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NCAA Division I

NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers, with large budgets, more elaborate facilities and more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition.

This level was previously called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the lower-level College Division; these terms were replaced with numeric divisions in 1973. The University Division was renamed Division I, while the College Division was split in two; the College Division members that offered scholarships or wanted to compete against those who did became Division II, while those who did not want to offer scholarships became Division III.[1]

For college football only, D-I schools are further divided into the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and those institutions that do not have any football program. FBS teams have higher game attendance requirements and more players receiving athletic scholarships than FCS teams. The FBS is named for its series of postseason bowl games, with various polls ranking teams after the conclusion of these games, while the FCS national champion is determined by a multi-team bracket tournament.

For the 2020–21 school year, Division I contained 357 of the NCAA's 1,066 member institutions, with 130 in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), 127 in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and 100 non-football schools, with six additional schools in the transition from Division II to Division I.[2][3] There was a moratorium on any additional movement up to D-I until 2012, after which any school that wants to move to D-I must be accepted for membership by a conference and show the NCAA it has the financial ability to support a D-I program.

D-I schools

Schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender.[4][5] Teams that include both men and women are counted as men's sports for the purposes of sponsorship counting.[4] Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program, and there are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that a Division I school cannot exceed.[6] Several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III.[5] Members must sponsor at least one sport (not necessarily a team sport) for each sex in each playing season (fall, winter, spring), again with coeducational teams counted as men's teams for this purpose.[7] There are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria. For sports other than football and basketball, Division I schools must play all the minimum number of contests against Division I opponents—anything over the minimum number of games has to be 50 percent Division I. Men's and women's basketball teams have to play all but two games against Division I teams; for men, they must play one-third of all their contests in the home arena.[8]

In addition to the schools that compete fully as D-I institutions, the NCAA allows D-II and D-III schools to classify one men's and one women's sport (other than football or basketball) as a D-I sport, as long as they sponsored those sports before the latest rules change in 2011.[9] Also, Division II schools are eligible to compete for Division I national championships in sports that do not have a Division II national championship, and in those sports may also operate under D-I rules and scholarship limits.[10]

FBS and FCS

For football only, Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A (the principal football schools), Division I-AA (the other schools with football teams), and Division I (those schools not sponsoring football).[11][12] In 2006, Division I-A and I-AA were renamed "Football Bowl Subdivision" (FBS) and "Football Championship Subdivision" (FCS), respectively.

FBS teams are allowed a maximum of 85 players receiving athletically based aid per year, with each player on scholarship receiving a full scholarship. FCS teams have the same 85-player limit as FBS teams, but are allowed to give aid equivalent to only 63 full scholarships. FCS teams are allowed to award partial scholarships, a practice technically allowed but essentially never used at the FBS level. FBS teams also have to meet minimum game attendance requirements (average 15,000 people in actual or paid attendance per home game), while FCS teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements.

Another difference is postseason play. Since 1978, FCS teams have played in an NCAA-sanctioned bracket tournament culminating in a title game, the NCAA Division I Football Championship, to determine a national champion. Meanwhile, FBS teams play in bowl games, with various polls ranking teams after the conclusion of these games, yielding a Consensus National Champion annually since 1950. Starting with the 2014 postseason, a four-team College Football Playoff has been contested, replacing a one-game championship format that had started during the 1992 postseason with the Bowl Coalition. Even so, Division I FBS football remains the only NCAA sport in which a yearly champion is not determined by an NCAA-sanctioned championship event.

Finances

Division I athletic programs generated $8.7 billion in revenue in the 2009–2010 academic year. Men's teams provided 55%, women's teams 15%, and 30% was not categorized by sex or sport. Football and men's basketball are usually a university's only profitable sports,[13] and are called "revenue sports".[14] From 2008 to 2012, 205 varsity teams were dropped in NCAA Division I – 72 for women and 133 for men, with men's tennis, gymnastics and wrestling hit particularly hard.[15]

In the Football Bowl Subdivision (130 schools in 2017), between 50 and 60 percent of football and men's basketball programs generated positive revenues (above program expenses).[16] However, in the Football Championship Subdivision (124 schools in 2017), only four percent of football and five percent of men's basketball programs generated positive revenues.[17]

In 2012, 2% of athletic budgets were spent on equipment, uniforms and supplies for male athletes at NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision school, with the median spending per-school at $742,000.[18]

In 2014, the NCAA and the student athletes debated whether student athletes should be paid. In April, the NCAA approved students-athletes getting free unlimited meals and snacks. The NCAA stated "The adoption of the meals legislation finished a conversation that began in the Awards, Benefits, Expenses and Financial Aid Cabinet. Members have worked to find appropriate ways to ensure student-athletes get the nutrition they need without jeopardizing Pell Grants or other federal aid received by the neediest student-athletes. With their vote, members of the council said they believe loosening NCAA rules on what and when food can be provided from athletics departments is the best way to address the issue."[19]

According to the finance section of the NCAA page, "The NCAA receives most of its annual revenue from two sources: television and marketing rights for the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and ticket sales for all championships. That money is distributed in more than a dozen ways — almost all of which directly support NCAA schools, conferences and nearly half a million student-athletes. About 60% of the NCAA’s annual revenue — around $600 million — is annually distributed directly to Division I member schools and conferences, while more than $150 million funds Division I championships" (NCAA 2021).

https://www.ncaa.org/finances

Football conferences

Under NCAA regulations, all Division I conferences defined as "multisport conferences" must meet the following criteria:[20]

  • A total of at least seven active Division I members.
  • Separate from the above, at least seven active Division 1 members that sponsor both men's and women's basketball.
  • Sponsorship of at least 12 NCAA Division I sports.
  • Minimum of six men's sports, with the following additional restrictions:
    • Men's basketball is a mandatory sport, and at least seven members must sponsor that sport.
    • Non-football conferences must sponsor at least two men's team sports other than basketball.
    • At least six members must sponsor five men's sports other than basketball, including either football or two other team sports.
  • Minimum of six women's sports, with the following additional restrictions:
    • Women's basketball is a mandatory sport, with at least seven members sponsoring that sport.
    • At least two other women's team sports must be sponsored.
    • At least six members must sponsor five women's sports other than basketball, including either football or two other team sports. If a conference officially sponsors an NCAA "emerging sport" for women (as of 2020, acrobatics & tumbling, equestrianism, rugby union, triathlon, or wrestling), that sport will be counted if five members (instead of six) sponsor it.

FBS conferences

FBS conferences must meet a more stringent set of requirements for NCAA recognition than other conferences:[21]

  • A total of at least eight active FBS members.
  • To be counted toward this total, a school must participate in conference play in at least six men's and eight women's sports, including men's and women's basketball, football, and at least two other women's team sports.
    • Each school may count one men's and one women's sport not sponsored by its primary conference toward the above limits, as long as that sport competes in another Division I conference. The men's and women's sports so counted need not be the same sport.[5]
Conference Nickname Founded Members Sports Headquarters Total
NCAA
Titles
Men's
NCAA
Titles
Women's
NCAA
Titles
Co-ed
NCAA
Titles
American Athletic Conference The American 1979 [a] 11 [b][c][d] 22 Irving, Texas 55 37 18 0
Atlantic Coast Conference ACC 1953 15 [e] 27 [f] Greensboro, North Carolina 150 87 58 5
Big Ten Conference Big Ten 1896 14 [g][h] 28 Rosemont, Illinois 317 229 72 16
Big 12 Conference Big 12 1996 10 [i][j] 21 Irving, Texas 166 163 3 0
Conference USA C-USA 1995 [k] 11 [l][m] 18 Dallas, Texas 1 1 0 0
Division I FBS Independents[n] - - 7[o] 1 -
Mid-American Conference MAC 1946 12 [p] 24[q] Cleveland, Ohio 4 4 0 0
Mountain West Conference MW 1999 11 [r][s] 19 Colorado Springs, Colorado 21 13 5 3
Pac-12 Conference Pac-12 1915 [t] 12 [u][v] 24 San Francisco, California 501 309 174 18
Southeastern Conference SEC 1932 14 [w] 20 Birmingham, Alabama 223 118 104 1
Sun Belt Conference SBC 1976 14 [x] 18 [y] New Orleans, Louisiana 12 12 0 0

"Power Five" conferences with guaranteed berths in the New Year's Six, the bowl games associated with the College Football Playoff
"Group of Five" conferences

Notes
  1. ^ The conference was founded in 1979 as the original Big East Conference. It renamed itself the American Athletic Conference following a 2013 split along football lines. The non-FBS schools of the original conference left to form a new conference that purchased the Big East name, while the FBS schools continued to operate under the old Big East's charter and structure. The American also inherited the old Big East's Bowl Championship Series berth for the 2013 season, the last for the BCS.
  2. ^ 14 members in 2023 with the following changes:
  3. ^ 10 of the 11 full members sponsor football, with Wichita State as the only non-football member. Wichita State will remain the only non-football member after the 2023 membership changes.
  4. ^ In addition to the full members, nine schools have single-sport associate membership, and three are members in two sports. Five of the current associates (three single-sport, two multi-sport) will become full members in 2023.
    • Navy is a football-only member.
    • Future full members Charlotte and UAB are men's soccer members in 2022–23.
    • Florida, James Madison, and Vanderbilt are members in women's lacrosse.
    • Future full member Florida Atlantic, plus FIU, are members in men's soccer and women's swimming & diving. FIU will remain an associate after FAU joins The American full-time.
    • Sacramento State is a member in women's rowing.
    • Future full members North Texas and Rice are members in women's swimming & diving in 2022–23, though Rice fields only swimmers and no divers.
    • Old Dominion is a member in both women's lacrosse and women's rowing.
  5. ^ Notre Dame is a full member except in football, in which it remains independent. It has committed to play five games each season against ACC opponents, and to play each other ACC member at least once every three years.
  6. ^ 28 sports in 2023 with addition of women's gymnastics.
  7. ^ 16 members in 2024 with addition of UCLA and USC.
  8. ^ In addition to the full members, two schools have affiliate membership:
    • Johns Hopkins, otherwise a Division III member, is an affiliate in both men's and women's lacrosse, sports in which the school fields Division I teams.
    • Notre Dame is a men's hockey affiliate.
  9. ^ As many as 14 members in 2023 with addition of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF.
  10. ^ In addition to the full members, the Big 12 has 13 members that participate in only one sport.
  11. ^ The conference was founded in 1995, with football competition starting in 1996.
  12. ^ 9 members in 2023 with the following changes:
    • Loss of Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA.
    • Addition of Jacksonville State, Liberty, New Mexico State, and Sam Houston.
    • 10 members in 2024 with addition of Kennesaw State.
  13. ^ In addition to the full members, Conference USA features six schools that play a single sport in the conference.
  14. ^ Note that "Independents" is not a conference; it is simply a designation used for schools whose football programs do not play in any conference. All of these schools have conference memberships for other sports.
  15. ^ 4 independents in 2023 with BYU joining the Big 12 Conference, and Liberty and New Mexico State joining Conference USA.
  16. ^ In addition to the 12 full members, the Mid-American Conference features 21 single-sport members.
  17. ^ 23 sports in 2023 with dropping of men's soccer.
  18. ^ Since 2012, Hawaiʻi has been a football-only associate member, with most of its remaining teams in the non-football Big West Conference.
  19. ^ In addition to the 11 full members and football affiliate Hawaiʻi, Colorado College, a Division III school with a Division I men's ice hockey team, plays Division I women's soccer in the MW.
  20. ^ The charter of the Pac-12 dates only to the formation of the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in 1959. However, the Pac-12 claims the history of the Pacific Coast Conference, which was founded in 1915 and began competition in 1916, as its own. Of the nine members of the PCC at the time of its demise in June 1959, only Idaho never joined the Pac-12. The PCC's berth in the Rose Bowl passed to the AAWU.
  21. ^ 10 members in 2024 with loss of UCLA and USC.
  22. ^ The Pac-12 also includes four associate members, each of which competes in a single sport. San Diego State plays men's soccer, and Cal State Bakersfield, Cal Poly, and Little Rock compete in men's wrestling.
    • San Diego State will add women's lacrosse to its Pac-12 membership in 2023, and UC Davis will also join in that sport in 2023.
  23. ^ 16 members no later than 2025 with addition of Oklahoma and Texas.
  24. ^ In addition to the full members, the SBC has three associate members, all in men's soccer—Kentucky, South Carolina, and West Virginia. UCF will join this group in July 2023.
  25. ^ 20 sports no later than 2023 with addition of beach volleyball and women's swimming & diving.

