top of page

Most Parents Find Out Too Late. This Is Your Chance to Find Out Early.

The NAIA National Town Hall. A live 35-minute conversation with the NAIA Eligibility Center, on WatchSports.com. Tackle and flag. Recruits, transfers, and families who just want a roadmap.

Legend2Legacy Foundation Inc.  |  UpStart Sports Marketing Science LLC

DATE

Sept 30

Wednesday, 2026

TIME

7:30 PM

Eastern

WATCH ON

WatchSports

.com

COST

Free

Wednesday, 2026

image.png

Real talk. Real dialogue. Real answers. Real opportunities.

Featuring Josh Smith of the NAIA Eligibility Center, plus a special guest host and moderator we are announcing on the broadcast. Student-athletes, parents, coaches, school counselors, and community leaders from anywhere in the country.

Free to watch. Questions submitted in advance get answered first.

Ask ten parents at a Saturday game what NAIA stands for. You will get two right answers, and one of those is a guess.

That is not on the parents. Nobody ever told them. And that gap, four letters nobody explained, is sitting between a lot of good student-athletes and a real opportunity with real money attached to it.

​

The families who figure this out early are not smarter than you. They just got the information sooner.

Most recruiting content is built to sell you something. This is built to inform you and then let you go.

Nobody is being sold anything on September 30. There is no product at the end of it. There is a governing body, a room full of families, and honest questions getting honest answers.

Old school talk show. Who remembers Phil Donahue?

Microphone in hand, out in the audience, letting regular people ask the questions they actually came with. Not a panel talking at you from behind a table.

 

That is the format. You are not watching this show. You are in it.

Stay tuned for our special guest moderator and host

We are announcing them soon, and we think you are going to like who is sitting in that chair.

Get on the list below so you hear it first.

Who this is built for

Tackle and flag. If any of these sound like your house, this show was made for you.

  • The under-recruited tackle player. He has the film and the grades. The phone just has not rung yet, and nobody has told you why.

​

  • The flag athlete who just found out. Sixty college programs. A national championship coming in 2027. And she had no idea any of it existed.

​

  • The family thinking about the transfer portal. Considering the jump and trying to understand what it actually costs and what it opens up.

​

  • The family already in the portal. In it now, waiting, and not sure what happens next or who to call.

​

  • The family that just wants the list. Which schools are out there, where they are, and how to reach an actual human being at one. ​​

​

  • The student who wants to work in sports. Not every kid is going to play at the next level. Plenty of them can build a career around the game.

​

  • The parent asking the real question. After all of this, does my child get a degree and a job? We are asking about outcomes, not just admissions.

What we are covering

Thirty-five minutes, in this order. This is a live conversation, so it will go where the room takes it.

  1.  What does NAIA actually stand for?

  2.  How the NAIA got here, and why the history matters

  3.  Who is actually protecting your child?

  4.  NAIA certification versus the NCAA Clearinghouse

  5.  Transfer realities, the portal question, and recruiting calendars

  6.  Learning differences, IEPs, and 504 plans

  7.  Name, image, and likeness for NAIA families

  8.  How scholarships, grants, and athletic money stack

  9.  Academic support, daily life, and what happens after graduation

  10.  How to actually contact member schools

  11.  Feature: the rise of NAIA women's flag football 

Three things that will change how you see this

In college, nobody comes looking for your child

IEPs and 504 plans stop at high school graduation. What takes over is the college disability services office, and it offers real help: extra time on tests, a quiet testing room, note-taking support, and early class registration. Here is the whole difference. In high school, the school came to you. In college, your child has to walk in and ask, with their own paperwork. If nobody walks in, nothing happens. And it does not work backward, so a test taken in September still counts. We are covering what to do now, years before graduation.

Sixty college programs just opened up for your daughter

​Women's flag football is now a full NAIA championship sport, with the first national championship coming in spring 2027 and roughly sixty institutions expected to sponsor it. A lot of parents still think football scholarships are for boys.

A two thousand dollar scholarship can be worth zero

Athletic money, academic money, grants, and outside awards all stack, but only in the right order, and there is a ceiling. Get the order wrong and the award you spent months chasing just cancels out something you already had. We are walking through it.

Bring your question

Do not wait for the night of and hope you get called on. The questions that come in early are the ones that shape the show.

 

And if there is something you have been embarrassed to ask, send that one. Somebody else in the room is carrying the exact same question and is just as afraid to say it out loud.

Thank for sharing the details

With gratitude and purpose,

Thomas S. Epps Jr.

Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Legend2Legacy Foundation Inc. Senior Managing Partner, UpStart Sports Marketing Science LLC Thomas.Epps@legend2legacy.org | 302-983-0668

Wednesday, September 30 at 7:30 PM Eastern

Free. Live on WatchSports.com. Open to anyone in the country.

bottom of page