Division III

This article is about the NCAA division. For the Swedish football league, see Division 3.

"DIII" redirects here. For the game, see Diablo III.

Main logo used by the NCAA in Division I, II, and III.

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

1 Membership
2 Division III schools with Division I programs
3 Recent changes
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

The division consists of colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletically related financial aid (athletic scholarships) to their student-athletes. There are 449 member institutions (both full and provisional), 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^[1] and they may not use endowments or funds whose primary purpose is to benefit their athletic programs.

Conferences competing in Division III

^ Conferences that sponsor football.

Twelve D-III schools currently play up to the Division I level in one or two sports (one for each gender maximum).

Seven of them are grandfathered schools which have traditionally competed at the highest level of a particular sport prior to the institution of the Division classifications in 1971. These schools are allowed to offer athletic scholarships in their Division I sports to remain competitive with their opponents.^[2]

Clarkson University (men's and women's ice hockey)
Colorado College (men's ice hockey and women's soccer)
Hartwick College (men's soccer and women's water polo)
Johns Hopkins University (men's and women's lacrosse)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, (men's and women's ice hockey)
Rutgers at Newark (men's volleyball)
St. Lawrence University (men's and women's ice hockey)

(SUNY Oneonta was previously grandfathered in men's soccer but dropped down to Division III in 2006.)

The other five schools choose to play up in one sport for men and optionally one sport for women, but they are not grandfathered and thus are not allowed to offer athletic scholarships. Academic-based and need-based financial aid is still available.

Franklin and Marshall College (men's wrestling)
Hobart College (men's lacrosse)
Lawrence University (fencing)
Rochester Institute of Technology (men's ice hockey)
Union College (men's and women's ice hockey)

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 1992, 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.

The NCAA currently has a moratorium in place on schools moving divisions, including Division III schools playing up to Division I.^[3]

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.