FCS conferences

Conference Nickname Founded Football
members
Sports Headquarters
ASUN Conference ASUN 1978 6 [a] 21 Atlanta, Georgia
Big Sky Conference Big Sky 1963 12 [b] 16 Ogden, Utah
Big South Conference Big South 1983 6 [c] 19 [d] Charlotte, North Carolina
Colonial Athletic Association CAA 1979 13 [e][f] 21 Richmond, Virginia
Ivy League [g] 1954 8 33 Princeton, New Jersey
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference [h] MEAC 1970 6 [i] 14 Norfolk, Virginia
Missouri Valley Football Conference MVFC 1982 11 [j] 1 St. Louis, Missouri
Northeast Conference NEC 1981 8 [k] 24 Somerset, New Jersey
Ohio Valley Conference OVC 1948 7 [l][m] 18 [n] Brentwood, Tennessee
Patriot League 1986 7 [o] 24 Center Valley, Pennsylvania
Pioneer Football League PFL 1991 11 1 St. Louis, Missouri
Southern Conference SoCon 1921 9 [p] 20 Spartanburg, South Carolina
Southland Conference[q] Southland
SLC
1963 8 [r] 17 Frisco, Texas
Southwestern Athletic Conference [s] SWAC 1920 12 18 Birmingham, Alabama
Western Athletic Conference WAC 1962 6 [t] 20 Englewood, Colorado
Notes
  1. ^ Of the 14 full members, five do not sponsor football at all. Liberty plays as an FBS independent before moving to Conference USA in 2023, Stetson plays in the Pioneer Football League, and Bellarmine plays the non-NCAA and weight-restricted variant of sprint football in the Midwest Sprint Football League.
    • 12 full members and 5 football members in 2023 with loss of Jacksonville State and Liberty.
    • 11 full members and 4 football members in 2024 with loss of Kennesaw State.
  2. ^ The football membership consists of all 10 full members plus football-only affiliates Cal Poly and UC Davis.
  3. ^ Of the 10 full Big South members, six do not sponsor football at all, while a seventh (Presbyterian) is a member of the Pioneer Football League. The Big South football league includes three associate members: Bryant, North Carolina A&T, and Robert Morris.
    • The Big South will merge its football league with that of the Ohio Valley Conference in 2023, when Campbell and North Carolina A&T leave for CAA Football (with Campbell also entirely leaving the Big South).
  4. ^ Possibility of 18 sports in 2023, depending on organizational details of the impending Big South–OVC football merger.
  5. ^ Of the 13 full CAA members, five do not sponsor football at all, and North Carolina A&T will not play CAA football until 2023. The CAA football league, officially known as CAA Football and legally a separate entity from the all-sports CAA, includes six schools outside of the all-sports CAA: Albany, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Richmond, and Villanova.
  6. ^ 14 full members and 15 football members in 2023 with Campbell joining both sides of the league and North Carolina A&T joining CAA Football.
  7. ^ The Ivy League abstains from the championship tournament and all postseason play.
  8. ^ The MEAC champion, since 2015, forgoes its automatic bid to allow its champion to participate in the Celebration Bowl. Non-champions are eligible for at-large bids (an example being North Carolina A&T in 2016).
  9. ^ Of the 8 full MEAC members, two do not sponsor football: Coppin State and Maryland Eastern Shore.
  10. ^ 12 members in 2023 with addition of Murray State.
  11. ^ Of the 9 full NEC members, two do not sponsor football. The seven football-sponsoring schools are joined by associate member Duquesne.
  12. ^ Of the 10 full OVC members, Little Rock, SIU Edwardsville, and Southern Indiana do not sponsor football, while Morehead State competes in the Pioneer Football League. Murray State, which left the OVC in 2022, is a football associate in the 2022 season before joining the MVFC in 2023.
  13. ^ The OVC will merge its football league with that of the Big South Conference in 2023.
  14. ^ Possibility of 17 sports in 2023, depending on organizational details of the impending Big South–OVC football merger.
  15. ^ Of the 10 full Patriot members, American, Boston University, and Loyola (MD) do not sponsor football, while Army and Navy play FBS football. The five full members that play Patriot League football are joined by associates Fordham and Georgetown.
  16. ^ Of the 10 full SoCon members, only UNC Greensboro does not sponsor football.
  17. ^ The Southland Conference has announced its plan to adopt a new name in the near future, most likely after the 2022–23 school year.
  18. ^ Of the 10 full Southland members, two do not sponsor football: New Orleans and Texas A&M–Corpus Christi.
  19. ^ The SWAC abstains from the championship tournament to allow for a longer regular season, an in-conference championship game and the winner participating in the Celebration Bowl. If a team is not in the championship game and not playing a regular season game on the 1st weekend of the FCS Playoffs. They could qualify for a At-Large bid to play if selected.
  20. ^ Of the 13 full WAC members, California Baptist, Grand Canyon, Seattle, UT Arlington, Utah Valley, and UTRGV do not sponsor football at all, while New Mexico State plays as an FBS independent.
    • 11 full members and 4 football members in 2023 with loss of New Mexico State and Sam Houston.
    • 5 football members no later than 2025 with UTRGV adding football.

Sports

Men's team sports

No. Sport Founded Teams[22] Conf. Scholarships
per team
Season Most
Championships
1 Football 1869 (FBS)[23]
1978 (FCS)[24]
257
(130 FBS,
127 FCS)
24
(10 FBS,
14 FCS)
85 (FBS)
63.0 (FCS)
Fall Princeton (28)
2 Basketball 1939[25] 351 32 13 Winter UCLA (11)
3 Baseball 1947[26] 299 30 11.7 Spring USC (12)
4 Soccer 1959[27] 204 23 {9.9 Fall Saint Louis (10)
5 Ice Hockey 1948[28] 61 6 18.0 Winter Michigan (9)
6 Lacrosse 1971[29] 74 10 12.6 Spring Syracuse (10)
7 Volleyball 1970[30] 29 5 4.5 Spring UCLA (19)
8 Water polo 1969[31] 25 4 4.5 Fall California (14)

Sports are ranked according to total possible scholarships (number of teams x number of scholarships per team). Scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a decimal point. Numbers for equivalency sports are indicated with a decimal point, with a trailing zero if needed.

Notes:

The NCAA officially classifies the men's championships in volleyball and water polo as "National Collegiate" championships, that being the designation for championships that are open to members of more than one NCAA division. The ice hockey championship, however, is styled as a "Division I" championship because of the previous existence of a separate Division II championship in that sport.
  • Football — D-I football programs are divided into FBS and FCS. The 128 FBS programs can award financial aid to as many as 85 players, with each player able to receive up to a full scholarship. The 124 FCS programs can award up to the equivalent of 63 full scholarships, divided among no more than 85 individuals. Some FCS conferences restrict scholarships to a lower level or prohibit scholarships altogether.
  • Soccer — As of the next NCAA soccer season in 2023, part of the 2023–24 academic year, four of the 10 FBS conferences will not sponsor men's soccer—the Big 12, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, and the SEC. Several other D-I conferences also do not sponsor the sport—the Big Sky, MEAC, Mountain West, Ohio Valley, Southland, and SWAC. The Sun Belt Conference is the most recent conference to add men's soccer, reinstating its league for the 2022 season after having dropped the sport after the 2020–21 academic year. Conference USA shut down its league after losing most of its men's soccer membership to the Sun Belt Conference, followed by the American Athletic Conference taking in C-USA's remaining four teams (three of which will fully join The American in 2023) as associate members for 2022. The MAC was reduced to 5 men's soccer members in the 2022 season, and shut down its league at the end of that season after being unable to find the sixth member needed to maintain its automatic NCAA tournament bid. Of its final men's soccer members, three moved that sport to the Missouri Valley Conference and one to the Big East Conference.
  • Ice Hockey — Almost all D-I ice hockey programs are in the Northeast, the Upper Midwest, or the Colorado Front Range. Only one D-I all-sports conference, the Big Ten, sponsors a men's hockey league. All other conferences operate as hockey-specific leagues. Of the 61 teams competing in D-I hockey in 2022–23, 22 are otherwise classified as either D-II or D-III; a number of schools from D-II play in D-I ice hockey as the NCAA no longer sponsors a championship in D-II and many have traditional/cultural fan bases that support ice hockey, and the D-III schools were "grandfathered" in to D-I through their having sponsored hockey prior to the creation of D-III.
  • Lacrosse — The vast majority of D-I lacrosse programs are from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Only five D-I programs are not in the Eastern Time ZoneAir Force and Denver on the Colorado Front Range, Lindenwood on the Missouri side of the St. Louis metropolitan area, Marquette in Milwaukee, and Utah.
  • Volleyball — Of the traditional D-I conferences, only the Big West Conference and Northeast Conference sponsor men's volleyball, with those conferences respectively adding the sport in 2017–18 and 2022–23. Two of the other three major volleyball conferences, defined in that sport as leagues that include full Division I members, are volleyball-specific conferences; the third is the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, a multi-sport conference that does not sponsor football or basketball. In addition to the D-I schools, 31 D-II schools are competing in the National Collegiate division in 2022–23; eight of these are members of Conference Carolinas, the first all-sports league outside Division III to sponsor the sport, and six are members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
  • Water Polo — The number of D-I schools sponsoring men's water polo has declined from 35 in 1987/88 to 22 in 2010/11.[32] No school outside of California has ever made the finals of the championship, and all champions since 1998 have come from one of the four California-based Pac-12 schools.

Men's individual sports

The following table lists the men's individual D-I sports with at least 1,000 participating athletes. Sports are ranked by number of athletes.

No. Sport Founded Teams (2022)[33] Teams (1982)[33] Change Athletes[33] Season
1 Track (outdoor) 1921[34] 287 230 +57 11,387 Spring
2 Track (indoor) 1965[35] 264 209 +55 10,369 Winter
3 Cross country 1938[36] 315 256 +59 5,032 Fall
4 Swimming & diving 1937[37] 130 181 –51 3,826 Winter
5 Golf 1939[38] 292 263 +29 2,958 Spring
6 Wrestling 1928[39] 76 146 –70 2,665 Winter
7 Tennis 1946[40] 233 267 –34 2,293 Spring

D-I college wrestling has lost almost half of its programs since 1982.[41]

Women's team sports

No. Sport Founded Teams[33] Conf. Scholarships
per team
Season Most Championships
1 Basketball 1982 348 32 15 Winter UConn (11)
2 Soccer 1982 335 31 14.0 Fall North Carolina (21)
3 Volleyball 1981 332 32 12* Fall Stanford (9)
4 Softball 1982 293 32 12.0 Spring UCLA (12)
5 Rowing 1997 87 12 20.0 Spring Brown (7)
6 Lacrosse 1982 119 13 12.0 Spring Maryland (14)
7 Field Hockey 1981 77 10 12.0 Fall Old Dominion (9)
8 Ice Hockey 2001 34 5 18.0 Winter Minnesota, Wisconsin (6)
9 Beach volleyball 2016 62 5 6.0* Spring USC (4)
10 Water polo 2001 34 6 8.0 Spring Stanford (8)
Notes
  • As in the men's table above, sports are ranked in order of total possible scholarships. Numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a decimal point; those for equivalency sports are indicated with a decimal point, with a trailing zero if needed.
  • Women's soccer is the fastest growing NCAA D-I women's team sport over a prolonged period, increasing from 22 teams in 1981–82 to 335 teams in 2021–22.[33] However, in recent years, the fastest-growing has been beach volleyball, which went from 14 Division I teams in 2011–12 to 62 in 2021–22.
  • = Since the 2016–17 school year, rugby is classified by the NCAA as an "emerging sport" for women. Beach volleyball, which had previously been an "emerging sport" under the name of "sand volleyball",[42] became an official NCAA championship sport in 2015–16.[43]
  • * = The number of scholarships are partially linked for (indoor) volleyball and beach volleyball. Schools that field both indoor and beach volleyball teams are allowed 6.0 full scholarship equivalents specifically for beach volleyball as of 2016–17, with the further limitations that (1) no player receiving aid for beach volleyball can be on the indoor volleyball roster and (2) a maximum of 14 individuals can receive aid in beach volleyball. If a school fields only a beach volleyball team, it is allowed 8.0 full scholarship equivalents for that sport, also distributed among no more than 14 individuals.

Women's individual sports

The following table lists the women's individual D-I sports with at least 1,000 participating athletes. Sports are ranked by number of athletes.

No. Sport Teams (2022)[33] Teams (1982)[33] Change Athletes[33] Season
1 Track (outdoor) 339 180 +159 13,672 Spring
2 Track (indoor) 331 127 +204 13,404 Winter
3 Cross country 347 183 +164 5,896 Fall
4 Swimming & diving 190 161 +29 5,886 Winter
5 Tennis 300 246 +54 2,817 Spring
6 Golf 262 83 +179 2,229 Spring
7 Gymnastics 61 99 –38 1,258 Winter

Broadcasting and revenue

NCAA Division I schools have broadcasting contracts that showcase their more popular sports — typically football and men's basketball — on network television and in basic cable channels. These contracts can be quite lucrative, particularly for D-I schools from the biggest conferences. For example, the Big Ten conference in 2016 entered into contracts with Fox and ESPN that pay the conference $2.64 billion over six years.

The NCAA also holds certain TV contracts. For example, the NCAA's contract to show the men's basketball championship tournament (widely known as March Madness) is currently under a 14-year deal with CBS and Turner that runs from 2010 to 2024 and pays $11 billion.

For the 2014–15 fiscal year, the conferences that earned the most revenues (and that distributed the most revenues to each of their member schools) were:

  1. SEC — $527 million (dispersed $33 million to each of its member schools)
  2. Big 10 — $449 million (dispersed $32 million each)
  3. Pac-12 — $439 million (dispersed $25 million each)
  4. ACC — $403 million (dispersed $26 million each)
  5. Big 12 — $268 million (dispersed $23 million each)
U.S. college sports TV rights
Sports rights Sport National TV contract Total Revenues
(Per Year)
Ref
NCAA March Madness Basketball CBS, Turner $8.8B ($1.1B)
College Football Playoff Football ESPN $5.6B ($470m)
Pac-12 Conference All Fox, ESPN $3.0B ($250m)
Big Ten Conference (Big Ten/B1G) All Fox, ESPN, CBS $2.6B ($440m) [44]
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) All ESPN $3.6B ($240m)
Big 12 Conference All Fox, ESPN $2.6B ($200m)
Southeastern Conference (SEC) All CBS, ESPN $2.6B ($205m)
American Athletic Conference All ESPN $910m ($130m)
Mountain West Conference (MW) All CBS, ESPN $116m ($18m) [45]
Mid-American Conference (MAC) All ESPN $100m ($8m) [46]

Scholarship limits by sport

The NCAA has limits on the total financial aid each Division I member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. It divides sports that are sponsored into two types for purposes of scholarship limitations:

  • "Head-count" sports, in which the NCAA limits the total number of individuals that can receive athletic scholarships, but allows each player to receive up to a full scholarship.
  • "Equivalency" sports, in which the NCAA limits the total financial aid that a school can offer in a given sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships. Roster limitations may or may not apply, depending on the sport.

