Competition Against Teams Containing Prospects

There is some confusion in the NAIA baseball community regarding how to classify competition versus teams containing prospective students (e.g., high school, junior college, or club teams). The purpose of this memorandum is to ensure all NAIA institutions receive the same information regarding this issue.

In all sports, NAIA regulations require that all competition against an outside team count towards the team’s contest limit. Therefore, if your team plays a contest against an outside team, regardless of the number of prospects on that team, the contest must be classified as a regular contest, a scrimmage or an exhibition and count towards the team’s limit. To be clear, such a contest may not be classified as a tryout.

Violation of the contest limitations legislation is a serious matter. Penalties as severe as probation and suspension are possible in cases involving deliberate violations of the contest limit regulations.

Please contact Legislative Services if you have any questions.