Rules for All USIAA Sports:
All USIAA teams, regardless of their division, can only have a max of the following minutes for the following activities:
All USIAA athletic scholarships will only cover tuition and fees, room, board and course-related books.
All USIAA athletes across all sports receive 6 years of eligibility with the option of an additional red-shirt year should they choose to accept it:
The USIAA also allows D2 and D3 schools to classify one men's & one women's sport (other than football, basketball, a single-division sport, or a two-division sport) as a D1 sport as long as they had been sponsoring those sports prior to 2011:
In order to receive funding and to play on any USIAA team, all prospects must do the following:
Other Academic Requirements:
If a school plans to reduce or not renew a student-athlete’s aid, the school must notify the student-athlete in writing by July 1 and provide an opportunity to appeal.
All USIAA teams are required to be affiliated with any super region/conference for every varsity & JV sport they sponsor:
All non-regional/conference games are required to be against any of the following:
All programs will use the USIAA bonus points system for entrance into the playoffs regardless of whether their conference uses a divisional format or not to separate the teams so long as the system is practical for the sport in question.
Ticket Prices:
TV Broadcasting:
Bands at Games:
Statistics & Film Sharing:
Travel & Hospitality
USIAA Membership Process:
- The Regular-Season & Post-Season:
a) 30 minutes for film/other activities.
b) 45-60 minutes for lifting
c) 120 minutes of practice during the regular-season & postseason.
d) i.e. 195 minutes a day and 975 minutes a week (5 days) for athletics. - The Off-Season:
a) 25 minutes for film/other activities
b) 45 minutes for lifting,
c) 90 minutes of practice during the off-season
d) i.e., 160 minutes a day and 800 minutes a week (5 days) for athletics. - All participants must keep track of their minutes in a daily log; Anyone who violates this rule will lose their eligibility to participate in any game/match for the rest of the season; This includes players, managers, coaches, athletic directors, etc. they will also lose their eligibility to transfer to any other USIAA school if this is also the case.
- This rule only applies to official team activities only; if an individual or a group of athletes want to participate in any informal activity, they are allowed to do so but only if they notify their coaching staff at least 15 minutes beforehand.
- Institutions are not allowed to hire people close to recruits (parents, coaches, and trainers) for off-field coaching jobs in the two-year period before or after the recruit’s enrollment at a prospective college.
All USIAA athletic scholarships will only cover tuition and fees, room, board and course-related books.
- Most student-athletes who receive athletics scholarships receive an amount covering a portion of these costs.
- Many student-athletes also benefit from academic grants/scholarships, USIAA financial aid programs such as the USIAA Division 1 Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund, and need-based aid such as US Federal Pell Grants.
All USIAA athletes across all sports receive 6 years of eligibility with the option of an additional red-shirt year should they choose to accept it:
- Example Option #1: 4 years of undergraduate school & 2 years of graduate school.
- Example Option #2: 2 years of junior college/community college, 2 years of undergraduate school & 2 years of graduate school.
- All athletes can transfer to another institution and be immediately eligible to play at any level once they complete their degrees at their current institution.
- All programs in coed sports must have an even & equal number of men & women, except for Sprint/Lightweight Football.
- All USIAA athletes must play at least 3 years in their respective sport before being allowed in the sport of their choice to leave the USIAA and join a professional league:
a) However, they may come back to the USIAA to play a different sport and still have the number of years of eligibility they had when they left; however, they cannot play a sport that is similar to the one they left (examples = football & rugby, cross country/track/triathlon, baseball & slow-pitch softball, indoor & beach volleyball, etc.).
b) Example = Russel Wilson playing football & baseball at NC State, then leaving NC State to play MiLB baseball with the Colorado Rockies affiliates (the Tri-City Dust Devils & Asheville Tourists) in 2010 & 2011 respectively, then coming back to play football for Wisconsin for the 2011 season.
The USIAA also allows D2 and D3 schools to classify one men's & one women's sport (other than football, basketball, a single-division sport, or a two-division sport) as a D1 sport as long as they had been sponsoring those sports prior to 2011:
- Conversely, The USIAA also allows D1 & D2 schools to either temporarily (for no more than 5 years) or permanently sponsor 1 sport per gender (including coed sports) at the D3 level.
- All USIAA D1 & D2 institutions can also temporarily sponsor 1 sport and permanently sponsor another at the same time.
- All lower division schools are required to be eligible to compete for Division 1 national championships in sports that do not have a national championship in their respective division, and in those sports may also operate under D1 rules and scholarship limits.
In order to receive funding and to play on any USIAA team, all prospects must do the following:
- Be enrolled in at least 9 credit hours each semester; graduate students only have to be enrolled in at least 6 credit hours each semester to be eligible.
