Georgia Southwestern State University announced today that the Hurricanes intercollegiate athletic program has been granted full active membership in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

"It's an exciting day for GSW," Associate Athletic Director Jaclyn Kaylor said. "Completing this project took an institutional effort, from the athletics staff to the president's office."  

The three-year process started back in 2005 with an exploratory phase. During the first year, members of the department began attending NCAA meetings while searching for a conference to join. It was not the first time the university looked into NCAA membership. In 1996 GSW began the exploratory phase, but never reached the provisional stage. 

But 10 years later GSW found a home in the Peach Belt Conference and the move to Division II was underway.

Over the past two years, GSW has been a provisional member of the NCAA. During which, the ‘Canes athletic department complied with NCAA rules and regulations, as well as upgraded the budgetary and staffing needs to meet the requirements of a full NCAA Division II program. 

GSW was slated to complete one more year of a required three-year provisional period, however, upon review of an extensive self-evaluation report, the NCAA waived the final year and today welcomed the ‘Canes as active D2 members.  

The Hurricanes were unable to compete in postseason play during the provisional membership period. However, that will change starting this fall.

"We're looking forward to moving on to bigger and better things now that we're officially active members of the NCAA," Kaylor said.  "I'm happy we could get this done for our student-athletes, staff and Hurricane fans."

In addition to the opportunity to participate in the postseason, GSW will benefit from eligibility for NCAA enhancement grant funding, enrollment in the National Letter of Intent program to protect its recruits and student-athletes may participate in the CHAMPS Life Skills program, which is designed to help students make the transition to college.

As active members, recruiting will become easier for coaches, who for the past two years have had to tell young men and women that if they came to Americus they couldn't compete for championships.

According to NCAA rules, there are specific requirements for schools wishing to compete at the Division II level. First, Division II institutions have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women, (or four for men and six for women), with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender.

Second, there are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria -- men's and women's basketball teams must play at least 50 percent of their games against Division II or Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) or Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) opponents. For sports other than basketball, however, there are no scheduling requirements.

Finally, schools must meet minimum financial aid requirements while not exceeding maximum scholarship equivalencies for each sport. GSW distributes over $250,000 annually for student-athlete scholarships.

Division II teams usually feature a number of local or in-state student-athletes. Many Division II student-athletes pay for school through a combination of scholarship money, grants, student loans and employment earnings. Division II athletics programs are financed in the institution's budget like other academic departments on campus.

With a tighter travel budget, traditional rivalries with regional institutions dominate schedules of many Division II athletics programs.

Division II now has a membership of 283 schools in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. 

Men's soccer kicks off the 2008-09 athletic year for GSW with a home match against Barry University on August 28 at 4 p.m.