NAIA Championships
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| Abbreviation | NAIA |
|---|---|
| Motto | Character-driven intercollegiate athletics |
| Formation | 1940 |
| Legal status | Association |
| Headquarters | 1200 Grand Blvd Kansas City, Missouri 64106 |
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Region served
|
United States of America, Canada, The Bahamas |
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Membership
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246 |
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President
|
Jim Carr |
|
Main organ
|
NAIA Council of Presidents |
|
Budget
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$7.5 Million |
| Website | http://www.NAIA.org, www.PlayNAIA.org |
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs, primarily across the United States but also outside the US. The NAIA began accepting members from Canada in 1972, which made it the only international intercollegiate athletic association in North America until 2009. Today there are three Canadian members. As of July 1, 2016, the NAIA reports having 246 member institutions.
The NAIA, whose headquarters is in Kansas City, Missouri, sponsors 25 national championships. The CBS Sports Network, formerly called CSTV, serves as the national media outlet for the NAIA. In 2014, ESPNU began carrying the NAIA National Football Championship.
In 1937, Dr. James Naismith and local leaders staged the first National College Basketball Tournament at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City—one year before the first National Invitation Tournament and two years before the first NCAA Tournament. The goal of the tournament was to establish a forum for small colleges and universities to determine a national basketball champion. The original eight-team tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1938. On March 10, 1940, the National Association for Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB) was formed in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 1952, the NAIB was transformed into the NAIA, and with that came the sponsorship of additional sports such as men's golf, tennis and outdoor track and field.Football in the NAIA was split into two divisions in 1970, based on enrollment (Div. I & Div. II); it was consolidated back into a single division in 1997.
In 1948, the NAIB became the first national organization to open their intercollegiate postseason to black student-athletes. That same year, Indiana State coach John Wooden, later to become a coaching legend at UCLA, brought the first African-American student athlete to play at the national tournament.
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