The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a
nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
that regulates
student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
.
It also organizes the
athletic programs of
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
s and
universities
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and helps over 500,000 college student athletes who compete annually in college sports.
The organization is headquartered in
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
.
Until 1957, the NCAA was a single division for all schools. That year, the NCAA split into the
University Division and the
College Division The NCAA College Division was a historic subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) consisting of member schools competing at a lower level of college sports. The NCAA initially divided schools into a College Division and a ...
.
In August 1973, the current three-division system of
Division I,
Division II, and
Division III
In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below.
Association football
*Belgian Thir ...
was adopted by the NCAA membership in a special convention. Under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer
scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholarsh ...
s to
athletes
An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance.
Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-develo ...
for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships. Generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. Division I
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
was further divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978, while Division I programs that did not have football teams were known as I-AAA. In 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the
Football Bowl Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...
(FBS) and
Football Championship Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...
(FCS). In its 2016–17 fiscal year, the NCAA took in $1.06 billion in revenue, over 82% of which was generated by the
Division I men's basketball tournament.
Controversially, the NCAA formerly capped the benefits that collegiate athletes could receive from their schools. The consensus among economists is these caps for men's basketball and football players benefit the athletes' schools (through
rent-seeking
Rent-seeking is the act of growing one's existing wealth without creating new wealth by manipulating the social or political environment.
Rent-seeking activities have negative effects on the rest of society. They result in reduced economic effi ...
) at the expense of the athletes.
Economists have subsequently characterized the NCAA as a
cartel
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...
.
On June 21, 2021, the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
unanimously ruled that the education-related benefit caps the NCAA imposes on student athletes are
in violation of US antitrust law.
History
Formation and early years
Intercollegiate sports began in the United States in 1852 when crews from
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
universities met in
a challenge race in the sport of
rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...
. As rowing remained the preeminent sport in the country into the late-1800s, many of the initial debates about collegiate athletic eligibility and purpose were settled through organizations like the
Rowing Association of American Colleges The Rowing Association of American Colleges (1870 to 1894) the first collegiate athletic organization in the United States, was a body governing college rowing. Upon organization by the captains of the leading crews of the day, they devised a prima ...
and the
Intercollegiate Rowing Association
The Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) governs intercollegiate rowing between varsity men's heavyweight, men's lightweight, and women's lightweight rowing programs across the United States, while the NCAA fulfills this role for women's ope ...
. As other sports emerged, notably football and basketball, many of these same concepts and standards were adopted. Football, in particular, began to emerge as a marquee sport, but the rules of the game itself were in constant flux and often had to be adapted for each contest.
The NCAA dates its formation to two White House conferences convened by President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
in the early 20th century in response to repeated injuries and deaths in college football which had "prompted many college and universities to discontinue the sport."
Following those White House meetings and the reforms which had resulted, Chancellor
Henry MacCracken
Henry Mitchell MacCracken (September 28, 1840 – December 24, 1918) was an American educator and academic administrator.
Biography
Henry MacCracken was born in Oxford, Ohio on September 28, 1840. He graduated from Miami University in Ohio ...
of
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
organized a meeting of 13 colleges and universities to initiate changes in football playing rules; at a follow-on meeting on December 28, 1905, in New York, 62 higher-education institutions became charter members of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS).
The IAAUS was officially established on March 31, 1906, and took its present name, the NCAA, in 1910.
For several years, the NCAA was a discussion group and rules-making body, but in 1921, the first NCAA national championship was conducted: the National Collegiate Track and Field Championships. Gradually, more rules committees were formed and more championships were created, including a basketball championship in 1939.
[NCAA History between 1910 and 1980](_blank)
A series of crises brought the NCAA to a crossroads after World War II. The "Sanity Code" – adopted to establish guidelines for recruiting and financial aid – failed to curb abuses, and the Association needed to find more effective ways to curtail its membership. Postseason football games were multiplying with little control, and member schools were increasingly concerned about how the new medium of television would affect football attendance.
The complexity of those problems and the growth in membership and championships demonstrated the need for full-time professional leadership.
Walter Byers
Walter Byers (March 13, 1922 – May 26, 2015) was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Career
Byers was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He served from ...
, previously a part-time executive assistant, was named executive director in 1951, and a national headquarters was established in
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
in 1952.
Byers wasted no time placing his stamp on the Association. A program to control live television of football games was approved, the annual Convention delegated enforcement powers to the Association's Council, and legislation was adopted governing postseason bowl games.
1970s–present
![NCAA 70s logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/NCAA_70s_logo.svg)
As
college athletics
College athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games.
World University Games
The first World University Games were held in 1923. There were originally called the ''Union Nationale des ...
grew, the scope of the nation's athletics programs diverged, forcing the NCAA to create a structure that recognized varying levels of emphasis. In 1973, the association's membership was divided into three legislative and competitive divisions – I, II, and III. Five years later in 1978, Division I members voted to create subdivisions I-A and I-AA (renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision and the Football Championship Subdivision in 2006) in football.
Until the 1980s, the association did not govern women's athletics. Instead, the
Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women
The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...
(AIAW), with nearly 1,000 member schools, governed women's collegiate sports in the United States. The AIAW was in a vulnerable position that precipitated conflicts with the NCAA in the early-1980s. Following a one-year overlap in which both organizations staged women's championships, the AIAW discontinued operation, and most member schools continued their women's athletics programs under the governance of the NCAA. By 1982 all divisions of the NCAA offered national championship events for women's athletics. A year later in 1983, the 75th Convention approved an expansion to plan women's athletic program services and pushed for a women's championship program.
By the 1980s,
televised college football had become a larger source of income for the NCAA. In September 1981, the Board of Regents of the
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...
and the
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
Athletic Association filed suit against the NCAA in district court in
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
. The plaintiffs stated that the NCAA's football television plan constituted price fixing, output restraints, boycott, and monopolizing, all of which were illegal under the
Sherman Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author.
Th ...
. The NCAA argued that its pro-competitive and non-commercial justifications for the plan – protection of live gate, maintenance of competitive balance among NCAA member institutions, and the creation of a more attractive "product" to compete with other forms of entertainment – combined to make the plan reasonable. In September 1982, the district court found in favor of the plaintiffs, ruling that the plan violated antitrust laws. It enjoined the association from enforcing the contract. The NCAA appealed all the way to the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, but lost in 1984 in a 7–2 ruling ''
NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
''NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma'', 468 U.S. 85 (1984), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) television plan violated the Sherman and Cla ...
''. (If the television contracts the NCAA had with
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
,
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, and
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
had remained in effect for the 1984 season, they would have generated some $73.6 million for the association and its members.)
In 1999, the NCAA was sued for discriminating against female athletes under
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
for systematically giving men in graduate school more waivers than a woman to participate in college sports. In ''
National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Smith
''National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Smith'', 525 U.S. 459 (1999), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the NCAA's receipt of dues payments from colleges and universities which received federal funds, wa ...
'', 525 U.S. 459 (1999) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA was not subject to that law, without reviewing the merits of the discrimination claim.
Over the last two decades recruiting international athletes has become a growing trend among NCAA institutions. For example, most German athletes outside of Germany are based at US universities. For many European athletes, the American universities are the only option to pursue an academic and athletic career at the same time. Many of these students come to the US with high academic expectations and aspirations.
In 2009,
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...
in
Burnaby
Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, became the NCAA's first non-US member institution, joining Division II. In 2018, Division II membership approved allowing schools from
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
to apply for membership;
CETYS of
Tijuana
Tijuana ( ,["Tijuana"](_blank)
(US) and [< ...]
,
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
expressed significant interest in joining at the time.
In 2014, the NCAA set a record high of $989 million in net revenue. Just shy of $1 billion, it is among the highest of all large sports organizations.
During the NCAA's 2022 annual convention, the membership ratified a new version of the organization's constitution. The new constitution dramatically simplifies a rulebook that many college sports leaders saw as increasingly bloated.
It also reduces the size of the NCAA Board of Governors from 20 to 9, and guarantees that current and former athletes have voting representation on both the NCAA board and the governing bodies of each NCAA division. The new constitution was the first step in a reorganization process in which each division will have the right to set its own rules, with no approval needed from the rest of the NCAA membership.
Notable court cases
* In the late-1940s, there were only two colleges in the country,
Notre Dame and
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, with national TV contracts, a considerable source of revenue. In 1951, the NCAA voted to prohibit any live TV broadcast of college football games during the season. No sooner had the NCAA voted to ban television than public outcry forced it to retreat. Instead, the NCAA voted to restrict the number of televised games for each team to stop the slide in gate attendance.
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
president
Harold Stassen
Harold Edward Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was an American politician who was the 25th Governor of Minnesota. He was a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1948, considered for a ti ...
defied the monopoly and renewed its contract with
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
. Eventually, Penn dropped its suit when the NCAA, refusing Penn's request that the U.S. Attorney General rule on the legality of the NCAA's restrictive plan, threatened to expel the university from the association. Notre Dame continued televising its games through 1953, working around the ban by filming its games, then broadcasting them the next evening.
*In 1957, the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the family of deceased Trinidad College football player Ray Herbert Dennison. Despite suffering a lethal concussion injury on the field in a game versus Fort Lewis A&M College, Dennison was not entitled to any compensation because he was not under a contractual obligation to play football. Furthermore, the court stated that the "college did not receive a direct benefit from the activities, since the college was not in the football business and received no benefit from this field of recreation".
* In 1977, prompted partly by the Tarkanian Case, the US Congress initiated an investigation into the NCAA. It, combined with Tarkanian's case, forced the NCAA's internal files into the public record.
* In 1998, the NCAA settled a $2.5 million lawsuit filed by former UNLV basketball coach,
Jerry Tarkanian
Jerry Tarkanian (August 8, 1930 – February 11, 2015) was an American basketball coach. He coached college basketball for 31 seasons over five decades at three schools. He spent the majority of his career coaching with the UNLV Runnin' Rebe ...
. Tarkanian sued the NCAA after he was forced to resign from UNLV, where he had been head coach from 1973 to 1992. The suit claimed the agency singled him out, penalizing the university's basketball program three times in that span. Tarkanian said, "They can never, ever, make up for all the pain and agony they caused me. All I can say is that for 25 years they beat the hell out of me". The NCAA said that it regretted the long battle and it now has more understanding of Tarkanian's position and that the case has changed the enforcement process for the better.
* In 1999, the NCAA was sued for discriminating against female athletes under
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
for systematically giving men in graduate school more waivers than a woman to participate in college sports. In ''
National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Smith
''National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Smith'', 525 U.S. 459 (1999), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the NCAA's receipt of dues payments from colleges and universities which received federal funds, wa ...
'', the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA was not subject to that law, without reviewing the merits of the discrimination claim.
* In 2007, the case of ''White et al. v. NCAA, No. CV 06-999-RGK'' (C.D. Cal. September 20, 2006) was brought by former NCAA student-athletes
Jason White, Brian Pollack, Jovan Harris, and Chris Craig as a class action lawsuit. They argued that the NCAA's current limits on a full scholarship or grant-in-aid was a violation of federal antitrust laws. Their reasoning was that in the absence of such a limit, NCAA member schools would be free to offer any financial aid packages they desired to recruit the student and athlete. The NCAA settled before a ruling by the court, by agreeing to set up the Former Student-Athlete Fund to "assist qualified candidates applying for receipt of career development expenses and/or reimbursement of educational expenses under the terms of the agreement with plaintiffs in a federal antitrust lawsuit."