The term "counter" is also key to this concept. The NCAA defines a "counter" as "an individual who is receiving institutional financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport."[47]

The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in each sport is listed below. In this table, scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a decimal point; for equivalency sports, they are listed with a decimal point, with a trailing zero if required.

  1. ^ This total is also subject to the following restrictions:
    • The number of total counters is limited to 27.[49]
    • Each counter must receive "athletically related and other countable financial aid" equal to at least 25% of a full scholarship.[50] Most institutional and governmental non-athletic aid falls in the "countable" category;[51] an official NCAA rules interpretation also allows schools to count aid that would otherwise be exempt by NCAA rule (such as purely academic awards) toward the 25% limit, as long as it also is included in the calculations for the team equivalency limit.[52] The 25% rule does not apply to baseball schools that offer only need-based aid (such as Ivy League members).[53] A second exception to the 25% rule, added in 2012, is for players in their final year of athletic eligibility who have not previously received athletically related aid in baseball at any college.[54]
  2. ^ This total is for schools that also sponsor women's indoor volleyball.[57] If a school does not sponsor women's indoor volleyball, it is allowed 8.0 equivalents for beach volleyball.[58] For all schools, the maximum number of counters in beach volleyball is 14.[57][58]
  3. ^ If a school sponsors men's cross-country but does not sponsor either indoor or outdoor track and field for men, it is allowed 5.0 scholarship equivalents for that sport.[60]
  4. ^ If a school sponsors women's cross-country but does not sponsor either indoor or outdoor track and field for women, it is allowed 6.0 scholarship equivalents for that sport.[60]
  5. ^ FBS programs are also limited to 25 new counters per school year.[61]
  6. ^ FCS programs are also limited to 85 total counters per school year.[62] Effective with the recruiting cycle for the 2018–19 school year, the previous limit of 30 new counters per year for FCS programs has been removed.[63]
  7. ^ The number of total counters is limited to 30.[65]
  8. ^ The NCAA Division I Manual does not include any scholarship limitations for women's ice hockey. These limitations are instead found in the Division II Manual.[66] The Division II Manual does not include any limit on total counters for any sport, including women's ice hockey.
  9. ^ NCAA rifle competition is fully coeducational. For purposes of sports sponsorship, the NCAA classifies teams that include both men and women as men's teams.[67] Of the 33 NCAA rifle schools (23 in Division I, 4 in Division II, and 6 in Division III), 22 field a single coed/mixed team. Six schools (five in Division I and one in Division III) field women-only teams. Schools are also allowed to field any combination of men's, women's, and mixed teams; several NCAA rifle schools field two types of teams, but none currently fields all three types. The scholarship limits are per school, not per team.

Rules for multi-sport athletes

The NCAA also has rules specifying the sport in which multi-sport athletes are to be counted, with the basic rules being:[68]

  • Anyone who participates in football is counted in that sport, even if he does not receive financial aid from the football program. An exception exists for players at non-scholarship FCS programs who receive aid in another sport.[69]
  • Participants in basketball are counted in that sport, unless they also play football.
  • Participants in men's ice hockey are counted in that sport, unless they also play football or basketball.
  • Participants in both men's swimming and diving and men's water polo are counted in swimming and diving, unless they count in football or basketball.
  • Participants in women's (indoor) volleyball are counted in that sport unless they also play basketball.
  • All other multi-sport athletes are counted in whichever sport the school chooses.

Football subdivisions

Subdivisions in Division I exist only in football.[70][71] In all other sports, all Division I conferences are equivalent. The subdivisions were recently given names to reflect the differing levels of football play in them.

The method by which the NCAA determines whether a school is Bowl or Championship subdivision is first by attendance numbers and then by scholarships.[72] For attendance reporting methods, the NCAA allows schools to report either total tickets sold or the number of persons in attendance at the games. They require a minimum average of 15,000 people in attendance every other year.[72] These numbers get posted to the NCAA statistics website for football each year. With the new rules starting in the 2006 season, the number of Bowl Subdivision schools could drop in the future if those schools are not able to pull in enough fans into the games. Additionally, 14 FCS schools had enough attendance to be moved up in 2012.[73] Under current NCAA rules, these schools must have an invitation from an FBS conference in order to move to FBS. Three of them—Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, and Old Dominion—began FBS transitions in 2013. All had the required FBS conference invitations, with Old Dominion joining Conference USA in 2013, and Appalachian State and Georgia Southern joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2014. The difference in the postseasons in each of the subdivisions grant the FCS an advantage to have the best record in college football history, 17–0, while the FBS only allows a 15–0 record.

Football Bowl Subdivision

Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the top level of college football. Schools in Division I FBS compete in post-season bowl games, with the champions of five conferences, along with the highest-ranked champion of the other five conferences, receiving automatic bids to the access bowls.

FBS schools are limited to a total of 85 football players receiving financial assistance.[74] For competitive reasons, a student receiving partial scholarship counts fully against the total of 85. Nearly all FBS schools that are not on NCAA probation give 85 full scholarships.

As of the 2022 college football season, there are 130 full members of Division I FBS, plus one transitional school that is considered an FBS member for scheduling purposes. The most recent school to become a full FBS member is Liberty University, which made the transition from FCS in 2017 and 2018. The next school to become a full FBS member is James Madison University, which joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2022. Because JMU met FBS scheduling requirements (specifically five home games against FBS opposition) in 2022, it was allowed to skip the first year of the normal two-year transitional process, making it eligible for bowl games in 2023.

Since the 2016 season, all FBS conferences have been allowed to conduct a championship game that does not count against the limit of 12 regular-season contests. Under the current rules, most recently changed in advance of the 2022 season, conferences have complete freedom to determine the participants in their championship games.[75] From 2016 to 2021, FBS rules allowed such a game to be held either (1) between the winners of each of two divisions, with each team having played a full round-robin schedule within its division, or (2) between the conference's top two teams after a full round-robin conference schedule.[76] Before 2016, "exempt" championship games could only be held between the divisional winners of conferences that had at least 12 football teams and split into divisions.[77][78] The prize is normally a specific bowl game bid for which the conference has a tie-in.

Some conferences have numbers in their names but this often has no relation to the number of member institutions in the conference. The Big Ten Conference did not formally adopt the "Big Ten" name until 1987, but unofficially used that name when it had 10 members from 1917 to 1946, and again from 1949 forward. However, it has continued to use the name even after it expanded to 11 members with the addition of Penn State in 1990, 12 with the addition of Nebraska in 2011, and 14 with the arrival of Maryland and Rutgers in 2014. The Big 12 Conference was established in 1996 with 12 members, but continues to use that name even after a number of departures and a few replacements left the conference with 10 members. On the other hand, the Pac-12 Conference has used names (official or unofficial) that have reflected the number of members since its current charter was established in 1959. The conference unofficially used "Big Five" (1959–62), "Big Six" (1962–64), and "Pacific-8" (1964–68) before officially adopting the "Pacific-8" name. The name duly changed to "Pacific-10" in 1978 with the addition of Arizona and Arizona State, and "Pac-12" (instead of "Pacific-12") in 2011 when Colorado and Utah joined. Conferences also tend to ignore their regional names when adding new schools. For example, the Pac-8/10/12 retained its "Pacific" moniker even though its four newest members (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah) are located in the inland West, and the original Big East kept its name even after adding schools (either in all sports or for football only) located in areas traditionally considered to be in the Midwest (Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, Notre Dame), Upper South (Louisville, Memphis) and Southwest (Houston, SMU). The non-football conference that assumed the Big East name when the original Big East split in 2013 is another example of this phenomenon, as half of its 10 inaugural schools (Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Marquette, Xavier) are traditionally regarded as being Midwestern.

Conferences

Conference Nickname Founded Members Sports Headquarters
American Athletic Conference *** The American 1979 [a] 11 [b][c][d] 22 Providence, Rhode Island
Atlantic Coast Conference ** ACC 1953 15 [e] 27 [f] Greensboro, North Carolina
Big Ten Conference ** Big Ten, B1G 1896 14 [g][h] 28 Rosemont, Illinois
Big 12 Conference ** Big 12 1996 10 [i][j] 21 Irving, Texas
Conference USA *** C-USA 1995 [k] 11 [l][m][n] 18 Dallas, Texas
Division I FBS Independents [o] 7 [p]
Mid-American Conference *** MAC 1946 12 [q] 24[r] Cleveland, Ohio
Mountain West Conference *** MW 1999 11 [s][t] 19 Colorado Springs, Colorado
Pac-12 Conference ** Pac-12 1915 [u] 12 [v][w] 24 Walnut Creek, California
Southeastern Conference ** SEC 1932 14 [x] 20 Birmingham, Alabama
Sun Belt Conference *** Sun Belt, SBC 1976 14 [y] 18 [z] New Orleans, Louisiana

**"Big Five" or "Power Five" conferences with guaranteed berths in the "access bowls" associated with the College Football Playoff
***"Group of Five" conferences

Notes
  1. ^ The conference was founded in 1979 as the original Big East Conference. It renamed itself the American Athletic Conference following a 2013 split along football lines. The non-FBS schools of the original conference left to form a new conference that purchased the Big East name, while the FBS schools continued to operate under the old Big East's charter and structure. The American also inherited the old Big East's Bowl Championship Series berth for the 2013 season, the last for the BCS.
  2. ^ 10 of the 11 full members sponsor football, with Wichita State as the only non-football member.
  3. ^ In addition to the full members, nine schools have single-sport associate membership, and three others are members in two sports. Five of these schools will fully join The American in 2023.
    • Navy is a football-only member.
    • Future full members Charlotte and UAB are men's soccer members in 2022–23.
    • Florida, James Madison, Old Dominion, and Vanderbilt are members in women's lacrosse.
    • Future full member Florida Atlantic, plus FIU, are members in both men's soccer and women's swimming & diving. FIU will continue as an associate after FAU fully joins The American.
    • Future full members North Texas and Rice are women's swimming & diving members in 2022–23 (though Rice fields only swimmers and no divers).
    • Old Dominion and Sacramento State are members in women's rowing.
  4. ^ 14 members (both full and football) in 2023 with the following changes:
  5. ^ Notre Dame is a full member except in football, in which it remains independent. It has committed to play at least five games each season against ACC opponents, and to play each other ACC member at least once every three years.
  6. ^ 26 sports by NCAA count; the ACC sponsors separate championships in men's and women's fencing, a sport in which the NCAA organizes a single coeducational championship event.
    • 28 sports (27 by NCAA count) in 2023 with addition of women's gymnastics.
  7. ^ In addition to the full members, two schools have affiliate membership:
    • Johns Hopkins, otherwise a Division III member, is an affiliate in both men's and women's lacrosse, sports in which the school fields Division I teams.
    • Notre Dame is a men's hockey affiliate.
  8. ^ 16 members in 2024 with addition of UCLA and USC.
  9. ^ As many as 14 members in 2023 with addition of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF.
  10. ^ In addition to the full members, the Big 12 has 13 members that participate in only one sport.
  11. ^ The conference was founded in 1995, with football competition starting in 1996.
  12. ^ 9 members in 2023 with the following changes:
  13. ^ 10 members in 2024 with addition of Kennesaw State.
  14. ^ In addition to the full members, Conference USA features six schools that play one sport in the conference.
  15. ^ Note that "Independents" is not a conference; it is simply a designation used for schools whose football programs do not play in any conference. All of these schools have conference memberships for other sports.
  16. ^ 4 independents in 2023 with BYU joining the Big 12 Conference, and Liberty and New Mexico State joining Conference USA.
  17. ^ In addition to the 12 full members, the Mid-American Conference features 21 members that participate in a single sport.
  18. ^ Possibility of 23 sports in 2023 with potential dropping of men's soccer.
  19. ^ Since 2012, Hawaiʻi has been a football-only associate member, with most of its remaining teams in the non-football Big West Conference.
  20. ^ In addition to the 11 full members and football affiliate Hawaiʻi, Colorado College, a Division III school with a Division I men's ice hockey team, plays Division I women's soccer in the MW.
  21. ^ The charter of the Pac-12 dates only to the formation of the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in 1959. However, the Pac-12 claims the history of the Pacific Coast Conference, which was founded in 1915 and began competition in 1916, as its own. Of the nine members of the PCC at the time of its demise in June 1959, only Idaho never joined the Pac-12. The PCC's berth in the Rose Bowl passed to the AAWU.
  22. ^ The Pac-12 also includes four associate members, each of which competes in a single sport. San Diego State plays men's soccer. Cal State Bakersfield, Cal Poly, and Little Rock compete in wrestling.
    • UC Davis will become a women's lacrosse member in 2023, with San Diego State adding women's lacrosse to its Pac-12 membership at that time.
  23. ^ 10 members in 2024 with loss of UCLA and USC.
  24. ^ 16 members no later than 2025 with addition of Oklahoma and Texas.
  25. ^ In addition to the 14 full members, three schools are men's soccer affiliates—Kentucky, South Carolina, and West Virginia. UCF will join this group in 2023.
  26. ^ At least 20 sports in 2023 with planned addition of beach volleyball and women's swimming & diving.

Football Championship Subdivision

The Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, consists of 130 teams as of the 2022 season, with all participating in one of 14 conferences.[79] The "I-AA" designation was dropped by the NCAA in 2006, although it is still informally and commonly used. FCS teams are limited to 63 players on scholarship (compared to 85 for FBS teams) and usually play an 11-game schedule (compared to 12 games for FBS teams).[80] The FCS determines its national champion through an NCAA-sanctioned single-elimination bracket tournament, culminating in a title game, the NCAA Division I Football Championship.[81] As of the 2018 season, the tournament begins with 24 teams; 10 conference champions that received automatic bids, and 14 teams selected at-large by a selection committee.[82]

The postseason tournament traditionally begins on Thanksgiving weekend in late November. When I-AA was formed 44 years ago in 1978,[11] the playoffs included just four teams for its first three seasons, doubling to eight teams for one season in 1981.[83] From 1982 to 1985, there was a 12-team tournament; this expanded to 16 teams in 1986. The playoffs expanded to 20 teams starting in 2010, then grew to 24 teams in 2013. Since the 2010 season, the title game is held in early January at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. From 1997 through 2009, the title game was played in December in Chattanooga, Tennessee, preceded by five seasons in Huntington, West Virginia.[84]

Abstainers

The Football Championship Subdivision includes several conferences which do not participate in the eponymous post-season championship tournament.

