Does anyone have an opinion on NAIA Baseball and is anyone familiar with the Florida Sun Conference in Florida?

I've been told the highest level of NAIA is typically equivalent to NCAA DII,although there is some variability there as well.

For info on the Florida Sun Conference I suggest you contact Bob Pincus (Central Florida Renegades) via the Florida Forum, or Sal Lombardo (Orlando Scorpions).

Also, check out the Sunshine State Conference, NCAA DII, includes University of Tampa, Rollins, Florida Southern, and several other nice schools and programs.

Sunshine State Conference

NAIA Baseball

All I can say is that my son's NAIA school last year beat every DII and DIII school that they played last season....and they only finished 7 or 8th in their conf.
Also, I believe that the Florida Sun Conf is one of the strongest NAIA conf's in the country....when weather permits year round playing, you tend to be stronger...No, son's school was not in that conferance.
So answer would be, there are some strong programs in the NAIA. IE TWC, Faulkner, etc, etc...

My son's previous NAIA school also scheduled a lot of DII competition and they won their fair share of those games.

There's a huge disparity between the top-level programs and bottom level programs. Some of the bad NAIA programs would struggle against good high school teams. However, as others have said, the top echelon of NAIA ball is good.

lewis and clark in idaho is NAIA and i think some would argue they could beat many D1 teams.

Ed Cheff, the coach of Lewis and Clark State, was asked this very question in an interview that you can find on the HSBBW page. Here is the question and Cheff's response:


Question: :Lewis & Clark State College is an NAIA affiliated school, many of the folks that visit the HSBBWeb assume that the caliber of baseball played at an NAIA school is not as good as that played at an NCAA program. How do you respond to that?

Answer: LCSC competes very well against the NCAA DI programs. Typically the top 10 - 15 NAIA schools are competitive with the DI schools. However the majority of the NAIA schools are more on a par with DII.

quote:

Originally posted by Emanski's Heroes:

Question: :Lewis & Clark State College is an NAIA affiliated school, many of the folks that visit the HSBBWeb assume that the caliber of baseball played at an NAIA school is not as good as that played at an NCAA program. How do you respond to that?

Answer: LCSC competes very well against the NCAA DI programs. Typically the top 10 - 15 NAIA schools are competitive with the DI schools. However the majority of the NAIA schools are more on a par with DII.

Having watched a lot of NAIA ball myself, I would say Cheff's response is exactly correct. Your top NAIAs can compete with almost anyone. Lewis and Clark could beat the majority of DIs - just excluding the top programs. This NAIA program has more kids drafted than most DI programs. It is an outstanding baseball program by most folks standards.

Since I've played NAIA I'd agree with the above post.

Most NAIA is on par with NCAA DII, (maybe low level NCAA DI)

The upper NAIA can compete with the top NCAA DI

What are the top 3 NAIA Conferences

quote:

What are the top 3 NAIA Conferences

As far as...

-Academics
-Competition
-Players getting Drafted
-Most Teams Nationally Ranked
-Or something else?

lets keep it at the 1st 2 Academics and Competition

I'm still working on my opinion for your answer RYNO, but here's some food for thought that I stumbled upon when checking up on a few things.

NAIA Players in the MLB

A pretty impressive list of names

Doc_K thank you for your help my son has an official visit this weekend to a school in the Florida Sun Conference and wanted to get a feel for opinions on NAIA Baseball and this conference in particular. I see they had 2 -3 teams in the top 30 in the polls. And if it is comparable to good D2 baseball will help us when comparing apples to apples.

I'm more familiar with NAIA Baseball in MI,OH,KY and TN.

We played some NAIA schools in FL but not enough for me to really gauge just how strong the talent truly is. The fact that they can play year round is a bonus that's forsure.

Look up OCU...an NAIA school in the Sooner Athletic Conf...they got 5 kids drafted off of last years team...I would guess that they were as competitive as some DI's last year.

The NAIA GSAC conference in California is a very good conference that always has 3-5 teams ranked in the NAIA top 25 poll or receiving votes. They also have many players drafted each year.

Lewis-Clark State regularly beats the pants off the D-I schools in its area (Washington State and Gonzaga), and they pretty much beat the pants off everyone they play.

LCSC Draft List

You put these guys in Omaha and I think they'd represent very well.

My son looked into them but, to be honest, he's not good enough (now anyway) to play there.

They are top notch and any ballplayer would be lucky to be a Warrior.

Well, there ya go Krak, There are more out there with this quality of competition, and that produce well equipped players for the draft. D-l is not the only place MLB teams find players. JMHO

The NAIA website is not a very user-friendly site to glean information about the in's and out's of their division.

How many players can a NAIA team have on a roster?

YoungGunDad - I don't know what the number is that can be on the formal varsity roster. What is important to keep in mind is that most NAIA have a JV team. The roster that you look at for many of those schools includes kids that only play JV. There's a few that will play JV and dress varsity. A good way to get a true "feel" for how this works in each program and the players satisfaction/dissatisfaction is for your son to actually talk with current players.