College Sports in the US- NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA
College Sports in the US- NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA
The U.S. intercollegiate sports system is quite a bit more complicated than people may know. In fact it's not even a single system - there are a total of 8 amateur intercollegiate sports organizations. However the three most popular organizations, by all accounts of student populations, viewership, and sports coverage in general capture over 90% of this student athlete landscape (not including “NIRSA” or the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association). You may have heard of them before - they’re the NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA. Here are some basic things you should know about each one.
NCAA
Quick History:
Intercollegiate sports started with the fierce competition between Harvard and Yale’s rowing teams in 1852, but later on they expanded into many other sports. In order to solve the problem of repeated injuries, and even deaths in collegiate football, president Roosevelt decided to hold white house meetings and established the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of United States (IAAUS) in 1906. It then officially switched its name to what is well known today - National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA.
Structure:
Simply put, it’s divided into Divisions I, II, and III. This occurred in 1973, due to the fact that member institutions grew rapidly and had to account for the differences in funding and athletic level of each team. As a result, the organization formed 3 divisions based on their willingness to distribute their financial resources and their level of athletics. Within each division, schools are then divided into conferences which are mostly related to geographical location. Usually, the competition level across sports within each conference is similar as well. Some notable conferences in Division I are: ACC, Big 10, Big 12, the Ivy League, PAC-12, and SEC. For most sports, the champion of each conference, as well as most nationally ranked teams will advance to the NCAA national tournament hosted in the postseason period of the sport, where the winner is crowned as the top team in all of Division I, II, or III respectively.
Population:
In the present day, the NCAA has already grown to an association consisting of 1098 institutions and 102 conferences that include 24 sports with nearly half a million student-athletes.
College Sports in the US- NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA
College Sports in the US- NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA
(It’s obvious that Division I is the most selective)
*Note: All the statistics above are provided by and belong to the NCAA, we merely recreated them as graphics to clearly represent the information as part of our blog
(Division II is the only one where all sports are allowed to distribute partial athletic scholarships)
Here’s a list of the sanctioned sports provided by the NCAA:
Recruiting:
Here’s a general list of standards most student athletes meet throughout their whole recruiting phase:
Make sure you’ve finished or will finish all the classes required based on the division that you want to attend
Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center
Graduate from high school in less than 5 years
Get in touch with coaches for schools you’re interested in
Do your diligence with coaches over time
Signing a National Letter of Intent to play for a certain school.
Keep in mind these are general a student athlete will go through. In reality, the exact timeline for recruitment, rules/regulations, and steps vary sport to sport.
Academics:
Being a student-athlete in the NCAA is not just about athletics, academic excellence is as important, if not more important. In order to be eligible to start your college career, you will have to accomplish 16 core classes with a certain GPA. Although there’s a slight difference between Division I and Division II, if you meet Division I requirements then you will also be eligible for Division II. Once you enter a college or university, there are many programs and resources dedicated to help you become successful not only on the athletic field but also in the classroom. Most schools will offer free tutoring, academic advisors and more, which contributes to the fact that student athletes actually maintain a higher graduation rate than the general student body on average.
NJCAA / NAIA
History:
While not as large as the NCAA, the NAIA and NJCAA organizations still house sizable numbers of athletes. The NAIA was unofficially started in 1938 in Kansas City, Missouri as the National College Basketball Tournament, however it got its official name in 1952 when it was officially founded. On the other end, the NJCAA was founded in 1938 in order to include 13 2-year institutions from California that were not allowed to have their athletes participate in the NCAA’s Track & Field Championships.
Student Athlete Population:
Both organizations as compared to the NCAA have much fewer student populations with the NJCAA and NAIA having approximately 59,000 and 65,000 student athletes respectively. This also seems to coincide with the sizes of the schools - as most community or junior colleges that belong to the NJCAA are smaller than bigger private or much bigger public institutions belonging to the NAIA or NCAA. These schools tend to have populations similar to the sizes of most Division III NCAA schools.
Structure:
The NJCAA is similar to the NCAA, fostering a 3-Division competitive playing field, with similar bylaws as to how the athletes can receive scholarships as well. However, the NAIA is structured with only 1 Division that presides over all sports - except for Basketball where it has Division I and Division II. The NAIA has 21 conferences in total located primarily in the Southern and Midwestern areas of the U.S., with a few located in California and pinpoint institutions independent of a conference all throughout the country. The NJCAA has 24 total conferences and is geographically much more spread out throughout the U.S., encompassing most major regions, given that it plays host to all the Junior or Community College athletics programs.
* Note: This conference graphic is courtesy of the NAIA official website and not our own representation
Recruiting:
The general process is mostly the same as the NCAA recruiting journey, however here are the key differences you need to know. In terms of the scholarship availability - both organizations have scholarship opportunities however there are certain GPA requirements and standards that differ from those of the NCAA. While the NAIA is slightly similar to the NCAA where it has regulations on campus visits and tours for athletes, one huge upside is that there is no regulation for contact between recruits and coaches - this means you can contact coaches whenever you’d like and they can do the same to you if they are interested; given the lower population of NAIA schools, you should definitely reach out first. The NJCAA is an organization that exists for students who are looking to do more personal development both in the classroom or on the playing field, which is why recruiting here is even less governed by rules.
Academics:
Junior or Community colleges are all 2 year Associate’s Degree or Technical Degree institutions - in other words, if you want to continue playing intercollegiate sports you will have to transfer to another school for the two remaining years of your collegiate career. The additional time can be used for your own personal development in the classroom or on the playing field. NAIA institutions are all predominantly 4-year institutions just as those of the NCAA and will provide several different degree opportunities, as varying by the institution. In general, they offer similar resources to student athletes as in the NCAA when it comes to academic advisory and tutoring, however there may be smaller nuances across different schools.
FINAL COMPARISON OF THE FACTS
Now, there are all these facts and stats (and many more coming soon), but what actual good are these without a comparison? When it comes to recruiting and academics, the steps taken for success are generally very similar for athletes seeking to play in college. However, in terms of rules and regulations there are clear cut differences. These vary on school levels as well as the organizations as a whole.
*Note: The statistics present in this graphic are all obtained from the organization websites
So of what use is this comparison anyway? It is important to keep in mind that we’re merely using the information presented earlier, and this doesn’t reflect our opinion for which organization is better for you. We can arrive to the conclusion that the NCAA due to its larger populations, wider reach, and presence in more institutions is simply a bigger organization and, as a result, may offer you greater opportunities. Ultimately it is up to you to decide which school you’d like to attend, and as a result the governing organization it falls under may have a great effect on your collegiate career.
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Smith, Rodney K. “A Brief History of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Role in Regulating Intercollegiate Athletics”, 11 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 9 (2000)
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/ncaa-101/what-ncaahttps://www.naia.org/about/about-ushttps://www.njcaa.org/about/history/indexhttps://www.naia.org/membership/2015-16/releases/20160411bcnqp
https://www.naia.org/about/about-us
https://www.njcaa.org/about/history/index
https://www.naia.org/membership/2015-16/releases/20160411bcnqp