Winning on and off the field: How NAIA saves big on travel with Engine

The Challenge: A Cost They Can’t Avoid
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For NAIA members, travel is one of the largest and most unavoidable expenses. To compete, grow, and deliver on the student-athlete experience, schools must spend heavily on travel. The association knew they needed a partner that could help schools control costs, create efficiencies, and improve visibility across budgets and operations.

Dan and his team explored several options, but most solutions felt either too complex for athletic departments with varying levels of sophistication—or too limited to scale across their diverse membership.

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The Solution: Why NAIA Chose Engine
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With Engine, NAIA saw a platform that was easy to use, fast to adopt, and immediately valuable. Whether a school tracked travel with spreadsheets or manual travel logs, Engine was built to meet them where they were.

NAIA also valued Engine’s service-first mindset, mirroring the association’s own focus on student-athletes, members, and commissioners. From the first conversations, NAIA’s leaders felt confident they had found a partner who would be responsive, innovative, and committed to helping them succeed.

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The Impact: Scaling Fast and Delivering Value
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The results were immediate and widespread. In just 6–7 months, more schools adopted Engine than NAIA typically sees from a partner in years. The average partnership might see five schools onboard. Engine multiplied that adoption rate and has onboarded over 50 schools, generating buzz and excitement even in the off-season.

The benefits extended beyond cost savings. By making travel more efficient, Engine strengthened NAIA’s relationships with commissioners and schools, fostered internal alignment, and even enhanced NAIA’s employer brand. Staff, officials, and student-athletes alike began using Engine, not just as a travel tool, but as a perk that made their lives easier and helped them save on travel.

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The Experience: A True Team Effort
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From content creation to go-to-market execution, Engine’s partnership stood out. The NAIA team praised Engine’s responsiveness, speed, and high-quality resources that could be shared directly with members. From athletic directors to league officials, and family members to student recruitment staff, Engine was able to create assets and go-to-market materials that provided value to all stakeholders.

“With most partners, you’re waiting and waiting. With Engine, the turnaround is fast, the content is simple to digest, and our members actually use it. It’s so obvious—it just works.”
- Matthew Honeycutt, Partner Experience @ NAIA

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Why They Recommend Engine
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For NAIA, Engine has become one of the most impactful partnerships in recent years. The combination of cost savings, ease of adoption, and responsive support makes it a standout. Not only was the team at Engine quick to support any of NAIA’s needs, they were able to maximize on existing co-marketing opportunities within the NAIA ecosystem in order to drive users and save schools money.

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“Anyone looking to partner with Engine should know you’re getting a team that makes an immediate impact. They activate quickly, they innovate, and they create value for every stakeholder. Engine focuses on what they do well, and they do it really, really well.” 

- Matthew Honeycutt, Partner Experience @ NAIA

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