National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletics programs of many colleges and universities in the
United States. Its headquarters are currently located in
Indianapolis, Indiana and it is currently under the leadership of president
Myles Brand. The NCAA is the largest collegiate athletic organization in the world, and because of the great popularity of college sports as spectator sports in the United States, it is far more prominent in the sports scene the United States than most national college sports bodies are in their own countries.
Encyclopedia
The
National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletics programs of many colleges and universities in the
United States. Its headquarters are currently located in
Indianapolis, Indiana and it is currently under the leadership of president
Myles Brand. The NCAA is the largest collegiate athletic organization in the world, and because of the great popularity of college sports as spectator sports in the United States, it is far more prominent in the sports scene the United States than most national college sports bodies are in their own countries.
History
Its predecessor, the
Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States , was established on March 31, 1906 to set rules for amateur sports in the
United States. Its creation was urged by then-president
Theodore Roosevelt in reaction to his concern over the growing amount of serious injuries and deaths occurring in collegiate football. The IAAUS later became the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910.
Up until the
1980s, the association did not offer women's athletics. Instead, an organization named the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women governed women's collegiate sports in the United States. By 1982 however, all divisions of the NCAA offered national championship events for women's athletics and most members of the AIAW joined the NCAA.
In 1973, the NCAA split its membership into three divisions: Division I,
Division II and Division III. Under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes 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 was further divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978. Subsequently the term "Division I-AAA" was added to delineate Division I schools which do not field a football program at all.
Structure
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. 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 advisors. Management Council legislation goes on to the Board of Directors, which consists of school presidents, for final approval.
The NCAA staff itself provides support, acting as guides, liaison, research and public and media relations. The current NCAA president is
Myles Brand, former president of
Indiana University Bloomington.
Sports sanctioned by the NCAA include
basketball,
baseball ,
softball ,
football ,
cross country,
field hockey ,
bowling ,
golf,
fencing ,
lacrosse,
soccer,
gymnastics,
rowing ,
volleyball,
ice hockey,
water polo,
rifle ,
tennis,
skiing , track & field,
swimming &
diving, and
wrestling .
The NCAA is not the only collegiate athletic organization in the United States. The
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is another collegiate athletic organization.
The
Canadian equivalent to NCAA is the
CIS.
Championships
The NCAA holds, or has held in the past, championship tournaments in the following sports:
* Baseball
* Basketball
** Men's
*** Division I
*** Division II
*** Division III
** Women's
*** Division I
*** Division II
*** Division III
* Bowling
* Boxing
* Men's Cross Country
* Women's Cross Country
* Fencing
* Women's Field Hockey
|
* Football
** Division I-A
** Division I-AA
** Division II
** Division III
* Men's Golf
**Division I
**Division II
**Division III
* Women's Golf
* Men's Gymnastics
* Women's Gymnastics
* Men's Ice Hockey
* Women's Ice Hockey
* Men's Indoor Track and Field
* Women's Indoor Track and Field
* Men's Lacrosse
* Women's Lacrosse
* Men's Outdoor Track and Field
* Women's Outdoor Track and Field
|
* Rifle
* Rowing
* Skiing
* Softball
* Men's Soccer
* Women's Soccer
* Men's Swimming and Diving
* Women's Swimming and Diving
* Men's Tennis
* Women's Tennis
* Men's Volleyball
* Women's Volleyball
* Men's Water Polo
* Women's Water Polo
* Wrestling
|
By the 1980s, televised college football was a significant source of income for the NCAA. Had the television contracts the NCAA had with ABC,
CBS and
ESPN remained in effect for the 1984 season, they would have generated $73.6 million for the Association and its members. In September 1981, the Board of Regents of the
University of Oklahoma and the
University of Georgia Athletic Association filed suit against the NCAA in district court in
Oklahoma. 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 NCAA argued that its procompetitive and noncommercial justifications for the plan -- protection of live gate, maintenance of competitive balance among NCAA member institutions and 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 does not hold a championship tournament for
Division I-A football, a state of affairs which is quite controversial. Currently, the Division I-A football "champion" is determined by the
Bowl Championship Series, which uses a series of polls to determine the two teams that will play for the championship in the
BCS National Championship Game. Six of the polls are based on computer models, while two are based on human voting: one of current Division I-A coaches , the other a mix of former players, coaches and administrators and current and former media . Despite the self-proclaimed authority of the
Bowl Championship Series, the
Associated Press can still confer the title of "national champion" upon a team of its own selection. Plus, unlike all other divisions and sports that the NCAA sponsors, the Division I-A football champion does not get a trophy with "NCAA" on it. In other words, the title is unofficial.
Presently,
UCLA,
Stanford and
Southern California have the most NCAA championships. UCLA holds the most, winning a combined 99 team championships in men's and women's sports.
The NCAA currently awards 88 national championships yearly; 44 women's, 41 men's, and 3 championships where men and women compete together .
Conferences
Division I-A conferences
Division I-AA football-only conferences
Division I hockey-only conferences
...
Foreign intercollegiate/interuniversity equivalents
See also
- List of NCAA Division I Institutions
- List of NCAA Division II Institutions
- List of NCAA Division III Institutions
- List of NAIA Institutions
- List of College Athletic Programs by US State
- NACDA Director's Cup
- Today's Top VIII Award
- AIAW Championships
- College football
- List of college athletic conferences
- Academic Progress Rate
External links
