NAIA Legislative Services guides efforts to ensure NAIA member institutions and conferences are in compliance with rules and regulations, while providing oversight and leadership for select committees in the NAIA legislative and governance structure. If you can't find what you're looking for online, please email Legislative Services at legislative@naia.org call our Legislative Hotline at 816.595.8180 to speak with a Legislative Services staff member.
Legislative Services provides member institutions and student-athletes with resources to navigate the NAIA's governing bylaws and policies. The department offers a range of materials for student-athletes, coaches and administrators. These include an archive of legislative articles, video and PowerPoint presentations and periodic webinars for conferences and coaching staffs.
The NAIA fosters a level competitive playing field by encouraging conduct conforming to NAIA bylaws and the NAIA Code of Ethics. Legislative Services works with member institutions and national committees to identify and rectify various rules violations. This includes processing self-reported violations, monitoring year-end reports and addressing concerns over potential violations. Further, NAIA coaches, administrators and faculty athletics representatives have an affirmative duty to notify a fellow member institution should they learn of an apparent violation.
All NAIA Constitution and Bylaw amendments are adopted by membership through a majority vote at the NAIA's annual convention. Legislative Services assists conferences and committees to develop language and address conflicts with proposed legislation. The department also helps move proposed legislation through the appropriate processes for final evaluation at the convention.
NAIA decision-making processes have the best interests of student-athletes in mind. Legislative Services works with member institutions to organize and present cases to the appropriate national committee. These filings include medical hardship requests, requests for exceptions to standing rules, requests for amateur reinstatement and requests for exceptions to freshman eligibility standards for home schooled students and students with learning disabilities.
Legislative Services is the National Office liaison to the following committees: National Coordinating Committee, Council of Faculty Athletics Representatives, Faculty Athletics Representative Association, National Eligibility Committee, National Conduct and Ethics Committee and Learning Disability Advisory Committee.
As of August 1, 2024, all new coaches and staff (as listed elsewhere) are required to complete comprehensive NAIA rules education training within the first 60 days of hire at the NAIA institution or prior to the first certification and prior to the coach’s first competition, whichever is earlier. Each year thereafter, the individual is required to take the annual rules update for returning members so long as the individual remains on the same campus. Any individual who is newly hired at an NAIA institution must take the comprehensive training, regardless of past experience at an NAIA institution.
For the 2024-25 academic year only, any coaches or staff who are continuing at the same NAIA institution will be required to take the annual rules training for returning staff and coaches.
Watch the ECP Quick Start video for a step-by-step demonstration of the ECP process for school staff. Download the ECP Quick Start Guide (PDF) for even more helpful information.
There is a known error with a small percentage of students’ PlayNAIA decision not syncing correctly into ECP, but there are a few things to double check before reporting an issue.
If you are not finding the student in any of these places, then you may be experiencing an error. We are working on the technology fix, but in the meantime we can help you with this. Please send us the ECID and we will get this student synced over manually by the end of the day. After the sync is complete, you will be able to find the student in your "Unassigned Students" list if you search by ECID. Please let us know if you are still unable to find this student if they do not appear by the end of the day today.
At this time, we are advising schools not to delete a certificate, just out of an abundance of caution. A certificate in the draft form will not harm anything so can stay in not submitted/draft form for the rest of the term, although we know this is a nuisance. But when the new term starts, it will fall off. We would advise to find the certificate that you wish to move forward with and just stick with that. You can search for all approved certificates after it has been submitted so that you are not getting confused with the approved versus draft certificate.
We are working on the process to allow for institutions to unlock a student, but this function is not quite ready yet. However, we can do it for you! Please contact NAIAConnectSupport@naia.org and we can unlock the student so you can make the needed changes and then add the student to a certificate when you’re ready.
That is a coming function, but one that is not quite ready yet. In the meantime, it is fine to move forward as-is with the student just listed as pending. There is no harm in moving forward with the certificate – just remember that this student cannot be considered eligible yet with a “pending” status and so should not compete in the meantime.
It may just be the default view that is showing in Connect. The system defaults to showing recently viewed certificates. You can change the view when looking at eligibility certificates. You can change this to “View All” on any given roster or certificate. Once you do this, you can also “pin” your preference to make it become your default view.
Unfortunately we do not have a resend button on the new system at this time, but there is a different way to sign it. Log in to Connect and you can approve the certificate directly within Connect. All certificates are housed within the Connect platform itself, so you can always view and access any/all certificates real-time by simply logging into the Connect platform.
Yes, the form is still required and is what permits your institution to share students’ academic data with us. There is no longer an option in ECP to print this form with students’ names pre-populated. You can still find the form online here.
Legislative/Rules Hotline: 816.595.8180
Email: legislative@naia.org