!
National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) has 3 divisions each with different levels of athletic support – https://www.njcaa.org/sports/wvball/index
California Community College Athletics Association is a non athletic scholarship association but has both men’s and women’s volleyball – https://www.cccaasports.org/landing/index
Northwest Athletic Conference – Representing Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia – https://www.nwacsports.org/landing/index
If you find all the links, teams, conferences, rules, scholarships and eligibility a bit overwhelming, we suggest consider our partner, Athletic Recruiting Counselors (arcvb.com) to help you manage your College Volleyball recruiting process – ARC is only volleyball recruiting and they are the experts!
ARC – Athletic Recruiting Counselors