The Ivy League was reclassified to I-AA (FCS) following the 1981 season,[85] and plays a strict ten-game schedule. Although it qualifies for an automatic bid, the Ivy League has not played any postseason games at all since becoming a conference for the 1956 NCAA University Division football season, citing academic concerns. (The last college which is now an Ivy League member to play in a bowl game was Columbia in the 1934 Rose Bowl.)

The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) has its own championship game in mid-December between the champions of its East and West divisions. Also, three of its member schools traditionally do not finish their regular seasons until Thanksgiving weekend. Grambling State and Southern play each other in the Bayou Classic, and Alabama State plays Tuskegee (of Division II) in the Turkey Day Classic. SWAC teams are eligible to accept at-large bids if their schedule is not in conflict. The last SWAC team to participate in the I-AA playoffs was Jackson State in 1997; the SWAC never achieved success in the tournament, going winless in 19 games in twenty years (1978–97). It had greater success outside the conference while in Division II and the preceding College Division.

From 2006 through 2009, the Pioneer Football League and Northeast Conference champions played in the Gridiron Classic. If a league champion was invited to the national championship playoff as an at-large bid (something the Pioneer league, at least, never received), the second-place team would play in the Gridiron Classic. That game was scrapped after the 2009 season when its four-year contract ran out; this coincided with the NCAA's announcement that the Northeast Conference would get an automatic bid to the tournament starting in 2010. The Big South Conference also received an automatic bid in the same season. The Pioneer Football League earned an automatic bid beginning in 2013.

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) began abstaining from the playoffs with the 2015 season. Like the SWAC, its members are eligible for at-large bids, and the two conferences have faced off in the Celebration Bowl as an alternative postseason game since the 2015 season.

Schools in a transition period after joining the FCS from a lower division (or from the NAIA) are also ineligible for the playoffs.

Scholarships

Division I FCS schools are currently restricted to giving financial assistance amounting to 63 full scholarships. As FCS football is an "equivalency" sport (as opposed to the "head-count" status of FBS football), Championship Subdivision schools may divide their allotment into partial scholarships. However, FCS schools may only have 85 players receiving any sort of athletic financial aid for football—the same numeric limit as FBS schools. Because of competitive forces, however, a substantial number of players in Championship Subdivision programs are on full scholarships. Another difference is that FCS schools no longer have a limit on the number of new players that can be provided with financial aid in a given season, while FBS schools are limited to 25 such additions per season. Finally, FCS schools are limited to 95 individuals participating in preseason practices, as opposed to 105 at FBS schools (the three service academies that play FBS football are exempt from preseason practice player limits by NCAA rule).

A few Championship Subdivision conferences are composed of schools that offer no athletic scholarships at all, most notably the Ivy League and the Pioneer Football League (PFL), a football-only conference. The Ivy League allows no athletic scholarships at all, while the PFL consists of schools that offer scholarships in other sports but choose not to take on the expense of a scholarship football program. The Northeast Conference also sponsored non-scholarship football, but began offering a maximum of 30 full scholarship equivalents in 2006, which grew to 40 in 2011 after a later vote of the league's school presidents and athletic directors and has since increased to 45.[86] The Patriot League only began awarding football scholarships in the 2013 season, with the first scholarships awarded only to incoming freshmen. Before the conference began its transition to scholarship football, athletes receiving scholarships in other sports were ineligible to play football for member schools. Since the completion of the transition with the 2016 season, member schools have been allowed up to 60 full scholarship equivalents.[87]

Conferences

Conference Nickname Founded Members Sports Headquarters FCS Tournament Bid
ASUN Conference ASUN 1978 14 [a][b][c] 21 Atlanta, Georgia Automatic (shared)[d]
Big Sky Conference Big Sky 1963 10 [e][f] 16 Ogden, Utah Automatic
Big South Conference Big South 1983 10 [g][h][i] 19 [j] Charlotte, North Carolina Automatic
Colonial Athletic Association CAA 1983 [k] 13 [l][m][n] 21[o] Richmond, Virginia Automatic
Division I FCS Independents [p] 0
Ivy League Ivy League 1954 [q] 8 33 Princeton, New Jersey Automatic – (Abstains)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference MEAC 1970 8 [r][s] 14 Norfolk, Virginia Abstains
Missouri Valley Football Conference MVFC 1985 [t] 11 [u] 1 St. Louis, Missouri Automatic
Northeast Conference NEC 1981 9 [v][w] 24 Somerset, New Jersey Automatic
Ohio Valley Conference OVC 1948 10 [x][y][z] 18 [aa] Brentwood, Tennessee Automatic
Patriot League Patriot 1986 [ab] 10 [ac][ad] 23 Center Valley, Pennsylvania Automatic
Pioneer Football League PFL 1991 11 1 St. Louis, Missouri Automatic
Southern Conference SoCon 1921 10 [ae] 20 Spartanburg, South Carolina Automatic
Southland Conference[af] SLC 1963 10 [ag][ah] 18 Frisco, Texas Automatic
Southwestern Athletic Conference SWAC 1920 12 18 Birmingham, Alabama Abstains
Western Athletic Conference WAC 1962 13 [ai][aj] 20 Englewood, Colorado Automatic (shared)[d]
Notes
  1. ^ Of the 14 full members, five do not sponsor football at all. Three play football outside of the ASUN—Liberty as an FBS independent, Stetson in the Pioneer Football League, and Bellarmine outside of NCAA control in the weight-restricted variant of sprint football.
  2. ^ In addition to the full members, the ASUN has 12 associate members that participate in at least one sport.
  3. ^ 12 full members and 5 football members in 2023 with loss of Jacksonville State and Liberty.
    • 11 full members and 4 football members in 2024 with loss of Kennesaw State.
  4. ^ a b The ASUN and WAC are partners in a football alliance that has one automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.
  5. ^ 12 football members with Cal Poly and UC Davis, both full members of the non-football Big West Conference, as football-only affiliates.
  6. ^ In addition to the full members and football affiliates, Binghamton and Hartford are associate members in men's golf. Hartford will leave in 2023 as part of its planned transition to NCAA Division III.
  7. ^ The Big South has three full members that compete for its football championship, plus three football-only associates in Bryant, North Carolina A&T, and Robert Morris.
    • The Big South will merge its football league with that of the Ohio Valley Conference in 2023, when Campbell leaves for both sides of the CAA and North Carolina A&T joins CAA Football.
  8. ^ 9 members in 2023 with loss of Campbell.
  9. ^ In addition to the full members and football affiliates, Furman, Mercer, and Wofford are associate members in women's lacrosse.
  10. ^ Potentially 18 sports in 2023, depending on organizational details of the Big South–OVC football merger.
  11. ^ The CAA football conference, officially known as CAA Football and legally a separate entity from the all-sports CAA, was only founded in 2007, but has a continuous history dating to the late 1930s (although not under the same charter):
    • The New England Conference was formed by five New England state universities, plus one private university in that region (Northeastern), in 1938. Four of the public schools—Maine, UMass, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island—were in the CAA football conference through the 2011 season. However, UMass football left for the MAC in 2012. URI football initially planned to leave for the Northeast Conference in 2013, but decided to remain in the CAA.
    • In 1946, the four then-remaining members of the New England Conference affiliated with two other schools to form the Yankee Conference under a separate charter, with athletic competition starting in 1947.
    • In 1997, the Yankee Conference was absorbed by the Atlantic 10 Conference. The A-10 inherited the Yankee Conference's automatic berth in the Division I-AA (now FCS) playoffs. In addition to the four charter New England Conference members mentioned above, five other members of the Yankee Conference at the time of the A10 merger are still in the CAA football conference.
    • After the 2006 season, all of the A-10 football teams left for the new CAA football conference. CAA Football inherited the A10's automatic berth in the FCS playoffs.
  12. ^ The CAA has 13 full members, but only seven of them are part of CAA Football. Currently, six associate members fill out the ranks of CAA Football: Albany, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Richmond, and Villanova. Villanova is also a CAA associate in women's rowing.
  13. ^ 14 full members and 15 football members in 2023 with the following changes:
    • Addition of Campbell to both sides of the league.
    • Addition of all-sports member North Carolina A&T to CAA Football.
  14. ^ In addition to the CAA Football associates, the CAA has four associate members that each participate in one sport:
  15. ^ 21 sports under CAA administration, with the all-sports CAA also governing CAA Football.
  16. ^ Note that "Independents" is not a conference; it is simply a designation used for schools whose football programs do not play in any conference. All of these schools have conference memberships for other sports.
  17. ^ Although the conference considers 1954 to be its founding date, the athletic league's origins go back to the turn of the 20th century.
    • The Ivy League considers the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League (EIBL), a men's basketball-only conference founded in 1901, as part of its history. Every school that had been an EIBL member would become part of the Ivy League.
    • In 1945, the eight schools that would eventually form the athletic Ivy League entered into the Ivy Group Agreement, which governed football competition between the schools. The original agreement was renewed in 1952.
    • The official founding date of 1954 reflects the extension of the Ivy Group Agreement to all sports. As part of the agreement, Brown, the only one of the original Ivy Group that had not joined the EIBL, did so. All-sports competition began in 1955, with the EIBL directly absorbed into the new league.
  18. ^ The football conference currently consists of 6 of the 8 member schools.
  19. ^ In addition to the full members, Monmouth, North Carolina A&T, and UAB participate in women's bowling.
  20. ^ The football conference dates to 1985, but the conference charter was established in 1982. See History of the Missouri Valley Football Conference for more details.
  21. ^ 12 members in 2023 with addition of Murray State.
  22. ^ The conference has 7 full members that sponsor football. Duquesne of the non-football Atlantic 10 is a football associate.
  23. ^ In addition to Duquesne, which is also an NEC associate in bowling, the NEC has 10 other associate members that participate in one or more sports.
    • Coppin State and Norfolk State are associates only in baseball.
    • Daemen and D'Youville, both Division II members, are associates in men's volleyball, a sport with a combined D-I and D-II championship.
    • Delaware State competes in baseball and women's golf. It will add women's lacrosse and women's soccer to its NEC membership in 2023.
    • Fairfield and Rider are field hockey associates.
    • Howard competes in men's and women's golf, women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, and men's and women's swimming & diving.
    • Maryland Eastern Shore competes in baseball and men's and women's golf.
    • North Carolina Central is an associate in men's and women's golf.
  24. ^ The football conference consists of 6 of the 10 member schools, plus Murray State, a former full member that is playing OVC football in the 2022 season before joining the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2023. Morehead State plays non-scholarship football in the Pioneer Football League, while Little Rock, SIU Edwardsville, and Southern Indiana do not sponsor football.
  25. ^ In addition to the full members, Chattanooga is an associate in beach volleyball. Murray State is also a rifle associate, and will remain so after the football team departs in 2023.
  26. ^ The OVC will merge its football league with that of the Big South Conference in 2023.
  27. ^ Possibility of 17 sports in 2023, depending on organizational details of the impending Big South–OVC football merger.
  28. ^ The Patriot League was founded as the football-only Colonial League in 1986. In 1990, it became an all-sports conference and adopted its current name.
  29. ^ Five of the full members do not sponsor FCS football. American, Boston University and Loyola (Maryland) do not sponsor football at all; Army is an FBS independent; and Navy plays in the American Athletic Conference. Fordham and Georgetown are associate members in football.
  30. ^ In addition to the football associates, two other schools have single-sport membership:
    • MIT, otherwise a Division III institution, is an associate in women's rowing.
    • Richmond is a women's golf associate.
  31. ^ In addition to the full members, the SoCon currently has 9 associate members, each of which plays one sport in the conference.
  32. ^ The Southland Conference has announced that it will adopt a new name in the near future, most likely after the 2022–23 school year.
  33. ^ The football conference currently consists of 8 of the 10 member schools.
  34. ^ In addition to the full members, six schools are associate members in one or more sports.
    • Augusta, otherwise a Division II member, competes in both men's and women's golf.
    • Boise State and San Jose State compete in beach volleyball.
    • Bryant competes in men's & women's golf and tennis.
    • Francis Marion, otherwise Division II, competes in men's golf.
    • NJIT competes in men's and women's tennis.
  35. ^ 13 full members and 6 football members. Of the full members, six do not sponsor football at all, while New Mexico State plays as an FBS independent.
    • 10 full members and 4 football members in 2023 with loss of New Mexico State and Sam Houston.
    • 10 full members and 5 football members no later than 2025 with addition of football by full member UTRGV.
  36. ^ In addition to the full members and football associates, the WAC currently has 8 associate members that house one or two sports in the conference:

Division I non-football schools

Several Bowl Subdivision and Championship Subdivision conferences have member institutions that do not compete in football. Such schools are sometimes unofficially referred to as I-AAA.[88]

The following non-football conferences have full members that sponsor football:

The following Division I conferences do not sponsor football. These conferences still compete in Division I for all sports that they sponsor.

