Do you want to wrestle in college?

Division 1 & Division 2

Registration and Eligibility
All prospective Division 1 and Division 2 student-athletes must register through the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Eligibility Center. Registration is $90, but students can start with a free profile and create a certification account once recruitment becomes active.

The NCAA sets and monitors the recruitment guidelines for each collegiate sport. Take a moment to review the NCAA’s eligibility criteria.

*Note: Division 3 student-athletes do not need to register with the NCAA.

National Letter of Intent
What is a National Letter of Intent?

Before signing, make sure that:

The college is your best fit, both with and without athletics.
You have your full financial aid package, including all athletic and merit-based scholarships, grants, and loans.

Throughout senior year, the Portsmouth Abbey School and College Counseling Offices celebrate student-athletes who are committed to playing college sports. In recognition of these students, there are three National Letter of Intent signing ceremonies (November, December, and April/May) following the NCAA signing calendar.

Find out the dates

Our Division I Priorities

Commitment to amateurism. Division I schools conduct their athletics programs for students who choose to participate in intercollegiate athletics as a part of their educational experience and in accordance with NCAA bylaws, maintaining a line of demarcation between student-athletes and professional athletes.

Fair competition. Division I schools acknowledge that variability will exist among members, including facilities, geographic locations and resources. However, Division I focuses on controlling fair competition in areas such as personnel, eligibility and amateurism, recruiting, financial aid, the length of playing and practice seasons, and the number of institutional competitions per sport.
Institutional control and compliance. Each Division I member school is responsible to monitor and control its athletics programs, staff members, representatives and student-athletes to ensure compliance with the NCAA constitution and bylaws of the Association.
Student-athlete well-being. Division I schools constantly work to enhance the well-being of their student-athletes. The time required of student-athletes for athletics is regulated to minimize interference with their academic pursuits. It is the responsibility of each school to establish and maintain an environment in which student-athletes’ activities, in all sports, are conducted to encourage academic success and individual development and as an integral part of the educational experience.
Sound academic standards. While more student-athletes than ever are graduating, due in large part to enhanced eligibility standards and the success of the Division I Academic Performance Program, the division continues to review and evolve its approach to creating academic standards.
Diversity and inclusion. Division I schools are committed to the core values of diversity, inclusion and equity because realization of those values improves the learning environment for all student-athletes and enhances excellence within the membership and in all aspects of intercollegiate athletics.
Responsible recruiting standards. Recruiting rules and restrictions in Division I are designed to promote informed decisions and balance the interests of prospective student-athletes, schools and intercollegiate athletics as a whole. This commitment includes minimizing the role of external influences on prospective student-athletes and their families and preventing excessive contact or pressure in the recruitment process.

Division 3

Spring Celebration
While Division 3 student-athletes commit to playing athletics during college, they are not required to sign a legally-binding document confirming their commitment.

There is a celebratory letter that college coaches share with the athletes and their families. In addition, the School and College Counseling Offices celebrate the athletic and academic commitment of these students during a Spring D3 Celebration.

Become a Division III Student-Athlete Web link

Information for prospective students athletes and parents

What Division III has to offer

Division III athletics provides a well-rounded collegiate experience that involves a balance of rigorous academics, competitive athletics, and the opportunity to pursue the multitude of other co-curricular and extra-curricular opportunities offered on Division III campuses.
Division III playing season and eligibility standards minimize conflicts between athletics and academics, allowing student-athletes to focus on their academic programs and the achievement of a degree.
Division III offers an intense and competitive athletics environment for student-athletes who play for the love of the game, without the obligation of an athletics scholarship.
Division III athletics departments place special importance on the impact of athletics on the participants rather than on the spectators. The student-athlete’s experience is of paramount concern.
Division III athletics departments are dedicated to offering broad-based programs with a high number and wide range of athletics participation opportunities for both men and women.
Division III places primary emphasis on regional in-season and conference competition, while also offering 36 national championships annually.
Division III affords student-athletes the opportunity to discover valuable lessons in teamwork, discipline, perseverance, and leadership, which in turn make student-athletes better students and responsible citizens.
Division III features student-athletes who are subject to the same admission standards, academic standards, housing, and support services as the general student body. The integration of athletics with the larger institution enables student-athletes to experience all aspects of campus life.
Division III encourages student-athletes to take advantage of the many opportunities available to them, both within and beyond athletics, so that they may develop their full potential as students, athletes, and citizens.

Club Wrestling

Continue Wrestling in Clubs
There are plenty of opportunities to continue wrestling beyond DI, DII & DIII the NCWA Club Wrestling is for student-athletes that want to continue to compete at the college level. The Club teams are also split into a D1 & D2 Levels.

The National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) is a nonprofit association of 162 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organize the wrestling programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. It is led by founder and executive director Jim Giunta headquartered in Dallas, Texas and built to help the promotion of collegiate wrestling.

Many teams were formerly NCAA programs displaced by Title IX legislation and/or are preparing to join the NCAA, NAIA, or NJCAA. Teams in transition to a higher division not eligible for the NCAA postseason also compete in the NCWA. Notable wrestling programs to have started or competed in the NCWA and are now in other associations include: California Baptist, McKendree, Notre Dame College, and Southern Illinois Edwardsville.

A post-secondary athletic association built to help the promotion of collegiate wrestling, the NCWA was founded in 1997 as a 501c3 non-profit by the current executive director, Jim Giunta, after resigning as executive director of the Texas Interscholastic Wrestling Association (TIWA). At its founding the association had 13 member teams, but today the NCWA is composed of over 150 wrestling teams and clubs from across the United States and Canada. Many of these programs were formerly NCAA scholarship programs which were affected by Title IX legislation, which has resulted in many colleges being forced to give up their wrestling programs in the name of gender equality. The variety of institutions competing in the NCWA is wide and unrestricted as junior colleges, trade schools and post-secondary prep institutions compete in the same national championship as four-year colleges and universities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Collegiate_Wrestling_Association