ANOTHER INSIGHT INTO HOW THE AMERICAN
COLLEGE GOLF SYSTEM WORKS

BY PAUL BYRNE
Father of James Byrne (Banchory & Arizona State University)

James didn’t mention it (in his interview with Colin Farquharson on yesterday's Scottishgolfview.com) but the programme and scholarship limits he was referring to applies to NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) institutions.
Other national associations such as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) or the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) (Three Divisions) have their own rules which are different.
In the NCAA there are three divisions for both men’s and women’s golf. Generally speaking, it is tougher to get into a Division 1 college where the academic and golfing eligibility criteria tend to be higher.
However, not all Division I teams are necessarily better than Division II or Division III teams. Top players have emerged from all three divisions as well as from the NAIA and NJCAA colleges.
The Golfweek website ranks all the NCAA Div 1 golf teams. The Golfstat website includes head-to-head standings for NCAA (Divisions I, II and III), and also NAIA and NJCAA institutions.
To gain entry to a NCAA institution, there is a two-stage process for establishing prospective student eligibility. First a national NCAA clearinghouse checks that minimum academic standards and rules of amateur status are met, and secondly, the school itself, sets its own academic entry criteria.
For example a higher academic standard will be needed to get into a leading university such as Harvard, Stanford, or Cal Berkeley etc.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) was founded for smaller colleges (currently it has over 300 four-year colleges and universities), whilst the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is established for two or four-year community and junior colleges (approx 500 member institutions).
For these, generally the academic entry criteria is not as stringent and the recruitment process is less cumbersome than that required by the NCAA as there is no national clearinghouse.
LINKS TO WEBSITES:
Here are some links to the relevant websites for information about college golf:
Golfweek: http://www.golfweek.com/
Golfstat: http://www.golfstat.com/
The on-line Ping American College Golf Guide at http://college.golfstat.com/collegegolf/index.cfm is a very good source of information for parents who have sons or daughters interested in playing college golf.
Also parents may wish to check out the NCAA resources website at http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal which has lots of info for prospective student athletes on recruiting and student/athlete eligibility etc.