* In 2013,
Jay Bilas
Jay Scot Bilas (born December 24, 1963) is an American college basketball analyst who currently works for ESPN. Bilas is a former professional basketball player and coach who played for and served as an assistant under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke Uni ...
claimed that the NCAA was taking advantage of individual players through jersey sales in its store. Specifically, he typed the names of several top college football players,
Tajh Boyd
Tajh Khiry Boyd (born September 25, 1990) is an American football coach and former quarterback who currently is an offensive assistant at Clemson. He was drafted by the New York Jets in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He played college fo ...
,
Teddy Bridgewater
Theodore Edmond Bridgewater Jr. (born November 10, 1992) is an American football quarterback for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL).
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, he graduated from Miami Northwestern high school. Br ...
,
Jadeveon Clowney
Jadeveon Davarus Clowney ( ; born February 14, 1993) is an American football defensive end for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at South Carolina, where he won the Ted Hendricks Award, and wa ...
,
Johnny Manziel
Johnathan Paul Manziel ( ; born December 6, 1992) is an American football quarterback for the FCF Zappers of Fan Controlled Football (FCF). He played two seasons with the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) and was also a mem ...
, and
A. J. McCarron
Raymond Anthony "A. J." McCarron Jr. (born September 13, 1990) is an American football quarterback for the St. Louis BattleHawks of the XFL. He previously played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons. McCarron played college ...
, into the search engine of the NCAA's official online store. The search results returned corresponding numbered team jerseys. The NCAA subsequently removed the team jerseys listed on its site.
* In March 2014, four players filed a class action
antitrust
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
lawsuit (''
O'Bannon v. NCAA
''O'Bannon v. NCAA'', 802 F.3d 1049 (9th Cir. 2015) was an United States antitrust law, antitrust class action lawsuit filed against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The lawsuit, which former UCLA Bruins men's basketball, UCL ...
''), alleging that the NCAA and its five dominant conferences are an "unlawful cartel". The suit charges that NCAA caps on the value of athletic scholarships have "illegally restricted the earning power of football and men's basketball players while making billions off their labor". Tulane University Sports Law Program Director Gabe Feldman called the suit "an instantly credible threat to the NCAA." On September 30, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that limiting compensation to the cost of an athlete's attendance at a university was sufficient. It simultaneously ruled against a federal judge's proposal to pay student athletes $5,000 per year in deferred compensation.
*In August 2015, the National Labor Relations Board reversed a decision settled in the prior year that classified members of Northwestern University's scholarship football players as employees, thus, granting them the right to collectively bargain for their rights. The unionization efforts were a direct effort led by the College Athletes Player Association and Kain Colter, who operated with the support of the United Steelworkers group.
The case was ultimately struck down due to difficulties in applying the ruling across both public and private institutions. The NCAA made several improvements to the value of athletic scholarships and the quality of healthcare coverage in response to this movement by the Northwestern football players.
These reforms included guaranteeing the entire four years of scholarship in the event of a career-ending injury, the implementation of “cost of attendance” stipends, the institution of “unlimited” athlete meal plans, and protections for the name, image, and likeness of athletes by third parties such as Electronic Arts.
*In 2018 former
UCF kicker
Donald De La Haye
Donald De La Haye Jr. (born December 2, 1996), also known online as Deestroying, is a Costa Rican-American YouTuber. He played college football with the UCF Knights (NCAA team) of the University of Central Florida (UCF). De La Haye is known for ...
filed a lawsuit alleging that the university violated his First Amendment rights when it rescinded his full athletic scholarship over the income De La Haye made from his monetized YouTube channel, which he started before he attended college.
UCF argued De La Haye violated the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
policy forbidding student-athletes from using their likenesses to make money. De La Haye ultimately settled with
UCF so that he could obtain his degree from the university.
*In June 2021 the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously affirmed a ruling in
''NCAA v. Alston'' that provides for an incremental increase in how college athletes can be compensated. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the court's opinion, which upheld a district court judge's decision that the NCAA was violating antitrust law by placing limits on the education-related benefits that schools can provide to athletes. The decision allows schools to provide their athletes with unlimited compensation as long as it is some way connected to their education. The idea that college athletes should not be paid, a fundamental tenet of the 115-year-old NCAA, has faced increasing scrutiny in recent years. Federal antitrust lawsuits have slowly eroded strict amateurism rules during the past decade.
Headquarters
The modern era of the NCAA began in July 1955 when its executive director,
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
native
Walter Byers
Walter Byers (March 13, 1922 – May 26, 2015) was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Career
Byers was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He served from ...
, moved the organization's headquarters from the LaSalle Hotel in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
(where its offices were shared by the headquarters of the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
) to the Fairfax Building in
Downtown Kansas City
Downtown Kansas City is the central business district (CBD) of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; and from the Kansas–Missouri state line east ...
. The move was intended to separate the NCAA from the direct influence of any individual conference and keep it centrally located.
The Fairfax was a block from
Municipal Auditorium which had hosted men's basketball Final Four games in 1940, 1941, and 1942. After Byers moved the headquarters to Kansas City, the championships would be held in Municipal Auditorium in 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1961, and 1964. The Fairfax office consisted of three rooms with no air conditioning. Byers' staff consisted of four people: an assistant, two secretaries, and a bookkeeper.
In 1964, the NCAA moved three blocks away to offices in the
Midland Theatre
The Midland Theatre is a 3,000-seat theater located in the Power & Light District of Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The National Collegiate Athletic Association under Walter Byers had its headquarters in the building from the 1950s until ...
, moving again in 1973 to a $1.2 million building on on
Shawnee Mission Parkway
Shawnee Mission Parkway is a stretch of roadway in Johnson County, Kansas and Jackson County, Missouri (only a fragment). Its western terminus at K-7 in Shawnee, Kansas and its eastern terminus at Ward Parkway in Kansas City, Missouri. The roa ...
in suburban
Mission, Kansas
Mission is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 9,954.
History
An Indian mission was established in 1829 at the town's site, hence ...
. In 1989, the organization moved farther south to
Overland Park, Kansas
Overland Park ( ) is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in Johnson County, Kansas, it is one of four principal cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the most populous suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As o ...
. The new building was on and had of space.
The NCAA was dissatisfied with its
Johnson County, Kansas
Johnson County is a county in the U.S. state of Kansas, on the border with Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 609,863, making it the most populous county in Kansas. Its county seat is Olathe. Largely suburban, the county conta ...
suburban location, noting that its location on the southern edges of the Kansas City suburbs was more than 40 minutes from
Kansas City International Airport
Kansas City International Airport (originally Mid-Continent International Airport) is a public airport in Kansas City, Missouri located northwest of Downtown Kansas City in Platte County, Missouri., effective December 30, 2021. The airport o ...
. They also noted that the suburban location was not drawing visitors to its new visitors' center.
In 1997, it asked for bids for a new headquarters. Various cities competed for a new headquarters with the two finalists being Kansas City and Indianapolis. Kansas City proposed to relocate the NCAA back downtown near the
Crown Center
Crown Center is a shopping center and neighborhood located near Downtown Kansas City, Missouri between Gillham Road and Main Street to the east and west, and between OK/E 22nd St and E 27th St to the north and south. The shopping center is ...
complex and would locate the visitors' center in
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
. However Kansas City's main sports venue
Kemper Arena
The Hy-Vee Arena, previously known as Kemper Arena, is an indoor arena located in Kansas City, Missouri. Prior to conversion to a youth sports and community gymnasium facility, Kemper Arena was previously a 19,500-seat professional sports arena ...
was nearly 30 years old.
Indianapolis argued that it was in fact more central than Kansas City in that two-thirds of the members are east of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
.
The 50,000-seat
RCA Dome
The RCA Dome (originally Hoosier Dome) was a domed stadium in Indianapolis. It was the home of the Indianapolis Colts NFL franchise for 24 seasons (1984– 2007).
It was completed at a cost of $77.5 million, as part of the Indiana Convention Ce ...
far eclipsed the 17,000-seat Kemper Arena. In 1999, the NCAA moved its 300-member staff to its new headquarters in the
White River State Park
White River State Park is an urban park in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Situated along the eastern and western banks of its namesake White River, the park covers . The park is home to numerous attractions, including the Eiteljorg Museum of A ...
in a four-story facility on the west edge of downtown
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...
. Adjacent to the headquarters is the
NCAA Hall of Champions
The NCAA Hall of Champions is an interactive museum and part of a three-building complex that houses a conference center and the corporate headquarters of both the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Federation of State Hi ...
.
Structure
The NCAA's Board of Governors (formerly known as the Executive Committee) is the main body within the NCAA. This body elects the NCAA's president.
The NCAA's legislative structure is broken down into cabinets and committees, consisting of various representatives of its member schools. These may be broken down further into sub-committees. The legislation is then passed on to the Management Council, which oversees all the cabinets and committees, and also includes representatives from the schools, such as athletic directors and faculty advisers. Management Council legislation goes on to the Board of Directors, which consists of school presidents, for final approval. The NCAA national office staff provides support by acting as guides, liaisons, researchers, and by managing public and media relations.
The NCAA runs the officiating software company
ArbiterSports
ArbiterSports is the sports officiating software company of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and is a venture between two NCAA subsidiaries, Arbiter LLC and LLC. The company is based in Sandy, Utah.
History
The Arbiter assigning sy ...
, based in
Sandy, Utah
Sandy is a city in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, located in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. The population of Sandy was 87,461 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth-largest city in Utah. The population is currently estimated ...
, a joint venture between two subsidiaries of the NCAA, Arbiter LLC and eOfficials LLC. The NCAA's stated objective for the venture is to help improve the fairness, quality, and consistency of officiating across amateur athletics.
Presidents of the NCAA
The NCAA had no full-time administrator until 1951, when
Walter Byers
Walter Byers (March 13, 1922 – May 26, 2015) was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Career
Byers was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He served from ...
was appointed executive director.
In 1988, the title was changed to president.
*
Walter Byers
Walter Byers (March 13, 1922 – May 26, 2015) was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Career
Byers was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He served from ...
1951–1988
*
James Frank
James Boisfeuillet Frank (born November 23, 1966) is a businessman from Wichita Falls, Texas, who is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 69, which encompasses Archer, Baylor, Clay, Foard, Knox, and Wichita ...
1981–1983 (Executive Director)
*
Dick Schultz
Dick Schultz (born September 5, 1929) is an American retired sports coach and administrator. He served as the head baseball coach at the University of Iowa from 1963 to 1970 and at the school's head men's basketball coach from 1970 to 1974. Schul ...
1988–1993
*
Judith Sweet
Judith M. Sweet (born 1948) is an American sports executive. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was the first woman to be elected secretary-treasurer and president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. She was also the first female athletic d ...
1991–1993
*
Cedric Dempsey
Cedric Warren Dempsey (born April 14, 1932) is a sports administrator who became the third executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from 1994 to 2003. Before leaving the post in 2002, Dempsey restructured the organ ...
1994–2002
*
Myles Brand
Myles Neil Brand (May 17, 1942 – September 16, 2009) was a philosopher and university administrator who served as the 14th president of the University of Oregon, the 16th president of Indiana University, and the fourth president of the Natio ...