Conferences

Notes
  1. ^ In addition to the full members, there are five associate members:
  2. ^ In addition to the full members, four schools are single-sport associates:
  3. ^ The current Big East was formed in 2013 as a result of the split of the original Big East Conference. The original conference charter was retained by the football-sponsoring schools now known as the American Athletic Conference. While both leagues claim 1979 as their founding date, the current Big East maintains the history of the original conference in all sports that it sponsors. The pre-split histories of Big East football and rowing—the two sports that are sponsored by The American but not the current Big East—are not recognized by either offshoot conference.
  4. ^ In addition to the full members, the following schools are Big East affiliates in one or more sports:
  5. ^ 22 NCAA-sanctioned sports plus the non-NCAA and fully coeducational esports.
  6. ^ In addition to the full members, Sacramento State is a member in beach volleyball and men's soccer.
  7. ^ In addition to the full members, the following schools are Horizon affiliates in tennis:
  8. ^ Note that "Independents" is not a conference, it is simply a designation used to indicate schools which are not a member of any conference.
  9. ^ Chicago State and Hartford.
  10. ^ In addition to the full members, 14 other schools are MAAC affiliates in at least one sport.
  11. ^ 23 NCAA-recognized sports plus two non-NCAA sports, esports (fully coeducational) and men's rowing.
  12. ^ In addition to the full members, three schools house one sport in the conference:
  13. ^ In addition to the full members, three schools are single-sport associates, and three others house multiple sports in the conference.
  14. ^ 9 members in 2023 with loss of BYU.
  15. ^ In addition to the full members, Creighton is an associate member in women's rowing.

Of these, the two that most recently sponsored football were the Atlantic 10 and MAAC. The A-10 football league dissolved in 2006 with its members going to CAA Football, the technically separate football league operated by the all-sports Colonial Athletic Association. In addition, four A-10 schools (Dayton, Fordham, Duquesne, and Massachusetts) play football in a conference other CAA Football, which still includes two full-time A-10 members (Rhode Island and Richmond). The MAAC stopped sponsoring football in 2007, after most of its members gradually stopped fielding teams. Among current MAAC members that were in the conference before 2007, only Marist, which plays in the Pioneer Football League, still sponsors football.

From 2013 to 2021, the Western Athletic Conference was a non-football league, having dropped football after a near-complete membership turnover that saw the conference stripped of all but two of its football-sponsoring members. The two remaining football-sponsoring schools, Idaho and New Mexico State, played the 2013 season as FBS independents before becoming football-only members of the Sun Belt Conference in 2014. Both left Sun Belt football in 2018, with Idaho downgrading to FCS status and adding football to its all-sports Big Sky Conference membership and New Mexico State becoming an FBS independent. The WAC added two more football-sponsoring schools with the 2020 arrival of Tarleton and Utah Tech (then Dixie State) from Division II; both schools planned to be FCS independents for the foreseeable future. The WAC would reinstate football at the FCS level in 2021, coinciding with the arrival of four new members with FCS football;[89][90] for its first season, it entered into a formal partnership with the ASUN Conference to give it enough playoff-eligible members to receive an automatic playoff berth.[91] This partnership was renewed for the 2022 season, with five ASUN and three WAC schools participating, though each conference will play its own schedule.[92]

Division I in ice hockey

 
Providence College Friars play Cornell in the NCAA Hockey East Regional at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, April 7, 2019

Some sports, most notably ice hockey[93] and men's volleyball, have completely different conference structures that operate outside of the normal NCAA sports conference structure.

As ice hockey is limited to a much smaller number of almost exclusively Northern schools, there is a completely different conference structure for teams.[93] These conferences feature a mix of teams that play their other sports in various Division I conferences, and even Division II and Division III schools. For most of the early 21st century, there was no correlation between a team's ice hockey affiliation and its affiliation for other sports, with the exception of the Ivy League's hockey-playing schools all being members of the ECAC. For example, before 2013, the Hockey East men's conference consisted of one ACC school, one Big East school, four schools from the America East, one from the A-10, one CAA school, and two schools from the D-II Northeast-10 Conference, while the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) and Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) both had some Big Ten representation, plus Division II and III schools. Also, the divisional structure is truncated, with the Division II championship abolished in 1999.

The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ceased its sponsorship of the sport in 2003,[94] with the remaining members forming Atlantic Hockey. For the next decade, no regular all-sport conferences sponsored ice hockey.

Starting with the 2013–14 season, Division I men's hockey experienced a major realignment. The Big Ten Conference began to sponsor ice hockey, and their institutions withdrew their membership from the WCHA and CCHA.[95] Additionally, six other schools from those conferences withdrew to form the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference at the same time.[96][unreliable source?] The fallout from these moves led to the demise of the original CCHA, two more teams entering the NCHC, and further membership turnover in the men's side of the WCHA.

Women's hockey was largely unaffected by this realignment. The Big Ten still has only four members with varsity women's hockey (full members Michigan and Michigan State only ice men's teams, as does hockey-only member Notre Dame), with six teams required under conference bylaws for official sponsorship. As a result, the only changes in women's hockey affiliations in the 2010–14 period occurred in College Hockey America, which saw two schools drop the sport and three new members join.

The next significant realignment took place after the 2020–21 season, when seven of the 10 then-current men's members of the WCHA left to form a revived CCHA,[97] which in turn led to the demise of the men's side of the WCHA.[98]

Conferences

Conference Nickname Founded Members Men Women
Atlantic Hockey AHA 1997 10 [a] 10 none
Big Ten Conference Big Ten, B1G 1896 [b] 7 7 none
Central Collegiate Hockey Association CCHA 1971,
2020 [c]
8 [d] 8 none
College Hockey America CHA 1999 [e] 5 [f] none 6
ECAC Hockey N/A 1961 [g] 12 12 12
Hockey East HEA 1984 [h] 12 11 10
Independents 6 [i] 6 none
National Collegiate Hockey Conference NCHC 2011 [j] 8 8 none
New England Women's Hockey Alliance NEWHA 2018 [k] 7 [l] none 7
Western Collegiate Hockey Association WCHA 1951 [m] 8 none 8
Notes
  1. ^ 11 members in 2023 with return of Robert Morris.
  2. ^ Founded as an all-sports conference in 1896, but did not sponsor ice hockey until 2013–14.
  3. ^ First version founded in 1971 and disbanded in 2013; reestablished in 2020, with play resuming in 2021–22. The current CCHA considers the original league to be part of its history.
  4. ^ 9 members in 2023 with addition of Augustana (SD).
  5. ^ Founded as a men's-only conference in 1999, with women's hockey added in 2002. Men's hockey was dropped after the 2009–10 season.
  6. ^ 6 members in 2023 with return of Robert Morris.
  7. ^ Founded as a men's-only conference in 1961. A women's invitational tournament was first held in 1985; regular-season play began informally in 1988 before becoming officially sponsored in 1992. Originally part of the Eastern College Athletic Conference, but independent of that body since 2004.
  8. ^ Founded as a men's-only conference in 1984, with women's hockey added in 2002.
  9. ^ Alaska, Alaska Anchorage, Arizona State, Lindenwood, LIU, and Stonehill.
  10. ^ Date of founding; play began in 2013–14.
  11. ^ Founded as a scheduling alliance in 2017; formally organized as a conference in 2018. Received official NCAA recognition in 2019.
  12. ^ 8 members in 2023 with addition of Assumption.
  13. ^ Founded as a men's-only conference in 1951, with women's hockey added in 1999. Men's hockey was dropped after the 2020–21 season.

Classification debate

In the early 21st century, a controversy arose in the NCAA over whether schools will continue to be allowed to have one showcased program in Division I with the remainder of the athletic program in a lower division, as is the case of, notably, Johns Hopkins University lacrosse as well as Colorado College and University of Alabama in Huntsville in ice hockey. This is an especially important issue in hockey, which has no Division II national championship and has several schools whose other athletic programs compete in Division II and Division III.

This controversy was resolved at the 2004 NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee when the members supported Proposal 65–1, the amended legislation co-sponsored by Colorado College, Clarkson University, Hartwick College, the Johns Hopkins University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rutgers University–Newark, St. Lawrence University, and SUNY Oneonta.[99][100] Each school affected by this debate is allowed to grant financial aid to student-athletes who compete in Division I programs in one men's sport and one women's sport. It is still permitted for other schools to place one men's and one women's sport in Division I going forward, but they cannot offer scholarships without bringing the whole program into compliance with Division I rules. In addition, schools in Divisions II and III are allowed to "play up" in any sport that does not have a championship for the school's own division, but only Division II programs and any Division III programs covered by the exemption can offer scholarships in those sports.

Five Division I programs at "waiver schools" were grandfathered with the passing of Proposal 65-1:

An additional three programs were grandfathered in Proposal 65-1 but no longer are sponsored in Division I:

