What exactly is the National Collegiate Athletic Association?
Founded in 1906, the NCAA comprises approximately 1,024 schools, classified into three divisions. Division I has 326 schools, which tend to be the larger universities. Division II has 288 schools, which are mostly intermediate-size colleges. Schools in both of these categories offer athletic scholarships. The 420 Division III schools do not offer athletic scholarships. The NCAA sponsors 87 championships in 22 sports. Almost 362,000 men and women student athletes annually compete for the NCAA titles. Member colleges and universities pay the NCAA to establish and execute standards for determining individual students’ initial academic eligibility. In order to fulfill this responsibility, the NCAA has retained the ACT organization, which provides college entrance exams, to run the clearinghouse for determining a student’s academic eligibility. A student’s academic eligibility will determine whether he is able to practice, compete, and receive athletic scholarships. While the scholarship mo
