Amend NAIA Bylaws Article V, Section B, Item 20b as follows:

20. Season of Competition:
. . .

b. Participation in any professional-level competition on or after the first day of the thirteenth month following high school graduation. A student will be charged a season of competition for participating in at least one professional-level event within a 12-month period. A team, league or event will be defined as professional-level competition and result in charging a student a season of competition if any one of the following is met:

i. Competition on a team or within a league (all sports) shall result in a season of competition if the team or league self-declares as professional.

ii. Competition on a team or within a league (all sports) shall result in a season of competition if both of the following are met:

1) The team or league self-declares as semi-professional; and
2) Team(s) within the league pay or reimburse participants beyond actual expenses of travel, meals and lodging.

iii. For individual sports, a student’s participation will be evaluated based on the student’s specific division, series or group/heat within the event. If that division, series or group/heat within the event is self-declared as professional or semi-professional, the student’s competition shall result in a season of competition charged.

The NAIA shall take at face value seasons of competition based on non-collegiate participation as assessed by another intercollegiate athletic association, including the determination of a student’s previous intercollegiate athletic association regarding whether the student participated as an independent or unattached status individual while identified within that association. Additional seasons of competition, based on professional-level participation, will be charged when the student is not enrolled in a collegiate institution, or is enrolled but does not represent the institution in intercollegiate competition.

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Intent: To eliminate the practice of honoring another athletic association’s determinations regarding non-intercollegiate seasons of competition, and instead evaluate all non-intercollegiate participation by applying the NAIA’s criteria. The only prior determination that will be honored is the prior athletic association’s evaluation of a student’s unattached status while enrolled at the prior institution.

Effective Date: May 1, 2024 as applied to eligibility decisions for NAIA competition in August 2024 or beyond.

Submitted by: National Coordinating Committee