2003–2009
*
Jim Isch
Jim Isch was the chief operating officer of NCAA. He was appointed to the role on August 13, 2010, having served as the interim executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association following the death of Myles Brand on September 1 ...
(interim) 2009–2010
*
Mark Emmert
Mark Allen Emmert (born December 16, 1952) is the current president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He is the fifth CEO of the NCAA; he was named as the incoming president on April 27, 2010, and assumed his duties on November 1, ...
2010–2023
*
Charlie Baker
Charles Duane Baker Jr. (born November 13, 1956) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 72nd governor of Massachusetts since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Baker was a cabinet official under two governors of Massach ...
(assumes position on March 1, 2023)
Chief medical officer
In 2013, the NCAA hired
Brian Hainline
Brian Hainline is a medical researcher and the chief medical officer of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States. Prior to taking that position in 2013, he was the chief medical officer of the United States Tennis Associat ...
as its first
chief medical officer
Chief medical officer (CMO) is the title used in many countries for the senior government official designated head of medical services, sometimes at the national level. The post is held by a physician who serves to advise and lead a team of medical ...
.
Division history
"National Collegiate" sports
For some less-popular sports, the NCAA does not separate teams into their usual divisions and instead holds only one tournament to decide a single national champion between all three divisions (except for women's ice hockey and men's indoor volleyball, where the National Collegiate championship only features teams from Division I and Division II and a separate championship is contested for only Division III). The 11 sports which use the National Collegiate format, also called the single-division format, are women's bowling, fencing, men's gymnastics, women's gymnastics, women's ice hockey, rifle, skiing, men's indoor volleyball, women's beach volleyball, men's water polo, and women's water polo. The NCAA considers a National Collegiate title equivalent to a Division I title, even if the champion is a member of Division II or III for other sports.
These championships are largely dominated by teams that are otherwise members of Division I, but current non-Division I teams have won 40 National Collegiate championships since the University Division/College Division split as of 2022 (2 in bowling, 20 in fencing, 8 in women's ice hockey, and 10 in rifle).
Division III schools are allowed to grant athletic scholarships to students who compete in National Collegiate sports, though most do not.
Men's ice hockey uses a similar but not identical "National Collegiate" format as women's ice hockey and men's indoor volleyball (Division III has its own championship but several Division III teams compete in Division I for men's ice hockey), but its top-level championship is styled as a "Division I" championship. While the NCAA has not explained why it is the only sport with this distinction, the NCAA held a
Division II championship from 1978–1984 and again from 1993–1999. As of 2022, 12 Division I men's ice hockey championships have been won by current non-Division I teams since the University Division/College Division split. Like with sports officially noted as "National Collegiate", schools that are otherwise members of Division III who compete in Division I for men's ice hockey are allowed to grant athletic scholarships for the sport.
All sports used the National Collegiate format until 1957, when the NCAA was split into the
University Division (now Division I) and
College Division The NCAA College Division was a historic subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) consisting of member schools competing at a lower level of college sports. The NCAA initially divided schools into a College Division and a ...
(which was split into Divisions II and III in 1973, with the College Division's historic records inherited by Division II).
Even after the split, several sports (all of which were men's sports at the time as the NCAA did not sanction women's sports until the 1980s) continued to use the National Collegiate format including baseball, golf, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, outdoor track & field, and wrestling. Sports that began after the split which once used the format and no longer do include men's and women's lacrosse, women's rowing, women's soccer, and men's and women's indoor track & field.
Some sports, including men's and women's golf, men's ice hockey, men's lacrosse, and men's and women's soccer used to have a combined championship between Divisions II and III, but these were known as a "Division II/III championship" in most cases. The NCAA considered these titles equivalent to a Division II title.
No sport currently uses this format.
Player eligibility
To participate in college athletics in their freshman year, the NCAA requires that students meet three criteria: having graduated from high school, be completing the minimum required academic courses, and having qualifying grade-point average (GPA).
The 16 academic credits are four courses in English, two courses in math, two classes in social science, two in natural or physical science, and one additional course in English, math, natural or physical science, or another academic course such as a foreign language.
To meet the Division I requirements for grade point average, the lowest possible high school GPA a student may have to be eligible with to play in their freshman year is a 2.30 (2.20 for Division II or III), but they are allowed to play beginning in their second year with a GPA of 2.00.
[Hishinuma and Fremstad, 589–591]
As of the 2017–18 school year, a high school student may sign a
letter of intent
A letter of intent (LOI or LoI, or Letter of Intent) is a document outlining the understanding between two or more parties which they intend to formalize in a contract, legally binding agreement. The concept is similar to a Heads of agreement ( ...
to enter and play football for a Division I or Division II college in either of two periods. The first, introduced in 2017–18, is a three-day period in mid-December, coinciding with the first three days of the previously existing signing period for junior college players. The second period, which before 2017 was the only one allowed for signings of high school players, starts on the first Wednesday in February. In August 2011, the NCAA announced plans to raise academic requirements for postseason competition, including its two most prominent competitions, football's now-defunct
Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...
(replaced in 2014 by the
College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...
) and the
Division I men's basketball tournament; the new requirement, which are based on an "
Academic Progress Rate The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a measure introduced by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the nonprofit association that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, to tr ...
" (APR) that measures retention and graduation rates, and is calculated on a four-year, rolling basis.
The changes raise the rate from 900 to 930, which represents a 50% graduation rate.
Student-athletes can accept prize money from tournaments or competitions if they do not exceed the total expenses from the event. For example, during high school, D1 tennis players may take up to $10,000 in total prize money. If the student surpassed the amount of $10,000 of prize money in a calendar year, they would lose eligibility.
Students are generally allowed to compete athletically for four years. Athletes are allowed to sit out a year while still attending school but not lose a year of eligibility by
redshirting. In other words, a student has five years from the time they begin college to play four seasons.
NCAA sponsored sports
The NCAA currently awards 90 national championships yearly – 46 women's, 41 men's, and 3 coed championships for fencing, rifle, and skiing. Sports sanctioned by the NCAA include the following:
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
,
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
(men),
beach volleyball
Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...
(women),
softball
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
(women),
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
(men),
cross country,
field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...
(women),
bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
(women),
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
,
fencing
Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...
(coeducational),
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
,
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
,
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...
,
rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...
(women),
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
,
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
,
water polo
Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...
,
rifle
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...
(coeducational),
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
,
skiing
Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IO ...
(coeducational),
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
,
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
and
diving
Diving most often refers to:
* Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water
* Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes
Diving or Dive may also refer to:
Sports
* Dive (American football), a ...
, and
wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
(men). The newest sport to be officially sanctioned is beach volleyball, which held its
first championship
The FIRST Championship is a four-day robotics championship held annually in April at which FIRST student robotics teams compete. For several years, the event was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to the Edward Jones Dome in ...
in spring 2016. The NCAA had called the sport "sand volleyball" until June 23, 2015, when it announced that it would use the internationally recognized name of "beach volleyball".
The Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I determines its own champion separately from the NCAA via the
College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...
; this is not an official NCAA championship (see below).
The NCAA awards championships in the sports listed below. For the three coeducational championships, women's dates reflect the first championship that was open to women.
* In addition to the sports above, the NCAA sanctioned a
boxing championship from 1932 to 1960. The NCAA discontinued boxing following declines in the sport during the 1950s and following the death of a boxer at the 1960 NCAA tournament.
* The NCAA also formerly sanctioned a trampoline championship. Prior to 1969, it was one of the events in the men's gymnastics championship, but it was given its own championship in 1969 and 1970 before being dropped completely.
The number of teams (school programs) that compete in each sport in their respective division as of the 2019–2020 season are as follows:
Men's programs
Women's programs
Notes:
Emerging sports for women
In addition to the above sports, the NCAA recognizes Emerging Sports for Women. These sports have scholarship limitations for each sport, but do not currently have officially sanctioned NCAA championships. A member institution may use these sports to meet the required level of sports sponsorship for its division. An "Emerging Sport" must gain championship status (minimum 40 varsity programs for team sports, except 28 for Division III) within 10 years, or show steady progress toward that goal to remain on the list. Until then, it is under the auspices of the NCAA and its respective institutions. Emerging Sport status allows for competition to include club teams to satisfy the minimum number of competitions bylaw established by the NCAA.
The five sports currently designated as Emerging Sports for Women are:
*
Acrobatics
Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro ...
&
tumbling
*
Equestrian
The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse".
Horseback riding (or Riding in British English)
Examples of this are:
* Equestrian sports
*Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...
*
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
*
Triathlon
A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the t ...
*
Wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
Sports added and dropped
The popularity of each of these sports programs has changed over time. Between 1988–89 and 2010–11, NCAA schools had net additions of 510 men's teams and 2,703 women's teams.
The following tables show the changes over time in the number of NCAA schools across all three divisions combined sponsoring each of the men's and women's team sports.
Men's sports
The men's sports with the biggest net gains during the 1988/89 to 2010/11 period were indoor track and field, lacrosse, and cross country (each with more than 100 net gains). The men's sports with the biggest losses were wrestling (−104 teams), tennis, and rifle; the men's team sport with the most net losses was water polo.
Other reports show that 355 college wrestling programs have been eliminated since 2000; 212 men's gymnastics programs have been eliminated since 1969 with only 17 programs remaining as of 2013.
Additionally, eight NCAA sports—all men's sports—were sponsored by fewer Division I schools in 2020 than in 1990, despite the D-I membership having increased by nearly 60 schools during that period. Four of these sports, namely wrestling, swimming & diving, gymnastics, and tennis, lost more than 20 net teams during that timeframe. As a proportion of D-I membership, men's tennis took the greatest hit; 71.5% of D-I members had men's tennis in 2020, compared to 93.2% in 1990.
The following table lists the men's individual DI sports with at least 5,000 participating athletes. Sports are ranked by number of athletes.
Women's sports
The women's sports with the biggest net gains during the 1988–89 to 2010–11 period were soccer (+599 teams), golf, and indoor track and field; no women's sports programs experienced double-digit net losses.
The following table lists the women's individual NCAA sports with at least 1,000 participating athletes. Sports are ranked by number of athletes.
* Equestrian was not a women's varsity sport in 1982 and the NCAA report does not include the number of teams for that year. Equestrian is first listed in the NCAA report in 1988–89 with 41 teams, and so the number of teams for that season is listed in the table above.
Championships
Trophies
For every NCAA sanctioned sport other than Division I FBS football, the NCAA awards trophies with gold, silver, and bronze plating for the first-, second-, and third-place teams respectively. In the case of the NCAA basketball tournaments, both semifinalists who did not make the championship game receive bronze plated trophies for third place (prior to 1982 the teams played a "consolation" game to determine third place). Similar trophies are awarded to both semifinalists in the NCAA football tournaments (which are conducted in Division I FCS and both lower divisions), which have never had a third-place game. Winning teams maintain permanent possession of these trophies unless it is later found that they were won via serious rules violations.
