National Collegiate Athletic Association

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The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA, often pronounced "N-C-Double-A" or "N-C-Two-A" ) is a voluntary association of about 1,200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States. Its headquarters are 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 among spectators in the United States, it is far more prominent than most national college sports bodies in other countries.

In August of 1973, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division II, and Division III was adopted by the NCAA membership in a special convention. 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.[1] In 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

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Current NCAA headquarters office in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Current NCAA headquarters office in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Its predecessor, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS), 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.

Up until 1973, the NCAA split its membership into two divisions: the University Division and the College Division. In August, the current three division setup of Division I, Division II, and Division III was adopted by the NCAA membership in a special convention. 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.[1] In 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

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.

Sports sanctioned by the NCAA include basketball, baseball (men), softball (women), football (men), cross country, field hockey (women), bowling (women), golf, fencing (coeducational), lacrosse, soccer, gymnastics, rowing (women only), volleyball, ice hockey, water polo, rifle (coeducational), tennis, skiing (coeducational), track & field, swimming & diving, and wrestling (men's).

The NCAA is not the only collegiate athletic organization in the United States. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is another collegiate athletic organization. The Canadian equivalent to NCAA is the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS).

The NCAA holds, or has held in the past, championship tournaments in the following sports:

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 US$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 FBS football, a state of affairs which is quite controversial. Currently, the Bowl Championship Series—an association of the conferences who compete in Division I FBS, bowl games and the sports media—collates a series of polls to determine the two teams that will play in the BCS National Championship Game. One third of a school's score in the BCS rankings comes from its standings in six computer polls, while the other two thirds comes from two human polls: one of current Division I FBS coaches (sponsored by USA Today), the other a mix of former players, coaches and administrators and current and former media (administered and sponsored by Harris Interactive). The winner of the BCS title game automatically comes first in the final USA Today poll of the season and wins one half of the national championship, though the Associated Press, via its own poll, can still confer the other half of the championship upon a team of its own selection. As of 2007, however, only once in the first nine BCS title games has the AP Poll produced a different national champion than the Bowl Championship Series. The winner of the BCS title game also receives the ADT national championship trophy for college football, though—since the NCAA awards no national championship for Division I FBS football—this trophy does not say NCAA as all other college sports national championship trophies do.

Presently, UCLA, Stanford and Southern California have the most NCAA championships; UCLA holds the most, winning a combined 100 team championships in men's and women's sports.

The NCAA currently awards 88 national championships yearly; 44 women's, 41 men's, and three coed championships where men and women compete together (Fencing, Rifle, and Skiing). For every NCAA sanctioned sport other than Division I FBS football, the NCAA awards wooden trophies with gold, silver, and bronze plating for the first, second, and third place teams respectively; similar to the Olympics. 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 season, the trophies were given an extensive facelift. Starting in the 2007 basketball season, teams that make the Final Four in the Division I tournament receive bronze plated "regional championship" trophies upon winning their Regional Championship. The teams that make the National Championship game receive an additional trophy that is gold plated for the winner and silver plated for the runner-up. Starting in the mid-1990s, the National Champions in men's and women's basketball receive a very elaborate trophy sponsored by Siemens with a black marble base and crystal "neck" with a removable crystal basketball following the presentation of the standard NCAA Championship trophy.

NCAA 2006 championship banners hang inside the NCAA Hall of Champions in Indianapolis
NCAA 2006 championship banners hang inside the NCAA Hall of Champions in Indianapolis

Conferences with automatic entry to the Bowl Championship Series are denoted with an asterisk.

The NCAA presents a number of different individual awards,[2] including:

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 investigative staff. 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 in 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.

Institutions violating the probationary period may be subject to being banned from participating in the sport in question for up to two years, a penalty known as the "Death Penalty".

The following institutions are currently on probation by the NCAA:[3]

Numerous criticisms have been lodged against the NCAA. These include:

  • Several people, notably including Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly, have criticized the NCAA for its inflexibility[5]
  • Student-athletes at universities with major athletic programs often have low graduation rates.[6]
  • Championship tournaments determine champions in all other sports except for the Football Bowl Subdivision.

  1. ^ a b "NCAA History", NCAA, 2005. 
  2. ^ NCAA Awards Webpage (accessed 2006-11-07)
  3. ^ NCAA list of programs on probation (accessed 2006-11-08)
  4. ^ November 2, 2006 NCAA press release regarding University of Iowa
  5. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/rick_reilly/news/2003/08/05/reilly0811/
  6. ^ NCAA graduation rates (accessed 2007-03-16)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Collegiate_Athletic_Association"
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