To accompany the Division II “Make It Yours” brand enhancement, the national office has developed communications tools to help Division II members promote the division to various audiences.

One of these resources is a brochure called, “What Division II Can Do for You.” This 12-page booklet is particularly useful for anyone wanting to provide a basic understanding of how Division II operates and what its members value. The brochure is available here.

We’ve also developed a PowerPoint presentation based on the brochure that you can tailor to accommodate all audiences – from those who know very little about the NCAA (e.g., community groups, rotary clubs, potential donors, etc.) to those who know about the NCAA but perhaps not as much about what makes Division II unique (e.g., faculty senates, alumni, administrators who join your institution/conference after having worked within another NCAA division). Keep the slides that meet your specific needs, then add to the end of the deck whatever slides you want to create that are specific to your institution/conference. In other words, use the first part of this presentation to explain Division II and then the second part to “fill in the blanks” for your own institution or conference.

Other resources include a series of quick-hit “tool cards” with messaging to help explain and promote Division II’s unique attributes and characteristics. These cards offer not only talking points but also prompts to personalize messaging to fit your institution.

Four cards are designed for specific stakeholders – (1) Athletics Directors and Staff; (2) Presidents and Chancellors; (3) Faculty Athletics Representatives; (4) Athletics Communication Directors; and (5) Coaches.

Links to all of these resources are available below. Use them to your advantage – and be creative in your messaging to people who may not realize the benefits of Division II!

Division II Boilerplate for News Releases

As a Division II member institution or conference, you should consider adding “boilerplate” language to the end of your news releases to help explain Division II. Here’s what we suggest:

“The NCAA, the national governing body for college athletics, is a volunteer association of more than 1,000 colleges and universities that classify their athletics programs in one of three membership divisions. The 290+ institutions in NCAA Division II support a balanced approach in which student-athletes have the opportunity to earn scholarships based on their athletic ability, pursue their desired academic degree, and participate in all the campus and surrounding community have to offer. Division II student-athletes annually graduate at rates higher than their student body peers, and they have access to the best championships-participant ratio among the NCAA’s three divisions. Division II gives student-athletes the unique opportunity to compete in the classroom, on the field, in their career, for their causes, and on their terms. For additional information, visit NCAA.org.”