See also

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External links

  • Official website  

ncaa, division, defending, champions, list, current, champions, highest, level, intercollegiate, athletics, sanctioned, national, collegiate, athletic, association, ncaa, united, states, which, accepts, players, globally, schools, include, major, collegiate, a. For defending NCAA Division I champions see List of current NCAA Division I champions NCAA Division I D I is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAA in the United States which accepts players globally D I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers with large budgets more elaborate facilities and more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition This level was previously called the University Division of the NCAA in contrast to the lower level College Division these terms were replaced with numeric divisions in 1973 The University Division was renamed Division I while the College Division was split in two the College Division members that offered scholarships or wanted to compete against those who did became Division II while those who did not want to offer scholarships became Division III 1 For college football only D I schools are further divided into the Football Bowl Subdivision FBS the Football Championship Subdivision FCS and those institutions that do not have any football program FBS teams have higher game attendance requirements and more players receiving athletic scholarships than FCS teams The FBS is named for its series of postseason bowl games with various polls ranking teams after the conclusion of these games while the FCS national champion is determined by a multi team bracket tournament For the 2020 21 school year Division I contained 357 of the NCAA s 1 066 member institutions with 130 in the Football Bowl Subdivision FBS 127 in the Football Championship Subdivision FCS and 100 non football schools with six additional schools in the transition from Division II to Division I 2 3 There was a moratorium on any additional movement up to D I until 2012 after which any school that wants to move to D I must be accepted for membership by a conference and show the NCAA it has the financial ability to support a D I program Contents 1 D I schools 1 1 FBS and FCS 2 Finances 3 Football conferences 3 1 FBS conferences 3 2 FCS conferences 4 Sports 4 1 Men s team sports 4 2 Men s individual sports 4 3 Women s team sports 4 4 Women s individual sports 5 Broadcasting and revenue 6 Scholarship limits by sport 6 1 Rules for multi sport athletes 7 Football subdivisions 7 1 Football Bowl Subdivision 7 2 Conferences 7 3 Football Championship Subdivision 7 4 Abstainers 7 5 Scholarships 7 6 Conferences 7 7 Division I non football schools 7 7 1 Conferences 8 Division I in ice hockey 8 1 Conferences 9 Classification debate 10 See also 11 References 12 External linksD I schools EditSchools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women with at least two team sports for each gender 4 5 Teams that include both men and women are counted as men s sports for the purposes of sponsorship counting 4 Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program and there are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that a Division I school cannot exceed 6 Several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III 5 Members must sponsor at least one sport not necessarily a team sport for each sex in each playing season fall winter spring again with coeducational teams counted as men s teams for this purpose 7 There are contest and participant minimums for each sport as well as scheduling criteria For sports other than football and basketball Division I schools must play all the minimum number of contests against Division I opponents anything over the minimum number of games has to be 50 percent Division I Men s and women s basketball teams have to play all but two games against Division I teams for men they must play one third of all their contests in the home arena 8 In addition to the schools that compete fully as D I institutions the NCAA allows D II and D III schools to classify one men s and one women s sport other than football or basketball as a D I sport as long as they sponsored those sports before the latest rules change in 2011 9 Also Division II schools are eligible to compete for Division I national championships in sports that do not have a Division II national championship and in those sports may also operate under D I rules and scholarship limits 10 FBS and FCS Edit For football only Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I A the principal football schools Division I AA the other schools with football teams and Division I those schools not sponsoring football 11 12 In 2006 Division I A and I AA were renamed Football Bowl Subdivision FBS and Football Championship Subdivision FCS respectively FBS teams are allowed a maximum of 85 players receiving athletically based aid per year with each player on scholarship receiving a full scholarship FCS teams have the same 85 player limit as FBS teams but are allowed to give aid equivalent to only 63 full scholarships FCS teams are allowed to award partial scholarships a practice technically allowed but essentially never used at the FBS level FBS teams also have to meet minimum game attendance requirements average 15 000 people in actual or paid attendance per home game while FCS teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements Another difference is postseason play Since 1978 FCS teams have played in an NCAA sanctioned bracket tournament culminating in a title game the NCAA Division I Football Championship to determine a national champion Meanwhile FBS teams play in bowl games with various polls ranking teams after the conclusion of these games yielding a Consensus National Champion annually since 1950 Starting with the 2014 postseason a four team College Football Playoff has been contested replacing a one game championship format that had started during the 1992 postseason with the Bowl Coalition Even so Division I FBS football remains the only NCAA sport in which a yearly champion is not determined by an NCAA sanctioned championship event Finances EditDivision I athletic programs generated 8 7 billion in revenue in the 2009 2010 academic year Men s teams provided 55 women s teams 15 and 30 was not categorized by sex or sport Football and men s basketball are usually a university s only profitable sports 13 and are called revenue sports 14 From 2008 to 2012 205 varsity teams were dropped in NCAA Division I 72 for women and 133 for men with men s tennis gymnastics and wrestling hit particularly hard 15 In the Football Bowl Subdivision 130 schools in 2017 between 50 and 60 percent of football and men s basketball programs generated positive revenues above program expenses 16 However in the Football Championship Subdivision 124 schools in 2017 only four percent of football and five percent of men s basketball programs generated positive revenues 17 In 2012 2 of athletic budgets were spent on equipment uniforms and supplies for male athletes at NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision school with the median spending per school at 742 000 18 In 2014 the NCAA and the student athletes debated whether student athletes should be paid In April the NCAA approved students athletes getting free unlimited meals and snacks The NCAA stated The adoption of the meals legislation finished a conversation that began in the Awards Benefits Expenses and Financial Aid Cabinet Members have worked to find appropriate ways to ensure student athletes get the nutrition they need without jeopardizing Pell Grants or other federal aid received by the neediest student athletes With their vote members of the council said they believe loosening NCAA rules on what and when food can be provided from athletics departments is the best way to address the issue 19 According to the finance section of the NCAA page The NCAA receives most of its annual revenue from two sources television and marketing rights for the Division I Men s Basketball Championship and ticket sales for all championships That money is distributed in more than a dozen ways almost all of which directly support NCAA schools conferences and nearly half a million student athletes About 60 of the NCAA s annual revenue around 600 million is annually distributed directly to Division I member schools and conferences while more than 150 million funds Division I championships NCAA 2021 https www ncaa org financesFootball conferences EditUnder NCAA regulations all Division I conferences defined as multisport conferences must meet the following criteria 20 A total of at least seven active Division I members Separate from the above at least seven active Division 1 members that sponsor both men s and women s basketball Sponsorship of at least 12 NCAA Division I sports Minimum of six men s sports with the following additional restrictions Men s basketball is a mandatory sport and at least seven members must sponsor that sport Non football conferences must sponsor at least two men s team sports other than basketball At least six members must sponsor five men s sports other than basketball including either football or two other team sports Minimum of six women s sports with the following additional restrictions Women s basketball is a mandatory sport with at least seven members sponsoring that sport At least two other women s team sports must be sponsored At least six members must sponsor five women s sports other than basketball including either football or two other team sports If a conference officially sponsors an NCAA emerging sport for women as of 2020 acrobatics amp tumbling equestrianism rugby union triathlon or wrestling that sport will be counted if five members instead of six sponsor it FBS conferences Edit FBS conferences must meet a more stringent set of requirements for NCAA recognition than other conferences 21 A total of at least eight active FBS members To be counted toward this total a school must participate in conference play in at least six men s and eight women s sports including men s and women s basketball football and at least two other women s team sports Each school may count one men s and one women s sport not sponsored by its primary conference toward the above limits as long as that sport competes in another Division I conference The men s and women s sports so counted need not be the same sport 5 Conference Nickname Founded Members Sports Headquarters TotalNCAATitles Men sNCAA Titles Women sNCAA Titles Co edNCAA TitlesAmerican Athletic Conference The American 1979 a 11 b c d 22 Irving Texas 55 37 18 0Atlantic Coast Conference ACC 1953 15 e 27 f Greensboro North Carolina 150 87 58 5Big Ten Conference Big Ten 1896 14 g h 28 Rosemont Illinois 317 229 72 16Big 12 Conference Big 12 1996 10 i j 21 Irving Texas 166 163 3 0Conference USA C USA 1995 k 11 l m 18 Dallas Texas 1 1 0 0Division I FBS Independents n 7 o 1 Mid American Conference MAC 1946 12 p 24 q Cleveland Ohio 4 4 0 0Mountain West Conference MW 1999 11 r s 19 Colorado Springs Colorado 21 13 5 3Pac 12 Conference Pac 12 1915 t 12 u v 24 San Francisco California 501 309 174 18Southeastern Conference SEC 1932 14 w 20 Birmingham Alabama 223 118 104 1Sun Belt Conference SBC 1976 14 x 18 y New Orleans Louisiana 12 12 0 0 Power Five conferences with guaranteed berths in the New Year s Six the bowl games associated with the College Football Playoff Group of Five conferences See also List of NCAA Division I FBS football programs Notes The conference was founded in 1979 as the original Big East Conference It renamed itself the American Athletic Conference following a 2013 split along football lines The non FBS schools of the original conference left to form a new conference that purchased the Big East name while the FBS schools continued to operate under the old Big East s charter and structure The American also inherited the old Big East s Bowl Championship Series berth for the 2013 season the last for the BCS 14 members in 2023 with the following changes Loss of Cincinnati Houston and UCF Addition of Charlotte Florida Atlantic North Texas Rice UAB and UTSA 10 of the 11 full members sponsor football with Wichita State as the only non football member Wichita State will remain the only non football member after the 2023 membership changes In addition to the full members nine schools have single sport associate membership and three are members in two sports Five of the current associates three single sport two multi sport will become full members in 2023 Navy is a football only member Future full members Charlotte and UAB are men s soccer members in 2022 23 Florida James Madison and Vanderbilt are members in women s lacrosse Future full member Florida Atlantic plus FIU are members in men s soccer and women s swimming amp diving FIU will remain an associate after FAU joins The American full time Sacramento State is a member in women s rowing Future full members North Texas and Rice are members in women s swimming amp diving in 2022 23 though Rice fields only swimmers and no divers Old Dominion is a member in both women s lacrosse and women s rowing Notre Dame is a full member except in football in which it remains independent It has committed to play five games each season against ACC opponents and to play each other ACC member at least once every three years 28 sports in 2023 with addition of women s gymnastics 16 members in 2024 with addition of UCLA and USC In addition to the full members two schools have affiliate membership Johns Hopkins otherwise a Division III member is an affiliate in both men s and women s lacrosse sports in which the school fields Division I teams Notre Dame is a men s hockey affiliate As many as 14 members in 2023 with addition of BYU Cincinnati Houston and UCF 12 members no later than 2025 with loss of Oklahoma and Texas In addition to the full members the Big 12 has 13 members that participate in only one sport Air Force California Baptist Missouri North Dakota State Northern Colorado Northern Iowa South Dakota State Utah Valley and Wyoming compete in men s wrestling Fresno State competes in equestrian Alabama and Tennessee are members in women s rowing Denver is a member in women s gymnastics The conference was founded in 1995 with football competition starting in 1996 9 members in 2023 with the following changes Loss of Charlotte Florida Atlantic North Texas Rice UAB and UTSA Addition of Jacksonville State Liberty New Mexico State and Sam Houston 10 members in 2024 with addition of Kennesaw State In addition to the full members Conference USA features six schools that play a single sport in the conference Coastal Carolina Georgia State Louisiana Monroe Southern Miss and Tulane are members in beach volleyball All but Tulane will leave in 2023 when those schools full time home of the Sun Belt Conference adds beach volleyball Dallas Baptist a Division II member that plays D I baseball is a baseball only member Note that Independents is not a conference it is simply a designation used for schools whose football programs do not play in any conference All of these schools have conference memberships for other sports 4 independents in 2023 with BYU joining the Big 12 Conference and Liberty and New Mexico State joining Conference USA In addition to the 12 full members the Mid American Conference features 21 single sport members Appalachian State Bellarmine and Longwood compete in women s field hockey Binghamton competes in men s tennis Chicago State competes in men s soccer Detroit Mercy Robert Morris and Youngstown State compete in women s lacrosse Evansville Missouri State Southern Illinois UIC and Valparaiso compete in men s swimming and diving though Valparaiso fields no divers Bloomsburg Clarion Cleveland State Edinboro George Mason Lock Haven Rider and SIU Edwardsville compete in men s wrestling 23 sports in 2023 with dropping of men s soccer Since 2012 Hawaiʻi has been a football only associate member with most of its remaining teams in the non football Big West Conference In addition to the 11 full members and football affiliate Hawaiʻi Colorado College a Division III school with a Division I men s ice hockey team plays Division I women s soccer in the MW The charter of the Pac 12 dates only to the formation of the Athletic Association of Western Universities AAWU in 1959 However the Pac 12 claims the history of the Pacific Coast Conference which was founded in 1915 and began competition in 1916 as its own Of the nine members of the PCC at the time of its demise in June 1959 only Idaho never joined the Pac 12 The PCC s berth in the Rose Bowl passed to the AAWU 10 members in 2024 with loss of UCLA and USC The Pac 12 also includes four associate members each of which competes in a single sport San Diego State plays men s soccer and Cal State Bakersfield Cal Poly and Little Rock compete in men s wrestling San Diego State will add women s lacrosse to its Pac 12 membership in 2023 and UC Davis will also join in that sport in 2023 16 members no later than 2025 with addition of Oklahoma and Texas In addition to the full members the SBC has three associate members all in men s soccer Kentucky South Carolina and West Virginia UCF will join this group in July 2023 20 sports no later than 2023 with addition of beach volleyball and women s swimming amp diving FCS conferences Edit Conference Nickname Founded Footballmembers Sports HeadquartersASUN Conference ASUN 1978 6 a 21 Atlanta GeorgiaBig Sky Conference Big Sky 1963 12 b 16 Ogden UtahBig South Conference Big South 1983 6 c 19 d Charlotte North CarolinaColonial Athletic Association CAA 1979 13 e f 21 Richmond VirginiaIvy League g 1954 8 33 Princeton New JerseyMid Eastern Athletic Conference h MEAC 1970 6 i 14 Norfolk VirginiaMissouri Valley Football Conference MVFC 1982 11 j 1 St Louis MissouriNortheast Conference NEC 1981 8 k 24 Somerset New JerseyOhio Valley Conference OVC 1948 7 l m 18 n Brentwood TennesseePatriot League 1986 7 o 24 Center Valley PennsylvaniaPioneer Football League PFL 1991 11 1 St Louis MissouriSouthern Conference SoCon 1921 9 p 20 Spartanburg South CarolinaSouthland Conference q SouthlandSLC 1963 8 r 17 Frisco TexasSouthwestern Athletic Conference s SWAC 1920 12 18 Birmingham AlabamaWestern Athletic Conference WAC 1962 6 t 20 Englewood ColoradoSee also List of NCAA Division I FCS football programs Notes Of the 14 full members five do not sponsor football at all Liberty plays as an FBS independent before moving to Conference USA in 2023 Stetson plays in the Pioneer Football League and Bellarmine plays the non NCAA and weight restricted variant of sprint football in the Midwest Sprint Football League 12 full members and 5 football members in 2023 with loss of Jacksonville State and Liberty 11 full members and 4 football members in 2024 with loss of Kennesaw State The football membership consists of all 10 full members