National Collegiate Athletic Association

History

Formation and early years

Intercollegiate sports began in the United States in 1852 when crews from Harvard and Yale universities met in a challenge race in the sport of rowing. 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 and the Intercollegiate Rowing Association. 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, though its rules 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 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 of New York University organized a meeting of 13 colleges and universities to initiate changes in football playing rules; at a follow-on meeting on December 28, 1905, at the Murray Hill Hotel in New York City, 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.

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 NCAA engaged in a bitter power struggle with the Amateur Athletic Union. The complexity of those problems and the growth in membership and championships demonstrated the need for full-time professional leadership.

1970s–1980s

As college athletics 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 (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.

President's Commission

Proposals at every NCAA Convention are voted on by the institutional members of the NCAA. Each institutional member has one representative: the president/CEO or a representative designated by him/her.

Attendance by the actual president/CEO was low; less than 30%. Southern Methodist University President A. Kenneth Pye commented, "In too many cases, presidents have not only delegated responsibility, they have abdicated it." Many presidents designated their athletic director as the institutional representative, something Pye compared to "entrusting a chicken coop to the supervision of a wolf and a fox."

Beginning around 1980, a group of college presidents thought there was a crisis of integrity in collegiate sports and discussed ways to

transform athletics to match the academic model. The American Council on Education (ACE) proposed a presidential board empowered to veto NCAA membership actions, while the NCAA Council, whose membership was mostly athletic officials, suggested a presidential commission with advisory powers. The council's proposal may have been intended to block the presidential effort to gain control of the NCAA. The two proposals were voted on by the membership at the NCAA Convention in January 1984. The ACE proposal was defeated by a vote of 313 to 328. The Council proposal passed on a voice vote without ballots.

Publicly, the President's Commission (PC) was responsible for establishing an agenda for the NCAA, but the actual language of the proposal stated that their role was to be a presidential forum and to provide the NCAA with the president's position on major policy issues. The PC could study issues and urge action, call special meetings and sponsor legislation. Their one real power was to veto the selection of Executive Director. The composition of the commission was 22 CEOs from Division I and 11 CEOs each from Divisions II and III.

The true intent of the PC was to shift control of intercollegiate athletics back to CEOs. Graduation rates were an important metric to chancellors and presidents and became a focus of the PC.

In June 1985 a special convention was held to review legislative proposals including academic integrity, academic-reporting requirements, differences in "major" and "secondary" violations including the "death penalty" and requiring an annual financial audit of athletic departments. All proposals passed overwhelmingly. Many presidents who did not attend sent a vice-president rather than their athletic director. University of Florida President Marshall Criser stated that "the ultimate responsibility must be assumed by the CEOs because we don't have enough NCAA cops to solve all of the problems."

Late 1990s

In 1999, the NCAA was sued for discriminating against female athletes under Title IX for systematically giving men in graduate school more waivers than a woman to participate in college sports. In National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Smith, 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 in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, became the NCAA's first non-US member institution, joining Division II. In 2018, Division II membership approved allowing schools from Mexico to apply for membership; CETYS of Tijuana, Baja California expressed significant interest in joining at the time. However, Simon Fraser announced in 2025 that it had applied to return to Canada's national governing body of U Sports, and would leave the NCAA in 2027 if its application was accepted.

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 reduced the size of the NCAA Board of Governors from 20 to 9, and guaranteed 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, 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 president Harold Stassen defied the monopoly and renewed its contract with ABC. 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 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma that the NCAA's complete control of television rights violated the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts, paving the way for schools and conferences to independently make deals with TV broadcasters directly.

In 1998, the NCAA settled a $2.5 million lawsuit filed by former UNLV basketball coach, Jerry Tarkanian. 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.

Headquarters

The modern era of the NCAA began in July 1955 when its executive director, Kansas City, Missouri native Walter Byers, moved the organization's headquarters from the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago (where its offices were shared by the headquarters of the Big Ten Conference) to the Fairfax Building in Downtown Kansas City. 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, moving again in 1973 to a $1.2 million building on 3.4 acres (14,000 m2) on Shawnee Mission Parkway in suburban Mission, Kansas. In 1989, the organization moved 6 miles (9.7 km) farther south to Overland Park, Kansas. The new building was on 11.35 acres (45,900 m2) and had 130,000 square feet (12,000 m2) of space.

