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This publication is intended to serve as a self-help guide for administrators in the field. The information contained in this guide represents an edited and abridged version of the Division III financial aid legislation as set forth in the 2006-07 NCAA Division III Manual. Administrators who wish to confirm the application of NCAA legislation to a specific situation should contact the administrator responsible for rules compliance at their institution.
1. Institutional Financial Aid
A member institution shall not award financial aid to student-athletes based on athletics participation or performance. [Bylaw 15.01.3]
2. Student-Athlete Financial Aid Endowments or Funds (Effective 8/1/08)
No part of an institution's financial aid budget shall be set aside either for particular sports or for athletics in general, nor may an institution establish athletically related quotas of financial aid recipients. [Bylaw 15.01.5]
3. Maximum Institutional Financial Aid to Individual
An institution shall not award financial aid to a student-athlete that exceeds the cost of attendance that normally is incurred by students enrolled in a comparable program at that institution or that exceeds the limitations established by the membership division of the institution the student-athlete attends, whichever is less. [Bylaw 15.01.8]
In Division III, the cost of attendance is an amount calculated by an institution's financial aid office that includes tuition and fees, room and board, required course-related books, transportation and other expenses incidental to attendance. A student-athlete is not eligible to participate in intercollegiate athletics if he or she receives financial aid that exceeds the value of cost of attendance. [Bylaws 15.02.3 and 15.1]
4. Administration by Regular College Agency
All forms of financial assistance for student-athletes shall be handled through the regular college agency or committee that administers financial aid for all students. [Bylaw 15.4.2]
5. Consistent Financial Aid Package
The composition of the financial aid package offered to a student-athlete must be consistent with the established policy of the institution's financial aid office for all students. Further, the financial aid package must meet the following criteria:
6. Financial Aid Annual Electronic Reporting Process
All institutions are required to submit an annual electronic report which includes data regarding the financial aid packages awarded by the institution to freshmen and incoming transfer student-athletes and to other incoming students. The format and timeline of the electronic report shall be established by the Financial Aid and Awards Committee and approved by the Management Council. [Bylaw 15.4.1.1] The financial aid reporting process timeline can be viewed here. Additionally, the financial aid review process flowchart may be viewed by clicking here. Finally, the NCAA staff recommends that the financial aid officers at Division III institutions reference the following financial-aid database managment system (FADMS) User's Manual for submitting the financial aid electronic report.
Please note that the deadline for institutions to submit their electronic financial aid report is September 29, 2006.
7. Need Analysis Method
Any need-based assistance provided to a student-athlete must be based on financial need as determined by need analysis methodologies that conform to federal, state and written institutional guidelines. The methodologies used to determine the need of a student-athlete shall be consistent with the methodologies used by the institution for all students. [Bylaw 15.4.4]
8. Report of Aid from Outside Sources
All financial assistance received by the student-athlete from sources outside the institution shall be reported to the institution's director of financial aid. When outside aid is received after the financial aid program of the college has been offered to the student, the institution's director of financial aid shall be notified and an adjustment of the aid already offered shall take place in order that the total aid available from all sources does not exceed the cost of attendance. [Bylaw 15.2.3.1]
9. Athletics Funds
A member may not establish an "athletics need fund" for student-athletes and advertise its availability to prospective student-athletes who may qualify for need-based aid. [Bylaw 15.01.6]
10. Faculty/Staff Benefits
Tuition remission, assistance or similar remuneration granted as a benefit of employment to a faculty or staff member shall not be calculated in the application of the financial need criteria in the case of that faculty or staff member's children. [Bylaw 15.4.8]
11. Athletics Staff Involvement
Members of the athletics staff of a member institution shall not be permitted to arrange or modify the financial aid package (as assembled by the financial aid officer or financial aid committee) and are prohibited from serving as members of member institutions' financial aid committees and from being involved in any manner in the review of the institutional financial assistance to be awarded to a student-athlete. [Bylaw 15.4.5]
The intent of this prohibition is not to preclude all communication between the athletics department and the financial aid office, but to prevent the athletics department from influencing a student-athlete's financial aid package, directly or indirectly.