- D1 & D2 Institutions:
a) Have a minimum 2.0 GPA (to join the team and participate in all events except official varsity competitions; may still participate in JV competitions if the sport sponsors JV competitions).
b) Have a minimum 2.5 (d1) or 2.3 (D2) GPA (to be eligible for both academic & athletic scholarships, attend varsity home games for free if not part of the active roster, & participate in all official varsity competitions). - D3 & D4 Institutions:
a) Have a minimum 2.0 GPA (to join the team, be eligible for academic scholarships, and participate in all events (including official varsity competitions).
b) All D3 & D4 institutions can also recruit JV athletes in addition to varsity athletes as well, but so can D1 & D2 schools for single-division & merged-division sports. - Contact the athletic department of the school you’d like to attend to determine whether that school is funding the sport you’re interested in.
- Any serious felony will result in the person(s) responsible being expelled from the USIAA for life, regardless of status.
- If a sport sponsors JV competition, those sport teams must give preference to the JV players joining the team before allowing a transfer from another institution.
Other Academic Requirements:
- The GPA minimums listed on this website include the preseason, regular-season, post-season, & off-season but JV & preseason competitions are still allowed for athletes with a minimum 2.0 GPA (if the sport(s) in question sponsor it).
- All players who fail to meet these requirement(s) at any point (preseason, regular-season, postseason, & off-season) are automatically required to be relegated to both the practice squad/prep team and academic probation until the player(s) in question manage to raise their GPA.
- All coaching staff must be given weekly reports from their athletes' respective teachers about their academic performance during the regular season, and bi-weekly reports during the preseason & off-season at minimum (there can be more reports if the teachers & coaches deem it necessary).
- All sports teams are required to have at least 1 private tutor (per 6 athletes at a minimum; at least 2 per 6 if the team's average GPA has been at least 2.5 for at least 5 consecutive years since 2010) of their own separate from the university academic support staff for regular students (though all athletes can use those services as well).
- All student athletes are required to have at least 45 minutes of a group study hall every day Monday-Thursday (or Friday of they have a Thursday game); student-athletes should be grouped based on major.
- Any transfer player may practice with his team as long as they maintains a minimum 2.5 GPA.
If a school plans to reduce or not renew a student-athlete’s aid, the school must notify the student-athlete in writing by July 1 and provide an opportunity to appeal.
- In most cases, coaches decide who receives a scholarship, the scholarship amount and whether it will be renewed.
- All USIAA teams are required to have tryouts for all non-scholarship spots on their roster; this can coincide with preseason workouts.
All USIAA teams are required to be affiliated with any super region/conference for every varsity & JV sport they sponsor:
- Independent institutions are not allowed. Universities also cannot have their own cable channels for sports broadcasting (example = BYUtv) unless the broadcasting unit is run by students enrolled at the university (example = Big Red Sports Network from Cornell University).
- All teams are allowed to join another conference aside from their main conference that sponsors a sport that their main conference doesn't as an affiliate member; if no other conference is willing to take them, then the USIAA will assign the team a conference based on the following:
a) the location of the institution itself,
b) the institution's "geographical proximity" to the other members in the proposed conference(s), and
c) the number of members in the sponsored sport. - The minimum amount of varsity programs needed for a conference to be required to sponsor a specific sport is 5 members per gender:
a) If the conference as at least 5 main members that sponsor a sport that it doesn't currently sponsor, then the conference is automatically required to sponsor it.
b) No conference can have any number of main and affiliate members larger than 14 for any sport. - All schools must have an invitation from a conference in the division they want to move to in order to move to that division; any school that applies to move to a different division will not be eligible for the post season at either division until the transition if deemed to be complete by the USIAA.
- All coed teams can count towards either a men's sport or a women's sport; this includes all athletic scholarships if the sport allows it.
- The military academies & their respective preparatory schools will always have annual games guaranteed with the other branches in their respective division.
All non-regional/conference games are required to be against any of the following:
- Non-regional/conference teams that are within 700 miles from the program in question for all USIAA Division 1 programs.
- Non-regional/conference teams that are within 500 miles from the program in question for all other USIAA programs.
- Other in-state programs not in their conference for all USIAA programs (Canadian institutions only).
- These rules can only be circumvented if either 1) the institution is not in the continental US (i.e. Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, etc.), 2) any sport doesn't have enough participants to field such a requirement, or 3) the sport is a single-division (1/2/3/4) or dual-division (1/2 & 3/4) sport with fewer than 120 participating institutions:
a) All divisions need at least 100 participating institutions in each division for each division to separately sponsor the sport; otherwise the sport will be classified as a single-division sport or a dual-division sport depending on 1) the total number of institutions, and 2) the number of institutions at each division.
b) All sports will use the rules listed in the documents provided on each of the rule pages as the default unless they are direct conflict with what is directly written on the rule pages.