The NCAA was dissatisfied with its Johnson County, Kansas 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. 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 complex and would locate the visitors' center in Union Station. However, Kansas City's main sports venue at the time, Kemper Arena, was nearly 23 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 50,000-seat RCA Dome (since replaced by the larger Lucas Oil Stadium) far eclipsed 19,500-seat Kemper Arena. In 1999, the NCAA moved its 300-member staff to its new headquarters in the White River State Park in a four-story 140,000-square-foot (13,000 m2) facility on the west edge of downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Adjacent to the headquarters is the 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) NCAA Hall of Champions.

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, based in Sandy, Utah, 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 was appointed executive director. In 1998, the title was changed to president.

Walter Byers 1951–1988 (Executive Director)

James Frank 1981–1983 (Executive Director)

Wilford Bailey 1987–88

Dick Schultz 1988–1993

Judith Sweet 1991–1993

Cedric Dempsey 1994–2002

Myles Brand 2003–2009

Jim Isch 2009–2010 (interim)

Mark Emmert 2010–2023

Charlie Baker 2023–present

Chief medical officer

In 2013, the NCAA hired Brian Hainline as its first chief medical officer.

Division history

Before 1957, all NCAA sports used a single division of competition. In 1957 the NCAA split into two divisions for men's basketball only, with major programs making up the University Division and smaller programs making up the College Division. The names could be confusing, as some schools with "University" in their name still competed in the College Division while some with "College" in their name competed in the University Division. The split gradually took hold in other sports as well. Records from before the split were inherited by the University Division.

In 1973 the College Division split up between teams that wanted to grant athletic scholarships (becoming Division II, which inherited the College Division's records and history) and teams that did not (becoming Division III), and the University Division was renamed to Division I. Division I split into two subdivisions for football only in 1978 (though both still under the Division I name), with Division I-A consisting of major teams who would continue to compete in bowl games and use various polls to decide its champion and Division I-AA consisting of smaller teams who would compete in the new NCAA Football Tournament to decide its champion. Division I schools without football teams were known as Division I-AAA. In 2006, Division I-A became the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), Division I-AA became the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and Division I-AAA became Division I non-football. The changes were in name only with no significant structural differences to the organization.

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 15 sports which use the National Collegiate format, also called the single-division format, are women's acrobatics & tumbling, women's bowling, men's fencing, women's fencing, men's gymnastics, women's gymnastics, women's ice hockey, rifle, skiing, women's stunt, men's indoor volleyball, women's beach volleyball, men's water polo, women's water polo, and women's wrestling. The newest such sports are the all-female sports of acrobatics & tumbling and stunt, the latter a cheerleading discipline, which will hold their first NCAA championships using this format in 2026–27. Women's wrestling held its first NCAA championship in the 2025–26 school year.

Player eligibility

The NCAA requires all of its athletes to be amateurs. All incoming athletes must be certified as amateurs. To remain eligible, athletes must not sign contract with sports clubs, earn a salary playing a sport, try out for professional sports, or enter into agreements with agents.

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.

As of the 2017–18 school year, a high school student may sign a letter of intent 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 (replaced in 2014 by the College Football Playoff) and the Division I men's basketball tournament; the new requirement, which are based on an "Academic Progress Rate" (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.

NCAA sponsored sports

The NCAA currently awards 94 national team championships yearly – 49 women's, 43 men's, and 2 coed championships for rifle and skiing. Sports sanctioned by the NCAA include the following: acrobatics & tumbling (women), basketball, baseball (men), track and field, softball (women), football (men), cross country, field hockey (women), bowling (women), golf, fencing, lacrosse, soccer, gymnastics, rowing (women), stunt (women), swimming & diving, beach volleyball (women), volleyball, ice hockey, water polo, rifle (coeducational), tennis, skiing (coeducational), and wrestling.

The newest sports to be officially sanctioned are acrobatics & tumbling and the cheerleading discipline of stunt, all-female sports which will hold their first official championships in spring 2027. Before then, the last sport to have been officially sanctioned was women's wrestling, which held its first championship in March 2026, preceded by beach volleyball, which held its first championship in spring 2016. The NCAA had called that sport "sand volleyball" until June 23, 2015, when it announced that it would use the internationally recognized name of "beach volleyball".