Starting with the 2001–02 season, and again in the 2007–08 season, the trophies were changed. Starting in the 2006 basketball season, teams that make the Final Four in the Division I tournament receive bronze-plated "regional championship" trophies upon winning their Regional Championship which state the region they won and have the Final Four logo. The teams that make the National Championship game receive an additional trophy that is gold-plated for the winner. Starting in the mid-1990s, the National Champions in men's and women's basketball receive an elaborate trophy with a black marble base and crystal "neck" with a removable crystal basketball following the presentation of the standard NCAA Championship trophy.
As of May 30, 2022,
Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
,
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, and
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
(USC) have the most NCAA championships. Stanford has won 131 and UCLA has won 119 NCAA team championships in men's and women's sports, while USC is third with 111.
Football Bowl Subdivision
The NCAA has never sanctioned an official championship for its highest level of football, now known as
Division I FBS
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A ...
. Instead, several outside bodies award their own titles. The NCAA does not hold a championship tournament or game for Division I FBS football. In the past, teams that placed first in any of a number of season-ending media polls, most notable the
AP Poll
The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...
of writers and the
Coaches Poll
The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...
, were said to have won the "
national championship
A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...
".
Starting in 2014, the
College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...
– a consortium of the conferences and
independent schools
An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...
that compete in Division I FBS and six
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...
s – has arranged to place the top four teams (based on a thirteen-member committee that selects and seeds the teams) into two semifinal games, with the winners advancing to compete in the
College Football Playoff National Championship
The College Football Playoff National Championship is a post-season college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which began play in the 2014 college football season. ...
, which is not officially sanctioned or recognized by the NCAA. The winner of the game receives a trophy; since the NCAA awards no national championship for Division I FBS football, this trophy does not denote ''NCAA'' as other NCAA college sports national championship trophies do.
Conferences
The NCAA is divided into three levels of conferences,
Division I,
Division II, and
Division III
In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below.
Association football
*Belgian Thir ...
, organized in declining program size, as well as numerous sub-divisions. Most schools belong to a primary "multisport conference" for most of their sports. A schools may also belong to another conference for a particular sport.
The Division I, Division II, and Division III "Independents" listed below are not conferences per se; it is a designation used for schools that do not belong to a conference for a particular sport. These schools may still have conference memberships for other sports. For example,
Notre Dame primarily belongs to the
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
for most sports, but its ice hockey team competes in the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
and its football team is an independent.
Division I
Among the NCAA regulations, each Division I conference defined as "multisport conference" must have at least seven active Division I member institutions. These conferences must sponsor at least 12 sports, including six sports for men and six for women. At least seven active members in a multisport conference must sponsor both men's and women's basketball. For non-football conferences, they must sponsor at least two men's team sports other than basketball. Teams that consist of both men and women are counted as men's teams for sports sponsorship purposes.
For all institutions in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, they have additional requirements. Among them, they must participate in conference play in at least six men's and eight women's sports, including football, men's and women's basketball, and at least two other women's team sports.
;Notes
:* FBS conferences in football are denoted with an asterisk (*)
:* FCS conferences in football are denoted with two asterisks (**)
:* Conferences that do not sponsor football or basketball are in ''italics''
*
American Athletic Conference
The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...
(The American) *
*
America East Conference
The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States.
The conference has nine core members including eight public research u ...
*
ASUN Conference
The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisio ...
**
*
Atlantic 10 Conference
The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...
(A-10)
*
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
(ACC) *
*
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...
(Big 12) *
*
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...
*
Big Sky Conference
The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...
**
*
Big South Conference
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...
**
*
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
(Big Ten or B1G) *
*
Big West Conference
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...
* ''
Coastal Collegiate Sports Association
The Coastal Collegiate Sports Association is an NCAA Division I college athletic conference.
Established in 2008, the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) was originally developed by four regional Division I conferences — the ASU ...
'' (CCSA)
*
Colonial Athletic Association
The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universi ...
(CAA) **
*
Conference USA
Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...
(C-USA) *
*
Horizon League
The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region.
The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...
*
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
**
*
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Of its current 11 full members, 10 are located in three states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, New Jersey, and N ...
(MAAC)
*
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...
(MAC) *
*
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...
(MEAC) **
*
Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest.
History
The MVC was established ...
(MVC)
* ''
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it now has members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I ...
'' (MPSF)
*
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...
(MW) *
*
Northeast Conference
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...
(NEC) **
*
Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern and Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It participates in NCAA Divisi ...
(OVC) **
*
Pac-12 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
(Pac-12) *
*
Patriot League
The Patriot League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Outside the Ivy League, it is among the most selective gr ...
**
*
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...
(SEC) *
*
Southern Conference
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly ...
(SoCon) **
*
Southland Conference
The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it pa ...
**
*
Southwestern Athletic Conference
The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...
(SWAC) **
*
The Summit League
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
(The Summit)
*
Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...
(SBC) *
*
West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...
(WCC)
*
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...
(WAC) **
*
NCAA Division I Independents
Division I FCS football-only conferences
*
Missouri Valley Football Conference
The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivis ...
*
Pioneer Football League
The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a football-only conference. It has member s ...
Division I hockey-only conferences
Division I ice hockey has a different conference structure than the above multisport conferences. These schools have memberships in other conferences for other sports.
;Men only
*
Atlantic Hockey
The Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) is an NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey conference which operates primarily in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as an ice hockey-only conference. Unlike several other c ...
*
Central Collegiate Hockey Association
The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a college athletic conference that participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The current CCHA began play in the 2021–22 season; a previous incarnation, which the curre ...
(CCHA) – revived in 2021; previously operated from 1971–2013
*
National Collegiate Hockey Conference
The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) is an NCAA men's Division I hockey conference formed on July 9, 2011. The league began playing for the 2013–14 season, the same season that the Big Ten Conference began competition, as a combina ...
(NCHC)
;Women only
*
College Hockey America
College Hockey America (CHA) is a college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The conference is made up of five women’s teams, with two in Pennsylvania; two in New Y ...
*
New England Women's Hockey Alliance
The New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) is a women's college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. As of the current 2022–23 season, the conference is made up o ...
(NEWHA)
*
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...
(WCHA)
;Men and women
*
ECAC Hockey
ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relati ...
*
Hockey East
The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.
Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...
Division II
Among the NCAA regulations, Division II institutions must sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women (or four for men and six for women), with two team sports for each sex, and each playing season represented by each sex. Teams that consist of both men and women are counted as men's teams for sports sponsorship purposes.
*
California Collegiate Athletic Association
The California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. All of its current members are public universities, and upon UC ...
(CCAA)
*
Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (or CACC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Its fourteen member institutions are located in the northeastern ...
(CACC)
*
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. CIAA institutions mostly consist of historically black coll ...
(CIAA)
*
Conference Carolinas
Conference Carolinas, formerly known as the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference (CVAC) or the Carolinas Conference, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) primarily at the Divisio ...
(CC)
*
East Coast Conference
The East Coast Conference (ECC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of C ...
(ECC)
*
Great American Conference
The Great American Conference (GAC) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level, with headquarters located in Russellvill ...
(GAC)
*
Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) is a competitive List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level.
...
(GLIAC)
*
Great Lakes Valley Conference
The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level. Its thirteen member institutions a ...
(GLVC)
*
Great Midwest Athletic Conference
The Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. It was named the 24th (at the time) NCAA Division II conference and oper ...
(G-MAC)
*
Great Northwest Athletic Conference
The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. It has historically operated in the northwestern United States, but al ...
(GNAC)
*
Gulf South Conference
The Gulf South Conference (GSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the Southeastern United States.
History
Originally known as the Mid ...
(GSC)
*
Lone Star Conference
The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the southwestern United States, with schools in Tex ...
(LSC)
*
Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association
The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level, headquartered ...
(MIAA)
*
Mountain East Conference
The Mountain East Conference (MEC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level and officially began competition on September 1, 2013. It consists of 12 schools, mo ...
(MEC)
*
Northeast-10 Conference
The Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of ...
(NE-10)
*
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the western Midwestern United States. Nine of its ...
(NSIC)
*
Pacific West Conference
The Pacific West Conference (also known as the PacWest) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in California and Hawaii.
Th ...
(PacWest)
*
Peach Belt Conference
The Peach Belt Conference (PBC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. The 11 member institutions are located in the South Atlantic states of South Carolina ...
(PBC)
*
Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. The conference was originally formed in 1951 as the State Teachers C ...
(PSAC)
*
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...
(RMAC)
*
South Atlantic Conference
The South Atlantic Conference (SAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the southeastern United States. The SAC was founded in 1975 as a ...
(SAC)
*
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Formed in 1913, it consists mostly of historically black co ...
(SIAC)
*
Sunshine State Conference (SSC)
*
NCAA Division II Independents
Division III
Unlike the other two divisions, Division III institutions cannot offer athletic scholarships. Among the other NCAA Division III requirements, all institutions, regardless of enrollment, must sponsor at least three team sports for each sex/gender, and each playing season represented by each sex/gender. Furthermore, a sports sponsorship rule unique to Division III is that the total number of sports that must be sponsored differs by a school's full-time undergraduate enrollment: schools with an enrollment of 1,000 or fewer must sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women; those with larger enrollments must sponsor six men's and six women's sports. As in the other divisions, teams that include both men and women are treated as men's sports for the purpose of these regulations.
*
Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference
The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of New York and Pennsylvania. ...
(AMCC)
*
American Rivers Conference
The American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) is an NCAA Division III athletic conference. From 1927 until August 9, 2018, it was known officially as the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) and commonly as the Iowa Conference.
History
The A ...
(ARC)
*
American Southwest Conference
The American Southwest Conference (ASC) is a college athletic conference, founded in 1996, whose member schools compete in the NCAA's Division III. The schools are located in Texas and Arkansas. The conference competes in baseball, men's and wome ...
(ASC)
*
Atlantic East Conference
The Atlantic East Conference is an NCAA Division III collegiate athletic conference in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
History
Beginning play in July 2018, the league consists of seven private universities, each former members o ...
(AEC)
*
Centennial Conference
The Centennial Conference is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member teams are located in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Eleven private colleges compose the Centennial Conference. Five of ten members of the Centenn ...
(Centennial)
*
City University of New York Athletic Conference
The City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNY Athletic Conference or CUNYAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Its member institutions are all located in New York City and are campuses o ...
(CUNYAC)
*
Coast to Coast Athletic Conference (C2C)
*
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) is a college athletic conference which competes in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
CCIW schools have accounted for 50 national championships i ...
(CCIW)
*
Collegiate Conference of the South
The Collegiate Conference of the South (CCS) is an athletic conference which competes in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Member schools are located in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and K ...
(CCS)
*
Colonial States Athletic Conference
The Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) is an NCAA Division III collegiate athletic conference in the Mid-Atlantic United States. There are currently nine full member institutions as of 2018. The conference's membership, as with most Midd ...
(CSAC)
*
Commonwealth Coast Conference
The Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA’s Division III. Member institutions are located in New England in the states of Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, with a Connectic ...
(CCC)
** CCC fully absorbed
Commonwealth Coast Football
Commonwealth Coast Football (CCC Football) was a single-sport athletic conference that competed in football in the NCAA's Division III. It began play as CCC Football in 2017 after the New England Football Conference (NEFC) was renamed following t ...
, previously a CCC-administered but technically separate football-only league, in 2022. The football league was originally the New England Football Conference before being taken over by CCC in 2017.
*
Empire 8
The Empire 8 (E8) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. The E8 sponsors intercollegiate athletic competition in men's baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, women's fi ...
