National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA, often said "en-see-double-ay") 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 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. The IAAUS later became the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910. Up until the 1980s the association did not offer women's athletics. 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.
The NCAA divides participant schools 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. Larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in III. Division I football is further divided into I A and I AA.
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's), volleyball, ice hockey, water polo, rifle (coeducational), tennis, skiing, track & field, swimming & diving, and wrestling (men's).
The NCAA is not the only collegiate athletic organization. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is another collegiate athletic organization.
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