The Division I Council, acting on a recommendation from the NCAA Sports Oversight Committee, voted in June 2025 to separate men's and women's scoring in the fencing championship, which would effectively establish separate men's and women's championships in that sport. Because fencing is a National Collegiate sport with a single championship event for all divisions, Divisions II and III had to separately approve this change. The other divisions approved this change the following month.

In the 2027–28 school year, separate divisional championships will be established in two women's sports—Division II bowling and Division III wrestling.

The Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I determines its own champion separately from the NCAA via the College Football Playoff; this is not an official NCAA championship (see below).

The NCAA awards championships in the sports listed below. For the two coeducational championships, women's dates reflect the first championship that was open to women.

Emerging sports for women

In addition to the above sports, the NCAA recognizes Emerging Sports for Women. These sports have roster (Division I) and scholarship (Division II) 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 Division I team sports, 35 for Division II, 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 four sports currently designated as Emerging Sports for Women are:

Equestrian (in Divisions I and II only)

Flag football

Rugby

Triathlon

Wrestling was removed from the Emerging Sports program in January 2025 when it became an official championship sport, with the first season taking place in 2025–26. Similarly, acrobatics & tumbling and stunt were removed from the program in January 2026, with the first seasons to take place in 2026–27.

The newest Emerging Sport is flag football, added to the program in January 2026 with the first season under "emerging" status in spring 2026.

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.

Acrobatics and tumbling was not a women's varsity sport in 1982 and the NCAA report does not include the number of teams for that year. Bowling is first listed in the NCAA report in 2020–21 with 27 teams, and so the number of teams for that season is listed in the table above.

Bowling was not a women's varsity sport in 1982 and the NCAA report does not include the number of teams for that year. Bowling is first listed in the NCAA report in 1998–99 with 5 teams, and so the number of teams for that season is listed in the table above.

Beach volleyball was not a women's varsity sport in 1982 and the NCAA report does not include the number of teams for that year. Beach volleyball is first listed in the NCAA report in 2011–12 with 14 teams, and so the number of teams for that season is listed in the table above.

Rugby was not a women's varsity sport in 1982 and the NCAA report does not include the number of teams for that year. Rugby is first listed in the NCAA report in 2002–03 with 2 teams, and so the number of teams for that season is listed in the table above.

Stunt was not a women's varsity sport in 1982 and the NCAA report does not include the number of teams for that year. Stunt is first listed in the NCAA report in 2022–23 with 2 teams, and so the number of teams for that season is listed in the table above.

Triathlon was not a women's varsity sport in 1982 and the NCAA report does not include the number of teams for that year. Triathlon is first listed in the NCAA report in 2015–16 with 4 teams, and so the number of teams for that season is listed in the table above.

Water polo was not a women's varsity sport in 1982 and the NCAA report does not include the number of teams for that year. Water polo is first listed in the NCAA report in 2000–01 with 46 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, UCLA, and Southern California (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. 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 of writers and the Coaches Poll, were said to have won the "national championship".

From 2014 through 2023, the College Football Playoff – a consortium of the conferences and independent schools that compete in Division I FBS and six bowl games – 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, 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. The playoff expanded to 12 teams starting in 2024.

Current champions

+: The Division I FCS National Championship is the official NCAA-sanctioned football championship for Division I. The NCAA doesn't officially endorse a national champion at the Division I FBS level but maintains a list of "official selectors" in its record books.

Conferences

The NCAA is divided into three levels of conferences, Division I, Division II, and Division III, organized in declining program size, as well as numerous sub-divisions. Most schools belong to a primary "multisport conference" for most of their sports. Schools may belong to different conferences for different sports.

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 for most sports, but its ice hockey team competes in the Big Ten Conference and its football team is an independent.

Division I

Among the NCAA regulations, each Division I conference defined as a "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. However, a conference may operate for up to 2 years with fewer active members under a hardship rule. 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. In 2023, the NCAA added new requirements for FBS membership, set to take effect in 2027–28. At that time, FBS institutions must fund the equivalent of 210 full scholarships across all of their NCAA sports; must spend at least $6 million annually on said scholarships; and must provide at least 90% of the required number of full scholarships across 16 sports (as chosen by the institution), including football.

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

Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference (CAA Football)

Missouri Valley Football Conference

Pioneer Football League

Division I ice hockey has a different conference structure than the above multisport conferences. These schools have memberships in other conferences for other sports.

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.

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.