(E8)
*
Great Northeast Athletic Conference
The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III.
History Chronological timeline
* 1995 - In 1995, the Great Northeast Athletic Co ...
(GNAC)
*
Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference
The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Founded as the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Confer ...
(HCAC)
*
Landmark Conference
The Landmark Conference is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the eastern United States in the states of Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, plus Washington, D.C.
...
(Landmark)
*
Liberty League
The Liberty League is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. Member schools are top institutions that are all located in the state of New York.
History
It was founded ...
(Liberty)
*
Little East Conference
The Little East Conference (LEC) is an NCAA Division III intercollegiate athletic conference. The member institutions are located in all six states of New England.
History Chronological timeline
* 1986 - On April 28, 1986, the Little East Conf ...
(LEC)
*
Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference
The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Full member institutions are all located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with some affiliate m ...
(MASCAC)
*
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) is an athletic conference that competes in the NCAA's Division III. There are nine teams in the conference, all located in the states of Michigan and Indiana. The Michigan Intercollegiate A ...
(MIAA)
*
Middle Atlantic Conferences
The Middle Atlantic Conferences (MAC) is an umbrella organization of three college athletic conference, athletic conferences that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division III, Division III. The 18 member colle ...
(MAC) – An umbrella organization of the following three conferences:
**
MAC Commonwealth
The MAC Commonwealth, in full Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth, is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. It is one of the three conferences that operate under the umbrella of the Middle Atlantic Conf ...
, sponsoring competition in 14 sports, but not football
**
MAC Freedom
The MAC Freedom, in full Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom, is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. It is one of the three conferences that operate under the umbrella of the Middle Atlantic Conferences; t ...
, sponsoring competition in the same set of 14 sports
** Middle Atlantic Conference, sponsoring 13 sports, including football
*
Midwest Conference
The Midwest Conference (MWC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Midwestern United States in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Midwest Conference was c ...
(Midwest or MWC)
*
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) is a college athletic conference which competes in NCAA Division III. All 13 of the member schools are located in Minnesota and are private institutions, with only two being non-sectarian.
...
(MIAC)
*
New England Collegiate Conference
The New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) is an NCAA Division III college athletic conference based in the Northeastern United States.
History
In June 2007, nine colleges from New England announced the creation of a new athletic conference ...
(NECC)
*
New England Small College Athletic Conference
The New England Small Collegiate Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising sports teams from eleven highly selective Liberal arts education, liberal arts institutions of high ...
(NESCAC)
*
New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference
The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of Connecticut and M ...
(NEWMAC)
*
New Jersey Athletic Conference
The New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC), formerly the New Jersey State Athletic Conference, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. All of its full members are public universities in New Jersey. Affiliate members ...
(NJAC)
*
North Atlantic Conference
The North Atlantic Conference (NAC) is an athletic conference, affiliated with the NCAA ’s Division III, consisting primarily of small liberal arts colleges in the Northern New England states of Maine and Vermont, as well as New York.
The conf ...
(NAC)
*
North Coast Athletic Conference
The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) is an NCAA Division III athletic conference composed of colleges located in Ohio and Indiana. When founded in 1984, the league was a pioneer in gender equality, offering competition in a then-unprecede ...
(NCAC)
*
Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference
The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), formerly the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC), is a college athletic conference. It participates in the NCAA's Division III and began its first season in the fall of 2006.
The NACC sponsors ...
(NACC)
*
Northwest Conference
The Northwest Conference (NWC) is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member teams are located in the states of Oregon and Washington. It was known as the Pacific Northwest Conference from 1926 to 1984.
History
...
(NWC)
*
Ohio Athletic Conference
The Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) was formed in 1902 and is the third oldest athletic conference in the United States. Its current commissioner is Sarah Otey. Former commissioners include Mike Cleary, who was the first General Manager of a profe ...
(OAC)
*
Old Dominion Athletic Conference
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) is an NCAA Division III athletic conference. Of its 15 member schools, all but one are located in Virginia; the other full member is in North Carolina. The conference also has an associate member in Nort ...
(ODAC)
*
Presidents' Athletic Conference
The Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Of its 11 current member schools, all private, liberal arts institutions of higher learning, nine are located in Western Pennsylvania. T ...
(PAC)
*
Skyline Conference
The Skyline Conference is a college athletic conference based in the New York City area that competes in the NCAA's Division III.
The league was originally chartered on May 16, 1989, as a men's basketball conference and now sponsors 17 sports (ni ...
(Skyline)
*
Southern Athletic Association
The Southern Athletic Association (SAA) is a college athletic conference in NCAA Division III that began play in the 2012–13 school year. It was formed in 2011 by seven former members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and indepe ...
(SAA)
*
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is a college athletic conference that operates in the NCAA's Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are located in ...
(SCIAC)
*
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), founded in 1962, is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas. Difficulties related to travel distanc ...
(SCAC)
*
State University of New York Athletic Conference
The State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) is an NCAA Division III athletics conference consisting of schools in the State University of New York system. It was chartered in 1958 as the New York State Intercollegiate Athletic Co ...
(SUNYAC)
*
St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC)
*
United East Conference
The United East Conference (UEC), formerly known as the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC), is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Mid-Atlantic region of th ...
*
University Athletic Association
The University Athletic Association (UAA) is an American athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division III. Member schools are highly selective universities located in Georgia, Illinois, M ...
(UAA)
*
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference
The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) is a college-level athletic conference. The UMAC is a conference of NCAA Division III since the 2008–09 season. Prior to that, it was a non scholarship conference affiliated with National Associatio ...
(UMAC)
*
USA South Athletic Conference
The USA South Athletic Conference (formerly the Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference or the Dixie Conference) is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member schools are located in North Carolina and Virginia.
H ...
(USA South)
*
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) is a college athletic conference that competes in the NCAA's Division III. In women's gymnastics, it competes alongside Division I and II members, as the NCAA sponsors a single championsh ...
(WIAC)
*
NCAA Division III Independents
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athlete, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic sports, ...
Division III football-only conferences
*
Eastern Collegiate Football Conference
The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference is a football-only intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Founded in 2009, it combines six schools spread across the states of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York ...
(ECFC)
Other Division III single-sport conferences
*
Continental Volleyball Conference
The Continental Volleyball Conference is an intercollegiate men's volleyball conference associated with the NCAA's Division III.
History
On April 4, 2011 Gary Williams, Associate Athletic Director of Carthage College announced in Milwaukee the fo ...
(CVC) – men's volleyball
*
ECAC East
New England Hockey Conference (formerly the ECAC East) is a college athletic conference which operates in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference.
__TOC__
History
The New England Ho ...
– men's and women's ice hockey
*
ECAC Northeast
The ECAC Northeast was an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference. For many years it was one of the three men's hockey conferences that operated under the umbrella of the Eastern Col ...
– men's ice hockey
*
ECAC West
ECAC West was a college athletic conference which operated in the northeastern United States until 2017. It participated in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference. The conference ceased to exist after the end of the 2016–17 season wh ...
– men's and women's ice hockey
*
Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League
The Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) is an intercollegiate men's volleyball conference associated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division III, Division III.
History
The MCVL was founded in March 2014 by a ...
(MCVL) – men's volleyball
*
Midwest Lacrosse Conference
The Midwest Lacrosse Conference (MLC) is a men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III lacrosse-only college athletic conference composed of schools located in the Midwestern United States. All schools are members of confe ...
(MLC) – men's lacrosse
*
Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference
The Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference (MWLC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III women's lacrosse-only college athletic conference composed of schools located in the Midwestern United States. All schools are membe ...
(MWLC) – women's lacrosse
*
Northern Collegiate Hockey Association
The Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in the midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-onl ...
(NCHA) – men's and women's ice hockey
*
Ohio River Lacrosse Conference The Ohio River Lacrosse Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAA Division III, Division III men's and women's lacrosse National Collegiate Athletic Association#Conferences, conference located primarily in the midwestern United ...
(ORLC) – men's and women's lacrosse
*
United Collegiate Hockey Conference
The United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) is a college athletic conference which operates in Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania in the eastern United States. It participates in NCAA Division III as a hockey-only conference.
The confer ...
(UCHC) – men's and women's ice hockey
*
United Volleyball Conference
The United Volleyball Conference is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III men's volleyball conference located in the northeastern United States. Formed in August 2010 with play starting in January 2011, the conference operates ou ...
(UVC) – men's volleyball
Media
The NCAA has current media rights contracts with
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...
,
CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known as ...
,
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
,
ESPN Plus
ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, in partnership with ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Compa ...
,
Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS (American TV ch ...
and the Golf Channel for coverage of its 88 championships. According to the official NCAA website, ESPN and its associated networks have rights to 21 championships, CBS to 65, Turner Sports to one and
NBC's
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
Golf Channel
Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply Golf) is an American sports television television network, network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently ...
to two. The following are the most prominent championships and rights holders:
* CBS: Men's basketball (
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...
,
with Turner Sports, and NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament), track and field, ice hockey (women's division I), golf (Divisions II and III, both genders)
* ESPN: Women's basketball (all divisions), baseball, softball, ice hockey (men's Division I), football (all divisions including Div. I FCS), soccer (Division I for both genders)
* Turner Sports: NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament with CBS
*NBC and Golf Channel: golf (Division I, both genders)
WestwoodOne has exclusive radio rights to the men's and women's basketball Final Fours to the
Men's College World Series (baseball).
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
has an exclusive package expanding CBS' coverage of the men's basketball tournament.
From 1998 to 2013,
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
had a license to develop college sports video games with the NCAA's branding, which included its ''
NCAA Football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most o ...
'', ''
NCAA Basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athle ...
'' (formerly ''NCAA March Madness'') and ''
MVP Baseball'' series. The NCAA's licensing was not required to produce the games, as rights to use teams are not licensed through the NCAA, but through entities such as individual schools and the
Collegiate Licensing Company
The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) is an American collegiate trademark licensing and marketing company. Founded in 1981 by Bill Battle in Selma, Alabama, CLC is the largest and oldest collegiate licensing company in the United States and curr ...
. EA only acquired the license so that it could officially incorporate the Division I men's basketball tournament into its college basketball game series. The NCAA withdrew EA's license due to uncertainties surrounding a series of lawsuits, most notably ''
O'Bannon v. NCAA
''O'Bannon v. NCAA'', 802 F.3d 1049 (9th Cir. 2015) was an United States antitrust law, antitrust class action lawsuit filed against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The lawsuit, which former UCLA Bruins men's basketball, UCL ...
'', involving the use of player likenesses in college sports video games.
Office of Inclusion
Inclusion and Diversity Campaign
The week-long program took place October 1–5, 2018. The aim was to utilize social media platforms in order to promote diversity and inclusion within intercollegiate athletics. Throughout the NCAA's history, there has been controversy as to the levels of diversity present within intercollegiate athletics, and this campaign is the NCAA's most straightforward approach to combatting these issues.
NCAA Inclusion Statement
As a core value, the NCAA believes in and is committed to diversity, inclusion and gender equity among its student-athletes, coaches and administrators. It seeks to establish and maintain an inclusive culture that fosters equitable participation for student-athletes and career opportunities for coaches and administrators from diverse backgrounds. Diversity and inclusion improve the learning environment for all student-athletes and enhance excellence within the Association.
