NCAA Division III


NCAA Division III is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student-athletes.
The NCAA's first split was into two divisions, the University and College Divisions, in 1956. The College Division was formed for smaller schools that did not have the resources of the major athletic programs across the country. The College Division split again in 1973 when the NCAA went to its current naming convention: Division I, Division II, and Division III. D-I and D-II schools are allowed to offer athletic scholarships, while D-III schools are not.
D-III is the NCAA's largest division with around 450 member institutions, which are 80% private and 20% public. The median undergraduate enrollment of D-III schools is about 2,750, although the range is from 418 to over 38,000. Approximately 40% of all NCAA student-athletes compete in D-III.

Requirements

D-III institutions must sponsor at least three team sports for each sex/gender, with each playing season represented by each gender. Teams in which men and women compete together are counted as men's teams for sports sponsorship purposes. In a feature unique to D-III, the total number of required sports varies with each school's full-time undergraduate enrollment. Schools with an enrollment of 1,000 or less must sponsor five men's and five women's sports; those with larger enrollments must sponsor six for each sex/gender. Institutions that sponsor athletic programs for only one sex/gender need only meet the sponsorship requirements for that sex. There are minimum contest rules and participant minimums for each sport.
D-III athletic programs are non-revenue-generating, extracurricular programs that are staffed and funded like any other university department. They feature student-athletes who receive no financial aid related to their athletic ability. Student-athletes cannot redshirt as freshmen, and schools may not use endowments or funds whose primary purpose is to benefit athletic programs.
D-III schools "shall not award financial aid to any student on the basis of athletics leadership, ability, participation or performance". Financial aid given to athletes must be awarded under the same procedures as for the general student body, and the proportion of total financial aid given to athletes "shall be closely equivalent to the percentage of student-athletes within the student body". The ban on scholarships is strictly enforced. As an example of how seriously the NCAA takes this rule, in 2005 MacMurray College became only the fifth school punished with a "death penalty" - a ban from competition - after its men's tennis program gave grants to foreign-born players. The two service academies that are D-III members, Merchant Marine and Coast Guard, do not violate the athletic scholarship ban because all students, whether or not they are varsity athletes, receive the same treatment, a full scholarship.
Another aspect that distinguishes D-III from the other NCAA divisions is that D-III institutions are specifically banned from using the National Letter of Intent, or any other pre-enrollment form that is not executed by other prospective students at the school. The NCAA provides for one exception—a standard, nonbinding celebratory signing form that may be signed by the student upon their acceptance of enrollment. However, this form cannot be signed at the campus of that college, and staff members of that college cannot be present at the signing.

Conferences

All-sports conferences

An "all-sports conference" is defined here as one that sponsors both men's and women's basketball. While the NCAA has a much more detailed definition of the term, every NCAA conference that sponsors basketball meets the organization's requirements for "all-sports" status.
;Notes:

Single-sport conferences

;Ice hockey
;Lacrosse
;Men's volleyball
NCAA Division III currently awards 28 national team championships yearly – 14 women's and 14 men's. Sports sanctioned by NCAA Division III include the following: baseball, basketball, cross country, field hockey, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling. Women's wrestling, which became an official NCAA championship sport in 2025–26, will hold a separate D-III championship starting in 2027–28.
SportMenWomen
Baseball1976–
Basketball1975–1982–
Cross Country1973–1981–
Field Hockey1981–
Football1973–
Golf1975–2000–
Ice Hockey1984–2002–
Lacrosse1980–1985–
Rowing2002–
Soccer1974–1986–
Softball1982–
Swimming & Diving1975–1982–
Tennis1976–1982–
Track & Field 1985–1985; 1987–
Track & Field 1974–1982–
Volleyball 2012–1981–
Wrestling1974–2028–

Combined Championships with Divisions I & II

The NCAA sponsors an additional 11 championships—6 women's, 3 men's, and 2 coeducational, with competing Division III programs. Two more championships of this type, both for women, will be added in the 2026–27 school year. Division III programs currently compete against Division I and/or II programs including bowling, fencing, gymnastics, rifle, skiing, beach volleyball, water polo, and wrestling. From 2026–27, acrobatics & tumbling and the cheerleading discipline of stunt will also use this format. The dates of the first championship reflect the first year of Division III competition, not necessarily the first year of overall competition for the sport.
SportMenWomenCo-ed
Acrobatics & tumbling2027–
Bowling2004–
Fencing1974–1989, 2026–1974–1989, 2026–
Gymnastics1974–1982–
Rifle1980–
Skiing 1983–
Stunt2027–
Volleyball 2016–
Water polo1973–2001–
Wrestling2026–

'''Notes'''

D-III schools with D-I programs

Ten D-III schools currently field Division I programs in one or two sports, one maximum for each gender. These schools are allowed to offer athletic scholarships only for their D-I men's and women's sports.
Five of them are schools that traditionally competed at the highest level of a particular men's sport prior to the institution of the three division classifications in 1973, a decade before the NCAA governed women's sports. These five colleges were granted a waiver in 1983 to continue offering scholarships, a waiver that was reaffirmed in 2004. Presumably due to Title IX considerations, grandfathered schools are also allowed to field one women's sport in D-I, and all five schools choose to do so.
Three formerly grandfathered schools moved completely to D-III. The State University of New York at Oneonta, which had been grandfathered in men's soccer, moved totally to D-II in 2006. Rutgers University–Newark, which had been grandfathered in men's volleyball, did the same in 2014. Hartwick College, which had been grandfathered in men's soccer and women's water polo, moved its men's soccer program to D-III in 2018 and dropped women's water polo entirely.
Until 2022, the other five schools that chose to field D-I programs in one sport for men and/or one sport for women after the original grandfather clause went into effect, so they were not grandfathered and thus were not allowed to offer athletic scholarships. This however changed in 2022 when the NCAA D-III membership voted to apply Division I legislation to its Division I programs. Academic-based and need-based financial aid are still available, as is the case for all of D-III.
In addition, Lawrence University was formerly a non-grandfathered program in fencing, but the NCAA no longer conducts a separate D-I fencing championship. Lawrence continues to field a fencing team, but that team is now considered D-III.
In August 2011, the NCAA decided to no longer allow individual programs to move to another division as a general policy. One exception was made in 2012, when Rochester Institute of Technology successfully argued for a one-time opportunity for colleges with a D-I men's team to add a women's team.
Since no more colleges would be allowed to move individual sports to D-I, the five non-scholarship programs petitioned to be allowed to offer scholarships in the interests of competitive equity. D-III membership voted in January 2022 to extend the grandfather clause to allow all ten colleges to offer athletic scholarships, effective immediately.
Football and basketball may not be D-I programs at D-III institutions, because their revenue-enhancing potential would give them an unfair advantage over other D-III schools. In 1992, several D-I schools playing D-III football were forced to bring their football programs into D-I, following the passage of the "Dayton Rule". This led directly to the creation of the Pioneer Football League, a non-scholarship football-only Division I FCS conference.