There's more to life than Division I NCAA...

There's also the NAIA - The National Intercollegiate Athletic Association

Hailing from the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) powerhouse University of Oklahoma (OU) in Norman, OK, I have often said in a very nasty, condescending and probably undeserved way that Oklahoma State University (OSU, in Stillwater, OK) should play in the NAIA so they could win championships. I'm taking that comment back right here and now, not because I've suddenly become an OSU fan, but because I am kinda fond of the NAIA.

What is it? Rather than write the definition myself, I referred to Wikipedia, which states: The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. Unlike the NCAA, the NAIA permits membership to colleges and universities outside the USA. The NAIA has six members in Canada and at one point had one in the Bahamas, thus making it the only international intercollegiate athletic association in North America. For the 2007-08 academic year, the NAIA has 291 member institutions. The NAIA sponsors 23 national championships.

When I graduated from high school, an NAIA school offered me a full-ride basketball scholarship. I didn't take it, but the offer was there. My daughter is currently a junior at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) in Chickasha, OK, a member of the NAIA Sooner Athletic Conference that also includes John Brown University of Siloam Springs, Arkansas; Lubbock Christian University, Lubbock, TX; Mid-American Christian University, Oklahoma City, OK; Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Alva, OK; Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, OK; Oklahoma City University, OKC, OK; Oklahoma Christian University, OKC, OK; St. Gregory's University, Shawnee, OK; Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, OK; Wayland Baptist University, Plainview, TX; and [Will] Rogers State University, Claremore, OK.

Athough many NAIA conferences play fiercely competitive American football that never quite seems to make its way onto the major US television networks or ESPN, the Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) does not sponsor football. The SAC is known for its prowess in men's basketball and, increasingly, in women's basketball as well. The SAC also offers student athletes opportunies in baseball and softball, track and field, tennis, golf and soccer. In other words, everything BUT football.

In more other words, NAIA athletics are sports for the majority of us. Those of us who were maybe good or even almost great but not really OU great or 'Bama great or North Carolina great. Because of this, all of us who appreciate competitive effort should spare a little attention for the NAIA once in a while. Why? Because it's likely who we are: We love what we do, we do it as well as we can with great belief, intensity and effort, but mostly only our communities, families and regions notice. We are not, as a rule, on TV and never rate high definition. Our announcers are the AM radio jocks who work 12-hour shifts and also recite the agricultural forecasts and the local obituaries. In a very obvious way, I think the NAIA is a great, athletically-oriented melting pot that reflects nothing short of America itself.

I think most kids don't attend a Division I-A NCAA school like the one that hosted my degree. I suspect most kids find their niche in smaller places, where they hone their competitive edge just as effectively as OU's current Heisman trophy winner, Sam Bradford, and Oklahoma's 2009 Naismith finalists, Blake Griffin and Courtney Paris. Since most of us will never be a Bradford, a Griffin or a Courtney Paris, I like the idea of us having a PLACE.

Take USAO, for instance. We are Sooners and yet we are The Drovers, from Chickasha, OK. A perfect name for a college built square across the historical Chisholm Trail. Although folk from other places have no idea of it, our local paper bugles support of our local college (named for the sixth year in a row as the best public liberal arts college west of the Mississippi), which earned the SAC conference title in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001. As you can see from the website, the Drovers have gone even further, making it to the national NAIA basketball tournament in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2008. In 2002, the Drovers were crowned NAIA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

But who knew? We here in Chickasha, OK, did. Everywhere around the world, it's nothing more than a small world.

The NAIA national basketball tournament runs concurrently with what has become known as March Madness, the D-1 NCAA powerhouse basketball tournament that will dominate digital transmissions (can't say TV airways anymore) for the next three weeks. NAIA parents or fans can only catch their team's games online for ten bucks a pop. I probably won't go that far since The Drovers aren't ranked in the NAIA national top 25 (Surprise, huh? Like the NCAA, the NAIA also boils things down to a carefully considered national ranking with Oklahoma's Rogers State being the current national #1). But I will listen to the AM radio when the Drovers take on Union of Tennessee in Kansas at 12:30 pm on Thursday, 03-19-09.

Why? Because states from Montanta to California to Alabama to Oklahoma will send their small offerings to the national stage. I love out of the way, unknown places, underdogs and desperate competition that no one else seems to care about. If you do too, check out the NAIA. It's who we are.