National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)[b] is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and one in Canada.[3] It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and helps over 500,000 college student athletes who compete annually in college sports.[3] The organization is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
"NCAA" redirects here. For the unrelated athletics association in the Philippines, see National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines). For other uses, see NCAA (disambiguation).Abbreviation
NCAA
March 31, 1906New York City, U.S.[a]
inAssociation
Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
United States and one institution in Canada[2]
About 1,100 schools[3]
Board of Governors
Until 1957, the NCAA was a single division for all schools. That year, the NCAA split into the University Division and the College Division.[4] In August 1973, the current three-division system 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, while Division I programs that did not have football teams were known as I-AAA. In 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). In its 2016–17 fiscal year, the NCAA took in $1.06 billion in revenue, over 82% of which was generated by the Division I men's basketball tournament.
Controversially, the NCAA substantially restricts the kinds of benefits and compensation (including paid salary) that collegiate athletes could receive from their schools. The consensus among economists is these caps for men's basketball and football players benefit the athletes' schools (through rent-seeking) at the expense of the athletes.[5][6][7] Economists have subsequently characterized the NCAA as a cartel.[8][9][10] In 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled that some of these NCAA restrictions on student athletes are in violation of US antitrust law.[11]
Headquarters[edit]
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.[56]
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.[57]
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.[58]
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 Kemper Arena was nearly 23 years old.[58] 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.[58] The 50,000-seat RCA Dome 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.[59]
The NCAA has current media rights contracts with CBS Sports, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN+, TNT Sports and Golf Channel for coverage of its 88 championships. According to the official NCAA website,[98] ESPN and its associated networks have rights to 21 championships, CBS to 65, TNT Sports to one and NBC's Golf Channel to two. The following are the most prominent championships and rights holders until the 2023–24 season:
Westwood One has exclusive radio rights to the men's and women's basketball Final Fours and the Men's College World Series (baseball).
From 1998 to 2013, Electronic Arts had a license to develop college sports video games with the NCAA's branding, which included its NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball (formerly NCAA March Madness) and MVP Baseball series. The NCAA's licensing was not required to produce the games, as rights to use teams are not licensed through the NCAA, but through entities such as individual schools and the Collegiate Licensing Company. EA only acquired the license so that it could officially incorporate the Division I men's basketball tournament into its college basketball game series. The NCAA withdrew EA's license due to uncertainties surrounding a series of lawsuits, most notably O'Bannon v. NCAA, involving the use of player likenesses in college sports video games.[99][100]
Office of Inclusion[edit]
Inclusion and Diversity Campaign[edit]
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.[50]
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.[117]
Here is a list of notable colleges that changed Native American mascots and/or nicknames in recent history:
Others:
Of note: Utah (Utes), Central Michigan (Chippewas), Florida State (Seminoles) and Mississippi College (Choctaws) all appealed successfully to the NCAA after being deemed "hostile and offensive." Each cited positive relationships with neighboring tribes in appeal. UNC Pembroke (Braves), an institution originally created to educate Native Americans and enjoying close ties to the local Lumbee tribe, was approved to continue the use of native-derived imagery without needing an appeal.
The NCAA presents a number of different individual awards,[142] including:
In previous years, the NCAA has presented the following awards at its NCAA Honors event: Astronaut Salute, Business Leader Salute, Congressional Medal of Honor Salute, Governor Salute, Olympians Salute, Performing Arts Salute, Presidents Cabinet Salute, Prominent National Media Salute, Special Recognition Awards, U.S. House of Representatives Salute, and U.S. Senate Salute.[143]