The Office of Inclusion will provide or enable programming and education, which sustains foundations of a diverse and inclusive culture across dimensions of diversity including but not limited to age, race, sex, class, national origin, creed, educational background, religion, gender identity, disability, gender expression, geographical location, income, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation and work experiences.
This statement was adopted by the NCAA Executive Committee in April 2010, and amended by the NCAA Board of Governors in April 2017.
Gender equity and Title IX
While no concrete criteria are given as to a state of
gender equity
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...
on campuses, an athletics program is considered gender equitable when both women's and men's sports programs reach a consensus.
The basis of
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
, when amended in 1972 to the
1964 Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requir ...
, criminalized discrimination on the basis of sex. This plays into intercollegiate athletics in that it helps to maintain gender equity and inclusion in intercollegiate athletics. The NCAA provides many resources to provide information and enforce this amendment.
The NCAA has kept these core values central to its decisions regarding the allocation of championship bids. In April 2016, the Board of Governors announced new requirements for host cities that include protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity for all people involved in the event. This decision was prompted by several states passing laws that permit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in accordance with religious beliefs.
LGBTQ
The
LGBTQ
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
community has been under scrutiny and controversy in the public eye of collegiate athletics, but the NCAA moves to support the inclusion of these groups. The NCAA provides many resources concerning the education of the college community on this topic and policies in order to foster diversity.
Title IX protects the
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
community within intercollegiate athletics and on college campuses.
On January 19, 2022, the NCAA approved a new policy for transgender athletes, effective immediately, and this replaced their previous policy, which was in place since 2011. Now, the participation of transgender athletes in a particular sport is generally to be governed by the rules of the sport’s national governing body, international federation policy, or IOC policy criteria (though an NCAA committee may provide its own recommendation). This action prompted immediate critique from LGBTQ advocates, including
Athlete Ally
Athlete Ally is a nonprofit LGBTQ athletic advocacy group based in the United States. They focus on making athletic communities more inclusive and less discriminatory and helping athletes to advocate for LGBTQ equality.
History
As an athlete i ...
and former NCAA LGBTQ OneTeam facilitator Dorian Rhea Debussy.
Previously, the NCAA used
testosterone
Testosterone is the primary sex hormone and anabolic steroid in males. In humans, testosterone plays a key role in the development of Male reproductive system, male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate, as well as promoting secondar ...
levels to qualify transgender athletes for participation. A transgender male student-athlete was not allowed to compete on a male sports team unless they had undergone medical treatment of testosterone for gender transition, and a transgender female student-athlete was not allowed to compete on a women's sports team until completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment. Under this policy, transgender males were ineligible to compete on a women's team, and transgender females were ineligible to compete on a men's team, without changing the team's status to be a mixed team. In December 2021, John Lohn, the editor-in-chief of
Swimming World
''Swimming World'' is a US-based monthly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'', (known ...
, criticised NCAA policy; writing about transgender swimmer
Lia Thomas
Lia Catherine Thomas (born ) is an American swimmer. In 2017, she began studying at the University of Pennsylvania, from which she graduated in May 2022. She competed on the university's men's swim team from 2017 to 2020, and on its women's swi ...
, he argued that the "one-year suppressant requirement is not nearly stringent enough to create a level playing field between Thomas and the biological females against whom she is racing".
In 2010, the NCAA Executive Committee announced its support and commitment to diversity, inclusion, and gender equality among its student-athletes, coaches, and administrators. The statement included the NCAA's commitment to ensuring that all students have equal opportunities to achieve their academic goals, and coaches and administrators have equal opportunities for career development in a climate of respect.
In 2012, the LGBTQ Subcommittee of the NCAA association-wide Committee on Women's Athletics and the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee commissioned ''Champions of Respect,'' a document that provides resources and advocacy that promotes inclusion and equality for LGBTQ student-athletes, coaches, administrators and all others associated with intercollegiate athletics''.'' This resource uses guides from the
Women's Sports Foundation
The Women's Sports Foundation (WSF) is a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit charity focused on female involvement in sports. Founded in 1974 by tennis player Billie Jean King and initially supported by Olympic athletes Donna de Varona and Suzy Chaf ...
It Takes a Team! project for addressing issues related to LGBTQ equality in intercollegiate athletics. The document provides information on specific issues LGBTQ sportspeople face, similarities and differences of these issues on women's and men's teams, policy recommendations and best practices, and legal resources and court cases.
The NCAA expressed concern over Indiana's
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-141, 107 Stat. 1488 (November 16, 1993), codified at through (also known as RFRA, pronounced "rifra"), is a 1993 United States federal law that "ensures that interests in religiou ...
that allows businesses to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation. This bill was proposed just before Indianapolis was set to host the 2015 Men's Basketball Final Four tournament. The bill clashed with the NCAA core values of inclusion and equality, and forced the NCAA to consider moving events out of Indiana. Under pressure from across the nation and fearing the economic loss of being banned from hosting NCAA events, the governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, revised the bill so that businesses could not discriminate based on sexual orientation, race, religion, or disability. The NCAA accepted the revised bill and continues to host events in Indiana. The bill was enacted into law on July 1, 2015.
On September 12, 2016, the NCAA announced that it would pull all seven planned championship events out of North Carolina for the 2016–2017 academic year.
This decision was a response to the state passing the
Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act (H.B. 2) on March 23, 2016. This law requires people to use public restrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth and stops cities from passing laws that protect against discrimination towards gay and transgender people. The NCAA Board of Governors determined that this law would make ensuring an inclusive atmosphere in the host communities challenging, and relocating these championship events best reflects the association's commitment to maintaining an environment that is consistent with its core values.
North Carolina has lost the opportunity to host the 2018 Final Four Tournament which was scheduled to be in Charlotte, but is relocated to San Antonio. If H.B. 2 is not repealed, North Carolina could be barred from bidding for events from 2019 to 2022.
Race and ethnicity
Racial/Ethnic minority groups in the NCAA are protected by inclusion and diversity policies put in place to increase sensitivity and awareness to the issues and challenges faced across intercollegiate athletics. The NCAA provides a demographics database that can be openly viewed by the public.
Historically, the NCAA has used its authority in deciding on host cities to promote its core values. The Association also prohibits championship events in states that display the Confederate flag, and at member schools that have abusive or offensive nicknames or mascots based on Native American imagery. Board members wish to ensure that anyone associated with an NCAA championship event will be treated with fairness and respect.
Student-athletes with disabilities
The NCAA defines a disability as a current impairment that has a substantial educational impact on a student's academic performance and requires accommodation. Student-Athletes with disabilities are given education accommodations along with an adapted sports model. The NCAA hosts adapted sports championships for both track and field and swimming and diving as of 2015.
International student athletes
Over the last two decades recruiting international athletes has become a growing trend among NCAA institutions. For example, most German athletes outside of Germany are based at US universities. For many European athletes, the American universities are the only option to pursue an academic and athletic career at the same time. Many of these students come to the US with high academic expectations and aspirations.
College team name changes
As of 2018, there has been a continuation of changing school mascots that are said by some to be based on racist or offensive stereotypes. Universities under NCAA policy are under scrutiny for specifically Native American-inspired mascots. While many colleges have changed their mascots, some have gotten legal permission from the tribe represented and will continue to bear the mascot. This
Native American mascot controversy
Since the 1960s, the issue of Native American and First Nations names and images being used by sports teams as mascots has been the subject of increasing public controversy in the United States and Canada. This has been a period of rising I ...
has not been completely settled; however, many issues have been resolved.
Here is a list of notable colleges that changed Native American mascots and/or nicknames in recent history:
* Stanford – Indians to Cardinals (1972); became Cardinal in 1981
* UMass – Redmen and Redwomen to Minutemen and Minutewomen (1972)
* Dartmouth – Indians to Big Green (1974)
* Siena – Indians to Saints (1988)
* Eastern Michigan – Hurons to Eagles (1991)
* St. John's (NY) – Redmen to Red Storm (1994)
* Marquette – Warriors to Golden Eagles (1994)
* Chattanooga – Moccasins to Mocs, suggestive of mockingbirds (1996)
* Miami (OH) – Redskins to RedHawks (1997)
* Seattle – Chieftains to Redhawks (2000)
*Colgate - Red Raiders to Raiders (2001)
*Quinnipiac - Braves to Bobcats (2002)
* Southeast Missouri State – Indians (men) and Otahkians (women) to Redhawks (2005)
* Louisiana–Monroe – Indians to Warhawks (2006)
* Arkansas State – Indians to Red Wolves (2008)
* North Dakota – Formally dropped Fighting Sioux in 2012; adopted Fighting Hawks in 2015
Others:
* Illinois – Removed Chief Illiniwek as official symbol in 2007. Athletics teams are still called Fighting Illini.
* Bradley, Alcorn State – Both schools stopped using Native American mascots but have retained their Braves nickname.
* William & Mary – Adjusted Tribe logo to remove feathers to comply with NCAA. Athletics teams are still called Tribe. (2007)
* Chattanooga – removed the mascot, Chief Moccanooga and the Moccasin Shoe imagery in 1996; Kept the term, "Mocs", but reassigned its representation to the official State Bird.
Of note: Utah (Utes), Central Michigan (Chippewas), Florida State (Seminoles) and Mississippi College (Choctaws) all appealed successfully to the NCAA after being deemed "hostile and offensive." Each cited positive relationships with neighboring tribes in appeal.
UNC Pembroke (Braves), an institution originally created to educate Native Americans and enjoying close ties to the local Lumbee tribe, was approved to continue the use of native-derived imagery without needing an appeal.
Rules violations
Member schools pledge to follow the rules promulgated by the NCAA. Creation of a mechanism to enforce the NCAA's legislation occurred in 1952 after careful consideration by the membership.
Allegations of rules violations are referred to the NCAA's enforcement staff, who monitor information about potential violations, investigate and process violations, provide notice of alleged violations, and bring cases before the NCAA's Committees on Infractions.
A preliminary investigation is initiated to determine if an official inquiry is warranted and to categorize any resultant violations as secondary or major. If several violations are found, the NCAA may determine that the school as a whole has exhibited a "lack of institutional control." The institution involved is notified promptly and may appear on its own behalf before the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
Findings of the Committee on Infractions and the resultant sanctions in major cases are reported to the institution. Sanctions will generally include having the institution placed on "probation" for a period of time, in addition to other penalties. The institution may appeal the findings or sanctions to an appeals committee. After considering written reports and oral presentations by representatives of the Committee on Infractions and the institution, the committee acts on the appeal. Action may include accepting the infractions committee's findings and penalty, altering either, or making its own findings and imposing an appropriate penalty.
In cases of particularly egregious misconduct, the NCAA has the power to ban a school from participating in a particular sport, a penalty known as the
"Death Penalty". Since 1985, any school that commits major violations during the probationary period can be banned from the sport involved for up to two years. However, when the NCAA opts not to issue a death penalty for a repeat violation, it must explain why it did not do so. This penalty has only been imposed three times in its modern form, most notably when
Southern Methodist University
, mottoeng = "The truth will make you free"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = SACS
, academic_affiliations =
, religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church
, president = R. Gerald Turner
, prov ...
