College athletics in the United States

The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies. The major sanctioning organizations include the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). Individual sports not governed by umbrella organizations like the NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA are overseen by their own organizations, such as the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association, National Collegiate Boxing Association, USA Rugby, American College Cricket, National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association and Intercollegiate Rowing Association. Additionally, the first tier is characterized by selective participation, since only the elite programs in their sport are able to participate; some colleges offer athletic scholarships to intercollegiate sports competitors. The second tier includes all intramural and recreational sports clubs, which are available to a larger portion of the student body. Competition between student clubs from different colleges, not organized by and therefore not representing the institutions or their faculties, may also be called "intercollegiate" athletics or simply college sports.


Unlike in the rest of the world, in the contemporary United States, many college sports are extremely popular on both regional and national scales, even competing with professional championships for prime broadcast, print coverage and for the top athletes. The average university sponsors at least twenty different sports and offers a wide variety of intramural sports as well. In 2002, in total, there were approximately 400,000 men and women student-athletes that participate in sanctioned athletics each year.^[2] The largest collegiate sanctioning organization is the NCAA, and the sport that most schools participate in is basketball, with 2,197 men's and women's basketball teams at all levels.^[3] A close second is cross country (with 2,065 NCAA teams) and baseball/softball is third (1,952).^[3]


Principles for intercollegiate athletics include "gender equity, sportsmanship and ethical conduct, sound academic standards, nondiscrimination, diversity within governance, rules compliance, amateurism, competitive equity, recruiting, eligibility, financial aid, playing and practice seasons, postseason competition and contests sponsored by noncollegiate organizations, and the economy of athletic program operations to ensure fair play and equality throughout all college athletic programs and associations."

Revenues and expenses[edit]

There are large amounts of money gained from Division I athletics, but only a small number of schools benefits from their programs.^[36] During 2014 the NCAA earned $989 million in revenue, with a profit around $80.5 million.^[37] Each year television, advertisements, and licensing revenue also adds to the NCAA profit, but donations, ticket sales, and merchandise sales goes to the school.^[38] From marketing and television fees the NCAA gained nearly $753.5 million in 2014.^[37] In 2010, two of the most profitable college conferences—the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Big Ten—earned over $1 billion and $905 million, respectively.^[39] The University of Texas' football program, which was the most valuable in college sports in the early 2010s, was estimated by Forbes to be worth over $133 million in 2013, totaling over $1 billion in the previous 10 years.^[40] At that time Texas made, on average, $93 million a year just from the football program. The two schools that followed Texas, Georgia and Penn State, each made around $70 million a year.^[41] Another prominent football program, Notre Dame, has a contract with NBC to televise its home football games for $15 million a year through 2025.^[42] The average revenue per conference in 1999 was $13.5 million.^[43]


Universities spend a very large amount of money on their college organizations in the facilities, coaches, equipment, and other aspects. In most states, the person with the highest taxpayer-provided base salary is a public college football or basketball coach. This figure does not include coaches at private colleges.^[44]


By 2015, most Division I schools had established single-source contracts, which supply the university with apparel for all athletic programs, sometimes including cheerleading squads and dance teams, which compete outside the NCAA structure. The contract deal made college history when the University of Michigan and Nike made a 11-year contract deal for almost $200 million.^[45]


Many athletic programs do not make enough money to cover the cost to maintain those programs, so they use student fees to fund their programs.^[36] This could cause some problems because of the increase in student debt and limited academic budgets.^[36] As of 2016 only 23 out of 228 Division I programs earned enough money to make up for their extreme spending. Due to donations, 16 of the 23 schools were able to cover their expenses, so truly only 7 of the 228 universities broke even due to their athletic programs. For the other 203 schools that did not break even, they are partially funded by the state or student fees. Most of the money that is being spent is used to pay the coaching staff, for the games, and the top-of-the-line facilities. The amount spent on an athlete is seven times more than the average amount spent per student. At big Division I programs, the amount of money that is spent on a football player exceeds $90,000.^[19]