ECAC East – men's and women's

ECAC Northeast – men's only

ECAC West – men's and women's

Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) – men's and women's

United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) – men's and women's

Midwest Lacrosse Conference (MLC) – men's only

Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference (MWLC) – women's only

Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC)

Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL)

Media

The NCAA has current media rights contracts with CBS Sports, CBS Sports Network, ESPN/ABC/ESPN+, TNT Sports and Golf Channel for coverage of 43 of its 93 championships. According to the official NCAA website, ESPN and its associated networks have rights to 40 championships, CBS to two, TNT Sports to one and NBC's Golf Channel to two. The following are the most prominent championships and rights holders until the 2031–32 season:

CBS Sports: Men's basketball (NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, with TNT Sports, and NCAA Division II men's basketball championship).

ESPN:

Men's Championships – soccer, football (FCS, DII & DIII), cross country, water polo, indoor track & field, swimming & diving, wrestling, ice hockey, gymnastics, fencing, volleyball, lacrosse, outdoor track & field, tennis, baseball and basketball (DII semifinals & DIII semifinals and championship).

Women's Championships – soccer, field hockey, volleyball (including DII & DIII), cross country, indoor track & field, swimming & diving, basketball (including DII & DIII), ice hockey, bowling, gymnastics, fencing, beach volleyball, lacrosse, outdoor track & field, tennis, softball and water polo.

Also, ESPN has the rights to men's National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT).

TNT Sports: NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament with CBS Sports.

NBC and Golf Channel: golf (Division I, both genders).

The championships not broadcast by the media rights partners will be available through NCAA.com.

Westwood One has exclusive radio rights to the men's and women's basketball Final Fours and the Men's College World Series (baseball).

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.

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.

While no concrete criteria are given as to a state of gender equity 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, when amended in 1972 to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 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.

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 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. Bonaventure - Brown Indians to Bonnies

St. John's (NY) – Redmen to Red Storm (1994)

Syracuse - Orangemen to Orange

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)

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'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, did not return to the national rankings until 2019, and did not win a conference title again until 2023. 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's men's soccer team in 2003 and Division III MacMurray College'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.

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 not-for-profit 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."

In 2017 total NCAA revenues were in excess of $1.06 billion. 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.

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

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) at the expense of the athletes. Economists have subsequently characterized the NCAA as a cartel and collusive monopsony.

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 signed Bill 617 into law, giving collegiate athletes the ability to profit off their Name, Image and Likeness. The University of Georgia have said they will immediately compensate their student athletes, while Georgia Tech and Georgia State University have not set anything yet.

On June 21, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston that the NCAA's restrictions on education-related payments were unlawfully in violation of Sherman Act's antitrust and trade regulations. Though this holding did not address restrictions on direct compensation payment to athletes, it also opened the door for the possibility of future court cases concerning this matter.

Individual awards

The NCAA presents a number of different individual awards, including:

NCAA Award of Valor (not given every year); selection is based on the heroic action occurring during the academic year.

NCAA Gerald R. Ford Award, honoring an individual who has provided significant leadership as an advocate for intercollegiate athletics.

NCAA Inspiration Award (not given every year); selection is based on inspirational action.

NCAA Sportsmanship Award, honoring student-athletes who have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship.

NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award, the highest honor that the NCAA can confer on an individual.

NCAA Woman of the Year Award, honoring a senior student-athlete who has distinguished herself throughout her collegiate career in academics, athletics, service, and leadership.

Elite Scholar-Athlete Award, honoring the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA who has reached the competition at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 94 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, honoring six distinguished former student-athletes on the 25th anniversary of their college graduation.

The Flying Wedge Award, one of the NCAA's highest honors exemplifying outstanding leadership and service to the NCAA.

Today's Top 10 Award, honoring ten outstanding senior student-athletes.

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

Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) – disbanded in 1982, after NCAA began sponsoring championships in women's sports

California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) – two-year colleges in California

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)

National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA)

National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) – two-year colleges (does not operate in California or the Pacific Northwest)

Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) – two-year colleges in Oregon and Washington, plus one member in the Canadian province of British Columbia

United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA)

Foreign equivalents

Australia: UniSport Australia

Canada: U Sports, and Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA)

Indonesia: Liga Mahasiswa (LIMA)

Nigeria: Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA)

Philippines: National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines) (NCAA), and University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP)

Poland Academic Sports Association (AZS)

South Africa: Varsity Sports (South Africa)

United Kingdom: British Universities & Colleges Sport