's (SMU) football team had its 1987 season canceled due to
massive rules violations dating back more than a decade. SMU opted not to field a team in 1988 as well due to the aftershocks from the sanctions, and the program has never recovered. The Mustangs did not post a winning season until 1997, did not appear in their next bowl game until 2009, did not post consecutive winning seasons until 2011 and 2012, and did not return to the national rankings until 2019. The devastating effect the death penalty had on SMU has reportedly made the NCAA skittish about issuing another one. Since the SMU case, there are only three instances where the NCAA has seriously considered imposing it against a Division I school; it imposed it against Division II
Morehouse College
, mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made")
, type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college
, academic_affiliations ...
's men's soccer team in 2003 and Division III
MacMurray College
MacMurray College was a private college in Jacksonville, Illinois. Its enrollment in fall 2015 was 570. Founded in 1846, the college closed in May 2020.
History
Although founded in 1846 by a group of Methodist clergymen as the Illinois Confer ...
's men's tennis team in 2005. In addition to these cases, the most recent Division I school to be considered was Penn State. This was because of the
Jerry Sandusky Incident that consequently almost landed Penn State on the hook for the death penalty. They received a $60 million fine, in addition to forfeited seasons and other sanctions as well. The NCAA later reversed itself by restoring all forfeited seasons and overturning the remaining sanctions.
Additionally, in particularly egregious cases of rules violations, coaches, athletic directors, and athletic support staff can be barred from working for any NCAA member school without permission from the NCAA. This procedure is known as a "
show-cause penalty In the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a show-cause penalty is an administrative punishment ordering that any NCAA penalties imposed on a coach found to have committed major rules violations will stay in effect against that coach fo ...
" (not to be confused with an
order to show cause
An order to show cause is a type of court order that requires one or more of the parties to a case to justify, explain, or prove something to the court. Courts commonly use orders to show cause when the judge needs more information before deciding ...
in the legal sense).
Theoretically, a school can hire someone with a "show cause" on their record during the time the show cause order is in effect only with permission from the NCAA Infractions Committee. The school assumes the risks and stigma of hiring such a person. It may then end up being sanctioned by the NCAA and the Infractions Committee for their choice, possibly losing athletic scholarships, revenue from schools who would not want to compete with that other school, and the ability for their games to be televised, along with restrictions on recruitment and practicing times. As a result, a show-cause order essentially has the effect of
blackballing
Blackballing is a rejection in a traditional form of secret ballot, where a white ball or ballot constitutes a vote in support and a black ball signifies opposition. The system is typically used where an organization's rules provide that one or t ...
individuals from being hired for the duration of the order.
One of the most famous scandals in NCAA history involved
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...
-winning quarterback Cam Newton of the Auburn Tigers in 2011. As a direct effect of not being compensated for his college athletics, Cam Newton's family allegedly sought upwards of $100,000 for him to instead play at Mississippi State. This was revealed days before the conference SEC championship game; however, Cam Newton was later reinstated as there was insufficient evidence against him.
Sponsors
The NCAA has a two-tier sponsorship division. AT&T, Coca-Cola, and Capital One are NCAA Corporate Champions, all others are NCAA Corporate Partners.
Finances
As a governing body for amateur sports the NCAA is classified as a
tax-exempt
Tax exemption is the reduction or removal of a liability to make a compulsory payment that would otherwise be imposed by a ruling power upon persons, property, income, or transactions. Tax-exempt status may provide complete relief from taxes, redu ...
not-for-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organization. As such, it is not required to pay most taxes on income that for-profit private and public corporations are subject to. The NCAA's business model of prohibiting salaries for collegial athletes has been challenged in court, but a 2015 case was struck down.
As of 2014 the NCAA reported that it had over $600 million in unrestricted net assets in its annual report.
During 2014 the NCAA also reported almost a billion dollars of revenue, contributing to a "budget surplus" – revenues in excess of disbursements for that year – of over $80 million.
Over $700 million of that revenue total was from licensing TV rights to its sporting events.
In addition, the NCAA also earns money through investment growth of its endowment fund. Established in 2004 with $45 million, the fund has grown to over $380 million in 2014.
NCAA expenditures
According to the NCAA, it receives most of its annual revenue from two sources: Division I Men's Basketball television and marketing rights, and championships ticket sales. According to the NCAA, "that money is distributed in more than a dozen ways – almost all of which directly support NCAA schools, conferences and nearly half a million student-athletes."
[NCAA: Where does the money go?](_blank)
/ref>
In 2017 total NCAA revenues were in excess of $1.06 billion.[Sports Illustrated: NCAA Reports $1.1 Billion in Revenues](_blank)
/ref> Division I basketball television and marketing rights generated $821.4 million, and "championships ticket sales" totaled $129.4 million. Other "smaller streams of revenue, such as membership dues" contributed an unspecified amount.
Expenses by category
The NCAA provided a breakdown of how those revenues were in turn spent, organizing pay-outs and expenses into some 14 basic categories. By far the largest went to Sports Scholarship and Sponsorship Funds, funding for sports and student scholarships under the Division I Basketball Performance Fund, expenses incurred in producing Division I Championships (including team food, travel, and lodging), the Student Assistance Fund, and Student Athlete Services. Together these top five recipients accounted for 65% of all NCAA expenditures. General and Administrative expenses for running the NCAA day-to-day operations totaled approximately 4% of monies paid out, and other association-wide expenses, including legal services, communications, and business insurance totaled 8%.[
The categories:
*$210.8M Sport Sponsorship and Scholarship Funds
:Distributed to Division I schools to help fund NCAA sports and provide scholarships for college athletes.
*$160.5M Division I Basketball Performance Fund
:Distributed to Division I conferences and independent schools based on their performance in the men’s basketball tournament over a six-year rolling period. The money is used to fund NCAA sports and provide scholarships for college athletes.
*$96.7M Division I Championships
:Provides college athletes the opportunity to compete for a championship and includes support for team travel, food and lodging.
*$82.2M Student Assistance Fund
:Distributed to Division I student-athletes for essential needs that arise during their time in college.
*$71.8M Student-Athlete Services
:Includes funding for catastrophic injury insurance, drug testing, student-athlete leadership programs, postgraduate scholarships and additional Association-wide championships support.
*$50.3M Division I Equal Conference Fund
:Distributed equally among Division I basketball-playing conferences that meet athletic and academic standards to play in the men's basketball tournament. The money is used to fund NCAA sports and provide scholarships for college athletes.
*$46.7M Academic Enhancement Fund
:Distributed to Division I schools to assist with academic programs and services.
*$42.3M Division II Allocation
:Funds championships, grants and other initiatives for Division II college athletes.
*$39.6M Membership Support Services
:Covers costs related to NCAA governance committees and the annual NCAA Convention.
*$28.2M Division III Allocation
:Funds championships, grants and other initiatives for Division III college athletes.
*$9.5M Division I Conference Grants
:Distributed to Division I conferences for programs that enhance officiating, compliance, minority opportunities and more.
*$3.3M Educational Programs
:Supports various educational services for members to help prepare student-athletes for life, including the Women Coaches Academy, the Emerging Leaders Seminars and the Pathway Program.
*$74.3M Other Association-Wide Expenses
:Includes support for Association-wide legal services, communications and business insurance.
*$39.7M General and Administrative Expenses
:Funds the day-to-day operations of the NCAA national office, including administrative and financial services, information technology and facilities management.
According to the NCAA, the 2017 fiscal year was the first in which its revenues topped $1.0 billion. The increase in revenue from 2016 came from hikes in television and marketing fees, plus greater monies generated from championship events and investment income.][
An ]ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
critique of the organization's 2017 financials indicated some $560.3 million of the total $956 million paid out went back to its roughly 1,100 member institutions in 24 sports in all three divisions, as well as $200 million for a one-time payment the NCAA made to schools to fund additional programs.[NCAA tops $1 billion in revenue]
/ref>
The Division I basketball tournament alone generated some $761 million, with another $60 million in 2016–17 marketing rights. With increases in rights fees it is estimated the basketball tournament will generate some $869 million for the 2018 championship.[
]
Player compensation proposals
The NCAA has limited the amount of compensation that individual players can receive to scholarships equal to school tuition and related expenses. This rule has generated controversy, in light of the large amounts of revenues that schools earn from sports from TV contracts, ticket sales, and licensing and merchandise. Several commentators have discussed whether the NCAA limit on player compensation violates antitrust laws. There is a consensus among economists that the NCAA's compensation caps for men's basketball and football players benefit the athletes' schools (through rent-seeking
Rent-seeking is the act of growing one's existing wealth without creating new wealth by manipulating the social or political environment.
Rent-seeking activities have negative effects on the rest of society. They result in reduced economic effi ...
) at the expense of the athletes. Economists have subsequently characterized the NCAA as a cartel
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...
and collusive monopsony
In economics, a monopsony is a market structure in which a single buyer substantially controls the market as the major purchaser of goods and services offered by many would-be sellers. The microeconomic theory of monopsony assumes a single entity ...
.
Pro-rating payouts to Division I basketball players in proportion to the size of revenues its championship tournament generates relative to the NCAA's total annual revenues would be one possible approach, but will open the door to litigation by students and schools adversely affected by such a formula.
According to a national study by the National College Players Association (NCPA) and the Drexel University Sport Management Department, the average FBS “full” athletic scholarship falls short of the full cost of attending each school by an average of $3285 during 2011–12 school year, and leaves the vast majority of full scholarship players living below the federal poverty line.
In 2020, the NCAA Board of Governors announced that they supported rule changes that would permit players to receive athletics-related endorsements from third-parties. All divisions were expected to adopt new rules relating to the use of players' names, images, and likenesses before the 2021-2022 academic year begins.
On May 6, 2021, Governor Brian Kemp
Brian Porter Kemp (born November 2, 1963) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 83rd governor of Georgia since January 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Kemp served as the 27th secretary of state of Georgia from 2010 t ...
signed Bill 617 into law, giving collegiate athletes the ability to profit off their Name, Image and Likeness. The University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
have said they will immediately compensate their student athletes, while Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...
and Georgia State University
Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the ...
have not set anything yet.
On June 21, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously in ''National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston
''National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston'', 594 U.S. ___ (2021), was a United States Supreme Court case concerning the compensation of collegiate athletes within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It followed from a ...
'' that the NCAA's restrictions on education-related payments were unlawfully in violation of Sherman Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author.
Th ...
's anti-trust and trade regulations. Though this holding did not address restrictions on direct compensation payment to athletes, it also opened the door for the possibly of future court cases concerning this matter.
The NCAA announced on July 1, 2021, that as a result of ''O'Bannon'' and numerous state laws giving college players the ability to manage their publicity, the board had agreed to new rules that removed restrictions on college athletes from entering paid endorsements and other sponsorship deals, and from using agents to manage their publicity. Students would still be required to inform the school of all such activities, with the school to make determinations if those activities violate state and local laws.
On the first day of effect for the NIL rule change (July 1), athletes such as D'Eriq King
D'Eriq King (born August 24, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the DC Defenders of the XFL. He played college football at the University of Houston before transferring to the University of Miami where he played quarterback.
Early y ...
(Miami (FL) quarterback), Justyn Ross (Clemson wide receiver), Bo Nix
Bo Nix (born February 25, 2000) is an American football quarterback for the Oregon Ducks. Nix played with the Auburn Tigers from 2019 to 2021 before transferring to Oregon in 2022.
