Florida Memorial defeated Edward Waters 38-21 in The Big Cat Classic on Sept. 2, 2023, in Jacksonville. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on July 11, 2024 at 6:48 pm
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During a party-like atmosphere on the campus of Edward Waters University, school officials announced Thursday that the university is officially a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division ll level.
This means that the university and its student-athletes are now able to compete for NCAA championships, access to more funds and more.
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The NCAA said in a news release Thursday that Edward Waters is one of four schools in the United States that will become Division ll members starting Sept 1.
Three years ago, the school announced it was moving into the NCAA at the Division ll level, but a three-year transitional period was needed to get into NCAA compliance. The university previously was part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Athletic Director Ivana Rich said that becoming a member of the NCAA was no small task. The second year of the transition was the toughest to get through, she said.
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“They’re going to come in and [the NCAA] assesses all your compliance aspects, your financial aid, your registrar’s office. They actually do a site visit and assess all those different components, and so we have to make sure that we have everything here in order,” Rich said.
The process to get into compliance with the NCAA has improved the overall quality of the student experience at the university, Rich said. The school had to upgrade its processes within the registrar’s office, and the school added more advisers.
The benefits for the student-athletes at this level include competing at a higher level and an influx of money for the athletics department.
“It’s tough being a private HBCU. I think people don’t understand how tough that i,s and so the more funding we can get, the more we can provide for our student-athletes,” Rich said.
Edward Waters University offers opportunities to play eight men’s sports, nine women’s sports and one coed sport. The university competes in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Having access to extra money will help with purchasing athletic uniforms, equipment and increasing the travel budget, Rich said. How much of an increase in funds was not provided.
The goal to get Edward Waters University officially into the NCAA has been five years in the making. President A. Zachary Faison said back in 2019 that he told the school’s board of trustees that he believed the university could join the NCAA, and it was the board of trustees that helped finance the vision into a reality.
“Today we are making, and have made, history. After 150 plus years, Edward Waters now today is the state of Florida’s only NCAA Division ll HBCU,” Faison said.
The two other universities in Jacksonville — the University of North Florida and Jacksonville University — compete within the NCAA Division l level. The only other Division ll athletic program in Northeast Florida is at Flagler College in St. Augustine.
