Sports brings many people into college and creates a pretty significant revenue stream for these colleges. One of the organizations that helps with this is the NCAA. The National Collegiate Athletic Association is an organization that runs athletics in colleges across the country. 

Set up in three divisions and covering 112 conferences and almost 2000 colleges, this organization has given out billions of dollars to promote college athletics for more than a century. 

History of the NCAA

Initially, this organization’s mission was to help protect college teams’ athletes from being exploited, which was common practice back in the early 1900s. The NCAA came into being in 1906 and was solely focused primarily on the football teams. A few years later, the whole college football league was in trouble. 

On the brink of being decommissioned, the NCAA gathered together several representatives and restructured the rules and guidelines regarding the players’ safety. Since then, the organization has grown to include other sports and is continuously restructuring its rules and guidelines. 

How Are Players Determined Eligible

The NCAA also governs the eligibility of players both coming into and in college. All students must meet a certain academic standard. Each division has its own requirements, but they all have the same components of that requirement when it comes to high school applicants. 

The student must have 16 core classes completed in high school and pass the SAT/ACT score. When in college, they must maintain a full course load and have a GPA of at least 2.0 when it comes to Division I and II schools. Division III does not offer athletic scholarships, so they are not required to deal with the NCAA eligibility requirements. 

Divisions – What Determines The Colleges Standing?

Each college that is part of the NCAA is designated as one of their divisions. These are determined by the school’s size, the budget of the school’s athletic program, and whether they are giving out scholarships (as well as how many they give for athletics). This organization is active in over twenty different sports and gives out just under a hundred championships every year. 

Concluding Thoughts

The NCAA is a governing agency that helps regulate collegiate sports. This is important as these sports programs are significant revenue for the schools and often help fund more than just the athletic program. 

The money that the NCAA allocated to the schools in the system helps distribute academic scholarships for athletes and is critical in running each of the college’s athletic programs and programs associated with the athletic programs.