High school career
Nix was born on February 25, 2000, in Arka ...
(Auburn quarterback), Antwan Owen (Jackson State defensive end), McKenzie Milton
McKenzie Milton (born October 10, 1997) is a former American football quarterback who previously played for the Florida State Seminoles of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the University of Central Florida (UCF) of the American Athletic Confere ...
(Florida State quarterback), Malik Cunningham
Micale Malik Cunningham (born October 6, 1998) is an American football quarterback for the Louisville Cardinals.
Early years
Cunningham attended Park Crossing High School in Montgomery, Alabama. During his career, he passed for 6,276 yards and ...
(Louisville Quarterback), Michael Penix Jr.
Michael Penix Jr. (born May 8, 2000) is an American football quarterback for the Washington Huskies of the Pac-12 Conference. He previously played for the Indiana Hoosiers of the Big Ten Conference before transferring to Washington in 2 ...
(Indiana quarterback), Spencer Rattler
Spencer Michael Rattler (born September 28, 2000) is an American football quarterback who plays college football for South Carolina. Rattler began his college career with Oklahoma before transferring to South Carolina in 2021.
High school car ...
(Oklahoma quarterback), Lexi Sun (Nebraska volleyball), Paige Bueckers
Paige Madison Bueckers ( ; born October 20, 2001) is an American college basketball player for the University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies of the Big East Conference.
At Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Bueckers was ranked as th ...
(UConn basketball) and twins Hanna & Haley Cavinder
Haley Cavinder is an American Internet celebrity, social media personality and college basketball player for the Miami Hurricanes women's basketball, Miami Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). She began her college career at Fresno ...
(Fresno State basketball), all signed deals and/or unveiled trademarks to profit off of their names, images, and likenesses. As of day one, LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne
Olivia Paige "Livvy" Dunne (born October 1, 2002) is an American artistic gymnast and social media personality. A former USA national team member and a current member of the LSU Tigers women's gymnastics team, she is the highest-valued women's ...
is projected to be the highest earning college athlete of 2021-2022, out of both men's and women's sports.
The new NIL agreement has given student athletes big time deals and opportunities to put theirselves out there and gain profit using their name, image, and likeness. For example, Ga’Quincy McKinstry, quarterback from Alabama signed a deal with Kool-Aid. Not only can they partner up with companies, student athlete's can get paid for other talents; such as, singing.
Russell Steinberg in 2021 says, "In addition to his prowess on the football field, where he has a shot at tying the school record for most starts, Marshall’s Will Ulmer is a talented musician who wasn’t able to earn money using his own name — until now. He had been going by “Lucky Bill” to avoid running afoul of NCAA regulations, but now says he is ready to book shows using his real name" (Steinberg 2021). The NIL has allowed Ulmer great opportunities to further pursue his football and musician career.
Some companies have partnered up with multiple athletes and created a team of their own. Degree, the deodorant brand, started a team of 14 student athletes to help promote their brand. Degree calls this team Breaking Limits. "The Unilever-owned antiperspirant brand has committed $5 million over the next five years to inspire people to break limits. The first group of athletes that Degree has selected represent a diverse range of backgrounds regarding race, gender, and sport, and their stories will be unveiled on Instagram. These athletes will also have the chance to participate in events to help their local communities" (Steinberg 2021).
Individual awards
The NCAA presents a number of different individual awards, including:
* NCAA Award of Valor
The NCAA Award of Valor is presented by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to recognize "courageous action or noteworthy bravery" by persons involved with intercollegiate athletics.
Potential recipients of the Award of Valor are c ...
(not given every year); selection is based on the heroic action occurring during the academic year.
* NCAA Gerald R. Ford Award
The NCAA Gerald R. Ford Award was named in recognition of Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States. Presented by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the award honors an individual who has provided significant leadersh ...
, honoring an individual who has provided significant leadership as an advocate for intercollegiate athletics.
* NCAA Inspiration Award The NCAA Inspiration Award is awarded to one of the following who is associated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association: a current or former varsity letter-winner, a coach, or an administrator. The award is given to an individual who "whe ...
(not given every year); selection is based on inspirational action.
* NCAA Sportsmanship Award The NCAA Sportsmanship Award is given to men and women in National Collegiate Athletics Association sports who have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty, respect and responsibility. It was ...
, honoring student-athletes who have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship.
* NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award
The Theodore Roosevelt Award is the highest honor the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) may confer on an individual. The award is awarded annually to a graduate from an NCAA member institution who earned a varsity letter in college fo ...
, the highest honor that the NCAA can confer on an individual.
* NCAA Woman of the Year Award The NCAA Woman of the Year Award was created to honor senior female student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership. Each year, ...
, honoring a senior student-athlete who has distinguished herself throughout her collegiate career in academics, athletics, service, and leadership.
* Elite 90 Award
The Elite 90 Award or more formally The Elite 90 Academic Recognition Award Program, originally the Elite 88 Award and later the Elite 89 Award, is an award by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recognizing the student athlete wi ...
, honoring the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA who has reached the competition at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 men's and women's championships (in Divisions I, II, and III, plus "National Collegiate" championships open to schools from more than one division).
* Silver Anniversary Awards
The Silver Anniversary Awards are awarded every year by the American National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to recognize six distinguished former student-athletes on their 25th anniversary as college graduates. The Silver Anniversary Aw ...
, honoring six distinguished former student-athletes on the 25th anniversary of their college graduation.
* The Flying Wedge Award
The Flying Wedge Award is one of the NCAA’s highest honors. It is awarded to an individual who exemplifies outstanding leadership and service to the NCAA. The flying wedge was used in the early days of American football and became a symbol of th ...
, one of the NCAA's highest honors exemplifying outstanding leadership and service to the NCAA.
* Today's Top 10 Award
The Today's Top 10 Award is given each year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to honor ten former outstanding senior student-athletes. The award was previously known by three different names, each reflecting the number of rec ...
, honoring ten outstanding senior student-athletes.
* Walter Byers Scholarship
The Walter Byers Scholar (also known as Walter Byers Scholarship, and Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship) program is a scholarship program that recognizes the top male and female student-athlete in NCAA sports and that is awarded annually by t ...
, honoring the top male and female scholar-athletes.
In previous years, the NCAA has presented the following awards at its NCAA Honors event: Astronaut Salute, Business Leader Salute, Congressional Medal of Honor Salute, Governor Salute, Olympians Salute, Performing Arts Salute, Presidents Cabinet Salute, Prominent National Media Salute, Special Recognition Awards, U.S. House of Representatives Salute, and U.S. Senate Salute.
Other collegiate athletic organizations
The NCAA is the dominant, but not the only, collegiate athletic organization in the United States. Several other such collegiate athletic organizations exist.
In the United States
* National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...
(NAIA)
* National Junior College Athletic Association
The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...
(NJCAA) – two-year colleges (does not operate in California or the Pacific Northwest)
* California Community College Athletic Association
The California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) is a sports association of community colleges in the U.S. state of California. It oversees 108 athletic programs throughout the state. The organization was formed in 1929 as the Calif ...
(CCCAA) – two-year colleges in California
* Northwest Athletic Conference
The Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC), formerly the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC), is a sports association for community colleges in the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, along with the Canadian prov ...
(NWAC) – two-year colleges in Washington, Oregon and Idaho
* National Christian College Athletic Association
The National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) is an association of Christian universities, colleges, and Bible colleges in the United States and Canada whose mission is "the promotion and enhancement of intercollegiate athletic co ...
(NCCAA)
* United States Collegiate Athletic Association
The United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) is a national organization for the intercollegiate athletic programs of 72 mostly small colleges, including community/junior colleges, across the United States. The USCAA holds 15 nationa ...
(USCAA)
* Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women
The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...
(AIAW) – disbanded in 1982, after NCAA began sponsoring championships in women's sports
Foreign equivalents
* Australia: UniSport Australia and other school affiliations such as (GPS), and Combined Associated Schools
The Associated Schools of NSW Inc, most commonly referred to as the Committee of Associated Schools (CAS), is a group of six independent schools located in Sydney, which share common interests, ethics, educational philosophy and contest sporting e ...
(CAS)
* Canada: U Sports
U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...
, and Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association
The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is the national governing body for organized sports at the College (Canada), collegiate level in Canada. Its name in Canadian French, French is l'Association canadienne du sport collégial (ACSC ...
(CCAA)
* Indonesia: Liga Mahasiswa (LIMA)
* Philippines National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines)
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)Pronounced "N-C-A-A". is an athletics association of ten private colleges and universities in Metro Manila, Philippines. Established in 1924, it is the oldest collegiate athletic association ...
(NCAA), and University Athletic Association of the Philippines
The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), established in 1938, is an athletic association of eight Metro Manila universities in the Philippines. The eight-member schools are Adamson University (AdU), Ateneo de Manila Univers ...
(UAAP)
* United Kingdom: British Universities & Colleges Sport
* South Africa: Varsity Sports (South Africa)
Varsity Sports SA, is a group university sports leagues in South Africa. Its members all belong to the University Sport Company, and may each enter only one campus per competition, though they may enter different campuses for different competition ...
International governing body
* International University Sports Federation
The Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU, en, International University Sports Federation) is responsible for the organization and governance of worldwide sports competitions for student-athletes between the ages of 17 and 25. ...
(FISU) (''Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire'')
See also
* College athletics in the United States
College athletics in the United States or college sports in the United States refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education (universities, or colleges in American English).
In the U ...
* College club sports in the United States
College club sports in the United States are any sports offered at a university or college in the United States that compete competitively with other universities, or colleges, but are not regulated by the National Collegiate Athletic Associatio ...
* College recruiting
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
* College rivalries
Pairs of schools, colleges and universities, especially when they are close to each other either geographically or in their areas of specialization, often establish a university or college rivalry with each other over the years. This rivalry can ...
* Higher education in the United States
Higher education in the United States is an optional stage of formal learning following secondary education. Higher education is also referred as post-secondary education, third-stage, third-level, or tertiary education. It covers stages 5 to 8 ...
* Homosexuality in modern sports
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non-heterosexual or non-cisgender (LGBTQ+) community is prevalent within sports across the world.
There have been several notable outspoken homosexual athletes, including John Curry, Bil ...
* List of college athletic programs by U.S. state
The main article of this list is College athletics in the United States.
U.S. States
* List of college athletic programs in Alabama
* List of college athletic programs in Alaska
* List of college athletic programs in Arizona
* List of college athl ...
* List of college sports team nicknames
The following is a sports team nicknames for colleges (universities in non-U.S. English) in North America, primarily in the United States and Canada.
These are the general, collective nicknames that various colleges and universities' athletic tea ...
* List of U.S. college mascots
__NOTOC__
This is an incomplete list of U.S. college mascots' names, consisting of named incarnations of live, costumed, or inflatable mascots. For team names, see List of college sports team nicknames.
Mascot index
0–9
* #1 Fan – child ...
* NCAA Native American mascot decision
In 2005 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) distributed a "self evaluation" to its member institutions for teams to examine the use of potentially offensive imagery with their mascot choice. This examination was done in accordance ...
Notes and references
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
*
NCAA administrative website
{{Authority control
1906 establishments in the United States
College sports governing bodies in the United States
Non-profit organizations based in Indianapolis
Sports organizations established in 1906