NCAA – The National Collegiate Athletic Association

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) unites more than 1,200 educational institutions, sports leagues (conferences) and other organizations related to student sports in the United States and Canada. The NCAA is a not-for-profit organization, its mission is not to make a profit, but to support sports programs in universities and colleges, organize competitions and solve many other problems that help more than four 480,000 students go in for sports. It is the largest (but not the only) student sports association in the United States of America. Such a association helps students achieve success in life. Students issue payday loans CT to buy equipment to go in for sports. They use such a financial option as it is issued fast and may be paid earlier. Besides, you are not asked to send any certificates to be approved.

The Association holds competitions in 24 sport activities (baseball, basketball, bowling, cross-country, fencing, field hockey, American football, golf, artistic gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, shooting, rowing, skiing, soccer (“European” football), softball, swimming and diving, tennis, athletics (indoor and outdoor tournaments), volleyball, beach volleyball, water polo and wrestling). This list is subject to change, in the coming years it may also include equestrian sports, rugby and triathlon.

The history of NCAA

Sports have always been extremely popular at US universities and colleges. The first “official” competition between student teams in the United States was held back in 1852, when the Harvard-Yale regatta (which later became traditional) was held on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. November 6, 1869 in New Jersey hosted a meeting between athletes Princeton and Rutgers, which went down in the history of American football as the “first match”. Known throughout the world as the benchmark for quality in higher education, the Ivy League was originally the name of a sports conference that brought together 8 universities in the Northeastern United States. At the same time, at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries, far from all the rules of a particular sport (even very popular ones) were regulated in sufficient detail, in addition, competitions often led to injuries, including very severe ones. It is not surprising that the creation of an association that could organize the sports life of American students at a sufficiently high level was a very urgent task.

The first such association in the United States was the American Collegiate Rowing Association, created back in 1870, which existed until 1894 and laid the foundations for future student sports leagues. In 1905, the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, organized a meeting between representatives of 13 colleges and universities, which resulted in the creation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) on March 31, 1906. In 1910, the IAAUS changed its name, becoming known to us today as the National Collegiate Sports Association.

Participants of the NCAA

The National Collegiate Sports Association is administratively divided into three divisions. The first includes about 350 educational institutions (more than 6,000 teams and 1.700 student athletes), which have a developed sports infrastructure, can offer their students larger “sports” scholarships, and, as a result, whose representatives seek for competitions of high results. Each university – a member of the first division is obliged to support at least 7 sport activities for both boys and girls, and at least two of them must be team sports.

There are also a number of other conditions that quite strictly stipulate the requirements for a university or college wishing to be a member of this most prestigious division. In turn, in the first division of the NCAA, two sub-divisions are allocated in relation to participation in competitions in American football: the teams of one of them play in the championship (Football Championship Subdivision), the participants of the other compete in cup matches (Football Bowl Subdivision), and the rest of the members of the division do not participate in football competitions in general.

In the second (about 300 participants) and third (more than 400 participants) divisions, the requirements for membership are somewhat lower, in particular, support is required for at least five sports for both boys and girls, including at least two team sports; the requirements for the availability of sports facilities are not so high; “sports” scholarships may only partially cover the cost of education. In total, the NCAA holds about 90 national championships in various sports (men’s and women’s, separately for all three divisions).

Each year, the top athletes who have played for the National University Sports Association are invited to the Big Four of American professional sports: NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL.

In addition to the actual sports awards to the winners of certain competitions, the association also awards special scholarships and prizes to athletes with high academic results; show high moral qualities; who served as inspiring examples and others.

The NCAA’s most honorable award is the Theodore Roosevelt Award, whose winners were outstanding athletes during their studies and subsequently became outstanding citizens of their country. Among the recipients of this award are former US Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush; US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; astronaut and Senator John Glenn; Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley; the famous athlete Jesse Owens and other famous Americans.

The Hall of Champions, a museum and exhibition center dedicated to college sports, has been established at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Category: General Health

Tags: sports, students