plus football only affiliates Cal Poly and UC Davis Of the 10 full Big South members six do not sponsor football at all while a seventh Presbyterian is a member of the Pioneer Football League The Big South football league includes three associate members Bryant North Carolina A amp T and Robert Morris The Big South will merge its football league with that of the Ohio Valley Conference in 2023 when Campbell and North Carolina A amp T leave for CAA Football with Campbell also entirely leaving the Big South Possibility of 18 sports in 2023 depending on organizational details of the impending Big South OVC football merger Of the 13 full CAA members five do not sponsor football at all and North Carolina A amp T will not play CAA football until 2023 The CAA football league officially known as CAA Football and legally a separate entity from the all sports CAA includes six schools outside of the all sports CAA Albany Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island Richmond and Villanova 14 full members and 15 football members in 2023 with Campbell joining both sides of the league and North Carolina A amp T joining CAA Football The Ivy League abstains from the championship tournament and all postseason play The MEAC champion since 2015 forgoes its automatic bid to allow its champion to participate in the Celebration Bowl Non champions are eligible for at large bids an example being North Carolina A amp T in 2016 Of the 8 full MEAC members two do not sponsor football Coppin State and Maryland Eastern Shore 12 members in 2023 with addition of Murray State Of the 9 full NEC members two do not sponsor football The seven football sponsoring schools are joined by associate member Duquesne Of the 10 full OVC members Little Rock SIU Edwardsville and Southern Indiana do not sponsor football while Morehead State competes in the Pioneer Football League Murray State which left the OVC in 2022 is a football associate in the 2022 season before joining the MVFC in 2023 The OVC will merge its football league with that of the Big South Conference in 2023 Possibility of 17 sports in 2023 depending on organizational details of the impending Big South OVC football merger Of the 10 full Patriot members American Boston University and Loyola MD do not sponsor football while Army and Navy play FBS football The five full members that play Patriot League football are joined by associates Fordham and Georgetown Of the 10 full SoCon members only UNC Greensboro does not sponsor football The Southland Conference has announced its plan to adopt a new name in the near future most likely after the 2022 23 school year Of the 10 full Southland members two do not sponsor football New Orleans and Texas A amp M Corpus Christi The SWAC abstains from the championship tournament to allow for a longer regular season an in conference championship game and the winner participating in the Celebration Bowl If a team is not in the championship game and not playing a regular season game on the 1st weekend of the FCS Playoffs They could qualify for a At Large bid to play if selected Of the 13 full WAC members California Baptist Grand Canyon Seattle UT Arlington Utah Valley and UTRGV do not sponsor football at all while New Mexico State plays as an FBS independent 11 full members and 4 football members in 2023 with loss of New Mexico State and Sam Houston 5 football members no later than 2025 with UTRGV adding football Sports EditMen s team sports Edit No Sport Founded Teams 22 Conf Scholarshipsper team Season Most Championships1 Football 1869 FBS 23 1978 FCS 24 257 130 FBS 127 FCS 24 10 FBS 14 FCS 85 FBS 63 0 FCS Fall Princeton 28 2 Basketball 1939 25 351 32 13 Winter UCLA 11 3 Baseball 1947 26 299 30 11 7 Spring USC 12 4 Soccer 1959 27 204 23 9 9 Fall Saint Louis 10 5 Ice Hockey 1948 28 61 6 18 0 Winter Michigan 9 6 Lacrosse 1971 29 74 10 12 6 Spring Syracuse 10 7 Volleyball 1970 30 29 5 4 5 Spring UCLA 19 8 Water polo 1969 31 25 4 4 5 Fall California 14 Sports are ranked according to total possible scholarships number of teams x number of scholarships per team Scholarship numbers for head count sports are indicated without a decimal point Numbers for equivalency sports are indicated with a decimal point with a trailing zero if needed Notes The NCAA officially classifies the men s championships in volleyball and water polo as National Collegiate championships that being the designation for championships that are open to members of more than one NCAA division The ice hockey championship however is styled as a Division I championship because of the previous existence of a separate Division II championship in that sport Football D I football programs are divided into FBS and FCS The 128 FBS programs can award financial aid to as many as 85 players with each player able to receive up to a full scholarship The 124 FCS programs can award up to the equivalent of 63 full scholarships divided among no more than 85 individuals Some FCS conferences restrict scholarships to a lower level or prohibit scholarships altogether Soccer As of the next NCAA soccer season in 2023 part of the 2023 24 academic year four of the 10 FBS conferences will not sponsor men s soccer the Big 12 Conference USA Mid American Conference and the SEC Several other D I conferences also do not sponsor the sport the Big Sky MEAC Mountain West Ohio Valley Southland and SWAC The Sun Belt Conference is the most recent conference to add men s soccer reinstating its league for the 2022 season after having dropped the sport after the 2020 21 academic year Conference USA shut down its league after losing most of its men s soccer membership to the Sun Belt Conference followed by the American Athletic Conference taking in C USA s remaining four teams three of which will fully join The American in 2023 as associate members for 2022 The MAC was reduced to 5 men s soccer members in the 2022 season and shut down its league at the end of that season after being unable to find the sixth member needed to maintain its automatic NCAA tournament bid Of its final men s soccer members three moved that sport to the Missouri Valley Conference and one to the Big East Conference Ice Hockey Almost all D I ice hockey programs are in the Northeast the Upper Midwest or the Colorado Front Range Only one D I all sports conference the Big Ten sponsors a men s hockey league All other conferences operate as hockey specific leagues Of the 61 teams competing in D I hockey in 2022 23 22 are otherwise classified as either D II or D III a number of schools from D II play in D I ice hockey as the NCAA no longer sponsors a championship in D II and many have traditional cultural fan bases that support ice hockey and the D III schools were grandfathered in to D I through their having sponsored hockey prior to the creation of D III Lacrosse The vast majority of D I lacrosse programs are from the Northeast and Mid Atlantic Only five D I programs are not in the Eastern Time Zone Air Force and Denver on the Colorado Front Range Lindenwood on the Missouri side of the St Louis metropolitan area Marquette in Milwaukee and Utah Volleyball Of the traditional D I conferences only the Big West Conference and Northeast Conference sponsor men s volleyball with those conferences respectively adding the sport in 2017 18 and 2022 23 Two of the other three major volleyball conferences defined in that sport as leagues that include full Division I members are volleyball specific conferences the third is the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation a multi sport conference that does not sponsor football or basketball In addition to the D I schools 31 D II schools are competing in the National Collegiate division in 2022 23 eight of these are members of Conference Carolinas the first all sports league outside Division III to sponsor the sport and six are members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Water Polo The number of D I schools sponsoring men s water polo has declined from 35 in 1987 88 to 22 in 2010 11 32 No school outside of California has ever made the finals of the championship and all champions since 1998 have come from one of the four California based Pac 12 schools Men s individual sports Edit The following table lists the men s individual D I sports with at least 1 000 participating athletes Sports are ranked by number of athletes No Sport Founded Teams 2022 33 Teams 1982 33 Change Athletes 33 Season1 Track outdoor 1921 34 287 230 57 11 387 Spring2 Track indoor 1965 35 264 209 55 10 369 Winter3 Cross country 1938 36 315 256 59 5 032 Fall4 Swimming amp diving 1937 37 130 181 51 3 826 Winter5 Golf 1939 38 292 263 29 2 958 Spring6 Wrestling 1928 39 76 146 70 2 665 Winter7 Tennis 1946 40 233 267 34 2 293 SpringD I college wrestling has lost almost half of its programs since 1982 41 Women s team sports Edit No Sport Founded Teams 33 Conf Scholarshipsper team Season Most Championships1 Basketball 1982 348 32 15 Winter UConn 11 2 Soccer 1982 335 31 14 0 Fall North Carolina 21 3 Volleyball 1981 332 32 12 Fall Stanford 9 4 Softball 1982 293 32 12 0 Spring UCLA 12 5 Rowing 1997 87 12 20 0 Spring Brown 7 6 Lacrosse 1982 119 13 12 0 Spring Maryland 14 7 Field Hockey 1981 77 10 12 0 Fall Old Dominion 9 8 Ice Hockey 2001 34 5 18 0 Winter Minnesota Wisconsin 6 9 Beach volleyball 2016 62 5 6 0 Spring USC 4 10 Water polo 2001 34 6 8 0 Spring Stanford 8 NotesAs in the men s table above sports are ranked in order of total possible scholarships Numbers for head count sports are indicated without a decimal point those for equivalency sports are indicated with a decimal point with a trailing zero if needed Women s soccer is the fastest growing NCAA D I women s team sport over a prolonged period increasing from 22 teams in 1981 82 to 335 teams in 2021 22 33 However in recent years the fastest growing has been beach volleyball which went from 14 Division I teams in 2011 12 to 62 in 2021 22 Since the 2016 17 school year rugby is classified by the NCAA as an emerging sport for women Beach volleyball which had previously been an emerging sport under the name of sand volleyball 42 became an official NCAA championship sport in 2015 16 43 The number of scholarships are partially linked for indoor volleyball and beach volleyball Schools that field both indoor and beach volleyball teams are allowed 6 0 full scholarship equivalents specifically for beach volleyball as of 2016 17 with the further limitations that 1 no player receiving aid for beach volleyball can be on the indoor volleyball roster and 2 a maximum of 14 individuals can receive aid in beach volleyball If a school fields only a beach volleyball team it is allowed 8 0 full scholarship equivalents for that sport also distributed among no more than 14 individuals Women s individual sports Edit The following table lists the women s individual D I sports with at least 1 000 participating athletes Sports are ranked by number of athletes No Sport Teams 2022 33 Teams 1982 33 Change Athletes 33 Season1 Track outdoor 339 180 159 13 672 Spring2 Track indoor 331 127 204 13 404 Winter3 Cross country 347 183 164 5 896 Fall4 Swimming amp diving 190 161 29 5 886 Winter5 Tennis 300 246 54 2 817 Spring6 Golf 262 83 179 2 229 Spring7 Gymnastics 61 99 38 1 258 WinterBroadcasting and revenue EditNCAA Division I schools have broadcasting contracts that showcase their more popular sports typically football and men s basketball on network television and in basic cable channels These contracts can be quite lucrative particularly for D I schools from the biggest conferences For example the Big Ten conference in 2016 entered into contracts with Fox and ESPN that pay the conference 2 64 billion over six years The NCAA also holds certain TV contracts For example the NCAA s contract to show the men s basketball championship tournament widely known as March Madness is currently under a 14 year deal with CBS and Turner that runs from 2010 to 2024 and pays 11 billion For the 2014 15 fiscal year the conferences that earned the most revenues and that distributed the most revenues to each of their member schools were SEC 527 million dispersed 33 million to each of its member schools Big 10 449 million dispersed 32 million each Pac 12 439 million dispersed 25 million each ACC 403 million dispersed 26 million each Big 12 268 million dispersed 23 million each U S college sports TV rights Sports rights Sport National TV contract Total Revenues Per Year RefNCAA March Madness Basketball CBS Turner 8 8B 1 1B College Football Playoff Football ESPN 5 6B 470m Pac 12 Conference All Fox ESPN 3 0B 250m Big Ten Conference Big Ten B1G All Fox ESPN CBS 2 6B 440m 44 Atlantic Coast Conference ACC All ESPN 3 6B 240m Big 12 Conference All Fox ESPN 2 6B 200m Southeastern Conference SEC All CBS ESPN 2 6B 205m American Athletic Conference All ESPN 910m 130m Mountain West Conference MW All CBS ESPN 116m 18m 45 Mid American Conference MAC All ESPN 100m 8m 46 Scholarship limits by sport EditThe NCAA has limits on the total financial aid each Division I member may award in each sport that the school sponsors It divides sports that are sponsored into two types for purposes of scholarship limitations Head count sports in which the NCAA limits the total number of individuals that can receive athletic scholarships but allows each player to receive up to a full scholarship Equivalency sports in which the NCAA limits the total financial aid that a school can offer in a given sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships Roster limitations may or may not apply depending on the sport The term counter is also key to this concept The NCAA defines a counter as an individual who is receiving institutional financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport 47 The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in each sport is listed below In this table scholarship numbers for head count sports are indicated without a decimal point for equivalency sports they are listed with a decimal point with a trailing zero if required Sport Men s Women sAcrobatics amp tumbling 14 0 48 Baseball 11 7 49 nb 1 Basketball 13 55 15 56 Beach volleyball 6 0 nb 2 Bowling 5 0 48 Cross country Track and field 12 6 59 nb 3 18 0 48 nb 4 Equestrian 15 0 48 Fencing 4 5 59 5 0 48 Field hockey 12 0 48 Football 85 FBS 61 nb 5 63 0 FCS 62 nb 6 Golf 4 5 59 6 0 48 Gymnastics 6 3 59 12 64 Ice hockey 18 0 65 nb 7 18 0 nb 8 Lacrosse 12 6 59 12 0 48 Rifle 3 6 59 nb 9 Rowing 20 0 48 Rugby 12 0 48 Skiing 6 3 59 7 0 48 Soccer 9 9 59 14 0 48 Softball 12 0 48 Swimming and diving 9 9 59 14 0 48 Tennis 4 5 59 8 64 Triathlon 6 5 48 Volleyball 4 5 59 12 64 Water polo 4 5 59 8 0 48 Wrestling 9 9 59 10 0 48 This total is also subject to the following restrictions The number of total counters is limited to 27 49 Each counter must receive athletically related and other countable financial aid equal to at least 25 of a full scholarship 50 Most institutional and governmental non athletic aid falls in the countable category 51 an official NCAA rules interpretation also allows schools to count aid that would otherwise be exempt by NCAA rule such as purely academic awards toward the 25 limit as long as it also is included in the calculations for the team equivalency limit 52 The 25 rule does not apply to baseball schools that offer only need based aid such as Ivy League members 53 A second exception to the 25 rule added in 2012 is for players in their final year of athletic eligibility who have not previously received athletically related aid in baseball at any college 54 This total is for schools that also sponsor women s indoor volleyball 57 If a school does not sponsor women s indoor volleyball it is allowed 8 0 equivalents for beach volleyball 58 For all schools the maximum number of counters in beach volleyball is 14 57 58 If a school sponsors men s cross country but does not sponsor either indoor or outdoor track and field for men it is allowed 5 0 scholarship equivalents for that sport 60 If a school sponsors women s cross country but does not sponsor either indoor or outdoor track and field for women it is allowed 6 0 scholarship equivalents for that sport 60 FBS programs are also limited to 25 new counters per school year 61 FCS programs are also limited to 85 total counters per school year 62 Effective with the recruiting cycle for the 2018 19 school year the previous limit of 30 new counters per year for FCS programs has been removed 63 The number of total counters is limited to 30 65 The NCAA Division I Manual does not include any scholarship limitations for women s ice hockey These limitations are instead found in the Division II Manual 66 The Division II Manual does not include any limit on total counters for any sport including women s ice hockey NCAA rifle competition is fully coeducational For purposes of sports sponsorship the NCAA classifies teams that include both men and women as men s teams 67 Of the 33 NCAA rifle schools 23 in Division I 4 in Division II and 6 in Division III 22 field a single coed mixed team Six schools five in Division I and one in Division III field women only teams Schools are also allowed to field any combination of men s women s and mixed teams several NCAA rifle schools field two types of teams but none currently fields all three types The scholarship limits are per school not per team Rules for multi sport athletes Edit The NCAA also has rules specifying the sport in which multi sport athletes are to be counted with the basic rules being 68 Anyone who participates in football is counted in that sport even if he does not receive financial aid from the football program An exception exists for players at non scholarship FCS programs who receive aid in another sport 69 Participants in basketball are counted in that sport unless they also play football Participants in men s ice hockey are counted in that sport unless they also play football or basketball Participants in both men s swimming and diving and men s water polo are counted in swimming and diving unless they count in football or basketball Participants in women s indoor volleyball are counted in that sport unless they also play basketball All other multi sport athletes are counted in whichever sport the school chooses Football subdivisions EditSubdivisions in Division I exist only in football 70 71 In all other sports all Division I conferences are equivalent The subdivisions were recently given names to reflect the differing levels of football play in them The method by which the NCAA determines whether a school is Bowl or Championship subdivision is first by attendance numbers and then by scholarships 72 For attendance reporting methods the NCAA allows schools to report either total tickets sold or the number of persons in attendance at the games They require a minimum average of 15 000 people in attendance every other year 72 These numbers get posted to the NCAA statistics website for football each year With the new rules starting in the 2006 season the number of