All programs will use the USIAA bonus points system for entrance into the playoffs regardless of whether their conference uses a divisional format or not to separate the teams so long as the system is practical for the sport in question.
- All conferences must sponsor a championship game or equivalent for every sport they sponsor for the top 2 teams (or more for tournaments) with the most points.
- If a conference uses a divisional format for any sport, then the top team in each division will be awarded a spot in the conference championship.
- All teams will receive an additional 1 bonus point for every week that they maintain an average GPA of at least 3.0 during the regular-season; this changes to a 1/2 point for the preseason & off-season (for the upcoming season).
- Each sport in each division has its own "Committee for Playoff Selection"; the Committee will also make the selections for the SBCS for D1/D2/D3/D4 football & basketball.
- The committee selecting the teams for the tournament must also make playoff pairings "according to geographical proximity".
Ticket Prices:
- D1 Football Only:
a) General Seating (7+) - $35.00 ($10.00 for non-scholarship programs)
b) University Alumni (22+) - $30.00 ($5.00 for non-scholarship programs)
c) Children (6 & under) - $10.00 (free for non-scholarship programs)
d) College Students & Faculty/Staff with valid ID's - $15.00 (free for non-scholarship programs) - D1 Basketball Only:
a) General Seating (7+) - $30.00
b) University Alumni (22+) - $25.00
c) Children (6 & under) - $10.00
d) College Students & Faculty/Staff with valid ID's - $10.00 - D1 Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Only:
a) General Seating (7+) - $20.00
b) University Alumni (22+) - $15.00
c) Children (6 & under) - $7.00
d) College Students & Faculty/Staff with valid ID's - $10.00 - All Other Varsity Sports & D1 Spring Football Games:
a) General Seating (7+) - $5.00
b) University Alumni (22+) - $3.00
c) Children (12 & under) - free
d) College Students & Faculty/Staff with valid ID's - free - All JV Sports:
a) General Seating (7+) - $1.00 (free if they have a ticket to a varsity game)
b) University Alumni (22+) - 50¢ (free if they have a ticket to a varsity game)
c) Children (12 & under) - free
d) College Students & Faculty/Staff with valid ID's - free - These are the USIAA minimum standards for ticket pricing; All institutions can charge higher prices if they wish.
- All schools can provide tickets or suites to NIL entities through sponsorship agreements, provided the terms of those agreements are the same as for other sponsors. Those same assets cannot be offered as an incentive to provide funds to an NIL entity.
TV Broadcasting:
- All 1) Varsity home games (with no professional TV network covering it) & 2) JV home games must be covered by the student TV network at the university to give an opportunity for students to gain experience in sports broadcasting.
Bands at Games:
- Teams having bands at games are responsible for their conduct. The band should not play while the game is in progress and should concentrate their efforts during time outs and both the pre- or post-game periods. There should be no artificial noise after the ball is declared ready for play. Home teams remain responsible for the proper conduct of their bands even if game officials are reluctant to take action.
Statistics & Film Sharing:
- As soon after the game as possible, but not later than the morning 2 days after the game, members are responsible for sending in statistics and scores of games to Jon Holtz via email ([email protected]). The SID at each hosting institution should send a packed StatCrew game file to Holtz. The statistics will be compiled and posted each week when all game files have been received.
- All game film will be distributed weekly to all schools via HUDL by the home team. No on-site scouting is permitted at any time. Film must be of a complete game, include all plays, be sideline wide and end zone tight, and include a visible score at least each quarter.
- All film will be distributed by each home team to all other teams by 10:00am Saturday following a Friday game and by 10:00am Sunday following a Saturday game, etc.. If there is going to be a delay, the offending coach much notify the future opposing coach beforehand and make arrangements with others teams to get a film sent on time. Visiting teams may film at away location.
Travel & Hospitality
- The home team coach is responsible for coordinating the arrival and stay of the visiting team. The visiting coach is responsible for calling the home team coach the week of the scheduled game.
- This assistance should include such considerations as arranging for locker rooms, on-campus meals, housing, practice fields, etc.
- The head coach (or his designee) should personally check on everything before arrival, and meet the visitor's bus at a predetermined time and place. All student-athletes deserve our best efforts in this matter of sportsmanship.
USIAA Membership Process:
- October 1 — Membership applications must be received in the USIAA National Office.
- By December 1 — Initial review determines whether a campus visit will be conducted.
- January — Webinar conducted with prospective member school staff.
- By March 1 — Membership Evaluation Team visits campus.
- April — Council of Presidents meeting — Institution is notified of the decision within 10 days.
- July 1 — If approved, membership becomes effective.
- All institutions in the process of building sports programs have the option of sponsoring an intercollegiate sport and opting out of USIAA championships on a year-by-year basis. This affords the institution scheduling advantages and requires application of USIAA rules for participating student-athletes in that sport.