Institutional athletics staff members (e.g., athletics directors, coaches, senior woman administrators, etc.) are precluded from being involved in any manner in the review of the institutional financial aid to be awarded to a student-athlete. Specifically, institutional athletics staff are not permitted to arrange or modify the financial aid package (as assembled by the financial aid officer or financial aid committee) and are prohibited from serving on member institutions' financial aid committees.
Athletics department staff shall not influence a student-athlete's financial aid package, directly or indirectly. As such, athletics department staff members? involvement or interaction with its institution?s financial aid office should be directed by the following:
1. The athletics department may communicate with the clerical/support staff in the financial aid office in order to determine whether a particular prospect's financial aid forms have been submitted;
2. The athletics department may not send a list of names of student-athletes to the financial aid office except to facilitate the annual NCAA Division III financial aid reporting process;
3. The athletics department may not communicate with the financial aid office to arrange, modify or otherwise influence the amount of a student-athlete's financial aid package. The initial communication of a student-athlete's financial aid package amount should occur between the student-athlete or his or her parents or guardian and the institution's financial aid office; and
4. A faculty member (e.g., chemistry professor) would not be precluded from serving on both an institutional faculty athletics committee (e.g., faculty athletics representative) and institutional financial aid committee as long as they are not a coach or athletics department staff member.
Athletics Department Staff Involvement with Admissions Office.
Athletics department staff involved in any capacity with its institutional admissions office shall not administer, oversee or otherwise influence any admissions-matrix system or other admissions-rating formula that directly or indirectly impacts institutional financial aid packaging decisions. For example, an institution that uses an admissions-matrix rating system to evaluate and rank incoming student applicants shall not allow athletics department staff to score, rank or otherwise influence any admissions rating of any student, including student-athletes, if the admissions-matrix rating score is used in any way to determine the financial aid package of any student, including student-athletes.
Permissible involvement of athletics department staff with its institution's admissions office should be directed by the following:
1. Enrollment management personnel working primarily in admissions are permitted to be employed by the athletics department provided those individuals have no role in the administration of financial aid (e.g., need analysis, aid packaging);
2. It is permissible for a coach who is working in the admissions office of the institution to be involved in off-campus admissions programs directed at prospective students in general, provided any contact made with a prospect prior to the completion of the prospect's junior year in high school is not for the purpose of athletics recruitment (e.g., athletics recruiting presentation);
3. A member institution's coach, who also serves as an admissions officer, is precluded from having any input regarding the recipients of any institutionally administered grants or scholarships (e.g., presidential, merit, academic, leadership, etc.); and
4. Any matrix-rating system admissions decision considering any factors of athletics ability or participation (e.g., high school athletics participation, outside club MVP award, all-tournament honor, high school letter winner, all-state/all-conference selection, athletics ability of any kind, etc.) shall be removed from the rating system prior to the student's application being reviewed by the financial aid office. [Official Interpretation, September 19, 2005, Item 2]
12. Adjustments to Financial Aid Package
Adjustments to the composition of the financial aid package for a prospective student-athlete may be made after the initial packaging for the student has been completed, provided such adjustments fit within the packaging guidelines for all of the institution's prospective students and there is no athletics department involvement in the process. [Bylaw 15.4.7]
13. Division III Institutions that Sponsor a Division I Sport
A Division III institution that conducts a sport classified in Division I may not provide athletically related financial aid to a student-athlete in that sport if the student-athlete participates in another sport at that institution during the same academic year. [Bylaw 20.7.1.1.1.1]
14. Membership Reclassification
An institution petitioning to reclassify its membership to Division II in the next academic year may offer financial aid based on athletics to enrolled student-athletes and to prospective student-athletes who will enroll in the institution after the review of its request for reclassification of division membership, provided:
(a) The financial aid based on athletics is not actually awarded until the institution has been accepted by the NCAA Division II Membership Committee to begin the reclassification process;
(b) The institution officially has applied for the reclassification at the time it offers the aid;
(c) Any offer of athletically related financial aid of the recipient states in writing that the awarding of such aid is contingent upon the institution's acceptance by the Division II Membership Committee to begin the reclassification process;
(d) The institution agrees to notify each potential recipient promptly if its application is denied; and
(e) The institution notifies all of its opponents that it is providing athletics aid.
[Bylaw 15.4.9]
Updated 7/27/06
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