Bowl Subdivision schools could drop in the future if those schools are not able to pull in enough fans into the games Additionally 14 FCS schools had enough attendance to be moved up in 2012 73 Under current NCAA rules these schools must have an invitation from an FBS conference in order to move to FBS Three of them Appalachian State Georgia Southern and Old Dominion began FBS transitions in 2013 All had the required FBS conference invitations with Old Dominion joining Conference USA in 2013 and Appalachian State and Georgia Southern joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2014 The difference in the postseasons in each of the subdivisions grant the FCS an advantage to have the best record in college football history 17 0 while the FBS only allows a 15 0 record Football Bowl Subdivision Edit Main article NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision See also College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS and List of NCAA Division I FBS football bowl records Division I Football Bowl Subdivision FBS formerly known as Division I A is the top level of college football Schools in Division I FBS compete in post season bowl games with the champions of five conferences along with the highest ranked champion of the other five conferences receiving automatic bids to the access bowls FBS schools are limited to a total of 85 football players receiving financial assistance 74 For competitive reasons a student receiving partial scholarship counts fully against the total of 85 Nearly all FBS schools that are not on NCAA probation give 85 full scholarships As of the 2022 college football season there are 130 full members of Division I FBS plus one transitional school that is considered an FBS member for scheduling purposes The most recent school to become a full FBS member is Liberty University which made the transition from FCS in 2017 and 2018 The next school to become a full FBS member is James Madison University which joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2022 Because JMU met FBS scheduling requirements specifically five home games against FBS opposition in 2022 it was allowed to skip the first year of the normal two year transitional process making it eligible for bowl games in 2023 Since the 2016 season all FBS conferences have been allowed to conduct a championship game that does not count against the limit of 12 regular season contests Under the current rules most recently changed in advance of the 2022 season conferences have complete freedom to determine the participants in their championship games 75 From 2016 to 2021 FBS rules allowed such a game to be held either 1 between the winners of each of two divisions with each team having played a full round robin schedule within its division or 2 between the conference s top two teams after a full round robin conference schedule 76 Before 2016 exempt championship games could only be held between the divisional winners of conferences that had at least 12 football teams and split into divisions 77 78 The prize is normally a specific bowl game bid for which the conference has a tie in Some conferences have numbers in their names but this often has no relation to the number of member institutions in the conference The Big Ten Conference did not formally adopt the Big Ten name until 1987 but unofficially used that name when it had 10 members from 1917 to 1946 and again from 1949 forward However it has continued to use the name even after it expanded to 11 members with the addition of Penn State in 1990 12 with the addition of Nebraska in 2011 and 14 with the arrival of Maryland and Rutgers in 2014 The Big 12 Conference was established in 1996 with 12 members but continues to use that name even after a number of departures and a few replacements left the conference with 10 members On the other hand the Pac 12 Conference has used names official or unofficial that have reflected the number of members since its current charter was established in 1959 The conference unofficially used Big Five 1959 62 Big Six 1962 64 and Pacific 8 1964 68 before officially adopting the Pacific 8 name The name duly changed to Pacific 10 in 1978 with the addition of Arizona and Arizona State and Pac 12 instead of Pacific 12 in 2011 when Colorado and Utah joined Conferences also tend to ignore their regional names when adding new schools For example the Pac 8 10 12 retained its Pacific moniker even though its four newest members Arizona Arizona State Colorado Utah are located in the inland West and the original Big East kept its name even after adding schools either in all sports or for football only located in areas traditionally considered to be in the Midwest Cincinnati DePaul Marquette Notre Dame Upper South Louisville Memphis and Southwest Houston SMU The non football conference that assumed the Big East name when the original Big East split in 2013 is another example of this phenomenon as half of its 10 inaugural schools Butler Creighton DePaul Marquette Xavier are traditionally regarded as being Midwestern Conferences Edit Conference Nickname Founded Members Sports HeadquartersAmerican Athletic Conference The American 1979 a 11 b c d 22 Providence Rhode IslandAtlantic Coast Conference ACC 1953 15 e 27 f Greensboro North CarolinaBig Ten Conference Big Ten B1G 1896 14 g h 28 Rosemont IllinoisBig 12 Conference Big 12 1996 10 i j 21 Irving TexasConference USA C USA 1995 k 11 l m n 18 Dallas TexasDivision I FBS Independents o 7 p Mid American Conference MAC 1946 12 q 24 r Cleveland OhioMountain West Conference MW 1999 11 s t 19 Colorado Springs ColoradoPac 12 Conference Pac 12 1915 u 12 v w 24 Walnut Creek CaliforniaSoutheastern Conference SEC 1932 14 x 20 Birmingham AlabamaSun Belt Conference Sun Belt SBC 1976 14 y 18 z New Orleans Louisiana Big Five or Power Five conferences with guaranteed berths in the access bowls associated with the College Football Playoff Group of Five conferences See also List of NCAA Division I FBS football programs Notes The conference was founded in 1979 as the original Big East Conference It renamed itself the American Athletic Conference following a 2013 split along football lines The non FBS schools of the original conference left to form a new conference that purchased the Big East name while the FBS schools continued to operate under the old Big East s charter and structure The American also inherited the old Big East s Bowl Championship Series berth for the 2013 season the last for the BCS 10 of the 11 full members sponsor football with Wichita State as the only non football member In addition to the full members nine schools have single sport associate membership and three others are members in two sports Five of these schools will fully join The American in 2023 Navy is a football only member Future full members Charlotte and UAB are men s soccer members in 2022 23 Florida James Madison Old Dominion and Vanderbilt are members in women s lacrosse Future full member Florida Atlantic plus FIU are members in both men s soccer and women s swimming amp diving FIU will continue as an associate after FAU fully joins The American Future full members North Texas and Rice are women s swimming amp diving members in 2022 23 though Rice fields only swimmers and no divers Old Dominion and Sacramento State are members in women s rowing 14 members both full and football in 2023 with the following changes Loss of Cincinnati Houston and UCF Addition of Charlotte Florida Atlantic North Texas Rice UAB and UTSA Notre Dame is a full member except in football in which it remains independent It has committed to play at least five games each season against ACC opponents and to play each other ACC member at least once every three years 26 sports by NCAA count the ACC sponsors separate championships in men s and women s fencing a sport in which the NCAA organizes a single coeducational championship event 28 sports 27 by NCAA count in 2023 with addition of women s gymnastics In addition to the full members two schools have affiliate membership Johns Hopkins otherwise a Division III member is an affiliate in both men s and women s lacrosse sports in which the school fields Division I teams Notre Dame is a men s hockey affiliate 16 members in 2024 with addition of UCLA and USC As many as 14 members in 2023 with addition of BYU Cincinnati Houston and UCF 12 members no later than 2025 with loss of Oklahoma and Texas In addition to the full members the Big 12 has 13 members that participate in only one sport Air Force California Baptist Missouri North Dakota State Northern Colorado Northern Iowa South Dakota State Utah Valley and Wyoming compete in men s wrestling Alabama and Tennessee compete in women s rowing Denver competes in women s gymnastics Fresno State competes in women s equestrian The conference was founded in 1995 with football competition starting in 1996 9 members in 2023 with the following changes Loss of Charlotte Florida Atlantic North Texas Rice UAB and UTSA Addition of Jacksonville State Liberty New Mexico State and Sam Houston 10 members in 2024 with addition of Kennesaw State In addition to the full members Conference USA features six schools that play one sport in the conference Coastal Carolina Georgia State Southern Miss Tulane and Louisiana Monroe play beach volleyball All but Tulane will leave in July 2023 when those schools home of the Sun Belt Conference adds beach volleyball Dallas Baptist a Division II member that plays D I baseball is a baseball member Note that Independents is not a conference it is simply a designation used for schools whose football programs do not play in any conference All of these schools have conference memberships for other sports 4 independents in 2023 with BYU joining the Big 12 Conference and Liberty and New Mexico State joining Conference USA In addition to the 12 full members the Mid American Conference features 21 members that participate in a single sport Appalachian State Bellarmine and Longwood compete in women s field hockey Binghamton competes in men s tennis Chicago State competes in men s soccer Detroit Mercy Robert Morris and Youngstown State compete in women s lacrosse Evansville Missouri State Southern Illinois UIC and Valparaiso compete in men s swimming and diving though Valparaiso fields only swimmers Eight schools are men s wrestling affiliates full Division I members Cleveland State George Mason Rider and SIU Edwardsville plus four Division II members that compete in D I wrestling namely Bloomsburg Clarion Edinboro and Lock Haven Possibility of 23 sports in 2023 with potential dropping of men s soccer Since 2012 Hawaiʻi has been a football only associate member with most of its remaining teams in the non football Big West Conference In addition to the 11 full members and football affiliate Hawaiʻi Colorado College a Division III school with a Division I men s ice hockey team plays Division I women s soccer in the MW The charter of the Pac 12 dates only to the formation of the Athletic Association of Western Universities AAWU in 1959 However the Pac 12 claims the history of the Pacific Coast Conference which was founded in 1915 and began competition in 1916 as its own Of the nine members of the PCC at the time of its demise in June 1959 only Idaho never joined the Pac 12 The PCC s berth in the Rose Bowl passed to the AAWU The Pac 12 also includes four associate members each of which competes in a single sport San Diego State plays men s soccer Cal State Bakersfield Cal Poly and Little Rock compete in wrestling UC Davis will become a women s lacrosse member in 2023 with San Diego State adding women s lacrosse to its Pac 12 membership at that time 10 members in 2024 with loss of UCLA and USC 16 members no later than 2025 with addition of Oklahoma and Texas In addition to the 14 full members three schools are men s soccer affiliates Kentucky South Carolina and West Virginia UCF will join this group in 2023 At least 20 sports in 2023 with planned addition of beach volleyball and women s swimming amp diving Football Championship Subdivision Edit Main article NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision See also NCAA Division I Football Championship and List of NCAA Division I FCS football programs The Division I Football Championship Subdivision FCS formerly known as Division I AA consists of 130 teams as of the 2022 season with all participating in one of 14 conferences 79 The I AA designation was dropped by the NCAA in 2006 although it is still informally and commonly used FCS teams are limited to 63 players on scholarship compared to 85 for FBS teams and usually play an 11 game schedule compared to 12 games for FBS teams 80 The FCS determines its national champion through an NCAA sanctioned single elimination bracket tournament culminating in a title game the NCAA Division I Football Championship 81 As of the 2018 season the tournament begins with 24 teams 10 conference champions that received automatic bids and 14 teams selected at large by a selection committee 82 The postseason tournament traditionally begins on Thanksgiving weekend in late November When I AA was formed 44 years ago in 1978 11 the playoffs included just four teams for its first three seasons doubling to eight teams for one season in 1981 83 From 1982 to 1985 there was a 12 team tournament this expanded to 16 teams in 1986 The playoffs expanded to 20 teams starting in 2010 then grew to 24 teams in 2013 Since the 2010 season the title game is held in early January at Toyota Stadium in Frisco Texas From 1997 through 2009 the title game was played in December in Chattanooga Tennessee preceded by five seasons in Huntington West Virginia 84 Abstainers Edit The Football Championship Subdivision includes several conferences which do not participate in the eponymous post season championship tournament The Ivy League was reclassified to I AA FCS following the 1981 season 85 and plays a strict ten game schedule Although it qualifies for an automatic bid the Ivy League has not played any postseason games at all since becoming a conference for the 1956 NCAA University Division football season citing academic concerns The last college which is now an Ivy League member to play in a bowl game was Columbia in the 1934 Rose Bowl The Southwestern Athletic Conference SWAC has its own championship game in mid December between the champions of its East and West divisions Also three of its member schools traditionally do not finish their regular seasons until Thanksgiving weekend Grambling State and Southern play each other in the Bayou Classic and Alabama State plays Tuskegee of Division II in the Turkey Day Classic SWAC teams are eligible to accept at large bids if their schedule is not in conflict The last SWAC team to participate in the I AA playoffs was Jackson State in 1997 the SWAC never achieved success in the tournament going winless in 19 games in twenty years 1978 97 It had greater success outside the conference while in Division II and the preceding College Division From 2006 through 2009 the Pioneer Football League and Northeast Conference champions played in the Gridiron Classic If a league champion was invited to the national championship playoff as an at large bid something the Pioneer league at least never received the second place team would play in the Gridiron Classic That game was scrapped after the 2009 season when its four year contract ran out this coincided with the NCAA s announcement that the Northeast Conference would get an automatic bid to the tournament starting in 2010 The Big South Conference also received an automatic bid in the same season The Pioneer Football League earned an automatic bid beginning in 2013 The Mid Eastern Athletic Conference MEAC began abstaining from the playoffs with the 2015 season Like the SWAC its members are eligible for at large bids and the two conferences have faced off in the Celebration Bowl as an alternative postseason game since the 2015 season Schools in a transition period after joining the FCS from a lower division or from the NAIA are also ineligible for the playoffs Scholarships Edit Division I FCS schools are currently restricted to giving financial assistance amounting to 63 full scholarships As FCS football is an equivalency sport as opposed to the head count status of FBS football Championship Subdivision schools may divide their allotment into partial scholarships However FCS schools may only have 85 players receiving any sort of athletic financial aid for football the same numeric limit as FBS schools Because of competitive forces however a substantial number of players in Championship Subdivision programs are on full scholarships Another difference is that FCS schools no longer have a limit on the number of new players that can be provided with financial aid in a given season while FBS schools are limited to 25 such additions per season Finally FCS schools are limited to 95 individuals participating in preseason practices as opposed to 105 at FBS schools the three service academies that play FBS football are exempt from preseason practice player limits by NCAA rule A few Championship Subdivision conferences are composed of schools that offer no athletic scholarships at all most notably the Ivy League and the Pioneer Football League PFL a football only conference The Ivy League allows no athletic scholarships at all while the PFL consists of schools that offer scholarships in other sports but choose not to take on the expense of a scholarship football program The Northeast Conference also sponsored non scholarship football but began offering a maximum of 30 full scholarship equivalents in 2006 which grew to 40 in 2011 after a later vote of the league s school presidents and athletic directors and has since increased to 45 86 The Patriot League only began awarding football scholarships in the 2013 season with the first scholarships awarded only to incoming freshmen Before the conference began its transition to scholarship football athletes receiving scholarships in other sports were ineligible to play football for member schools Since the completion of the transition with the 2016 season member schools have been allowed up to 60 full scholarship equivalents 87 Conferences Edit Conference Nickname Founded Members Sports Headquarters FCS Tournament BidASUN Conference ASUN 1978 14 a b c 21 Atlanta Georgia Automatic shared d Big Sky Conference Big Sky 1963 10 e f 16 Ogden Utah AutomaticBig South Conference Big South 1983 10 g h i 19 j Charlotte North Carolina AutomaticColonial Athletic Association CAA 1983 k 13 l m n 21 o Richmond Virginia AutomaticDivision I FCS Independents p 0Ivy League Ivy League 1954 q 8 33 Princeton New Jersey Automatic Abstains Mid Eastern Athletic Conference MEAC 1970 8 r s 14 Norfolk Virginia AbstainsMissouri Valley Football Conference MVFC 1985 t 11 u 1 St Louis Missouri AutomaticNortheast Conference NEC 1981 9 v w 24 Somerset New Jersey AutomaticOhio Valley Conference OVC 1948 10 x y z 18 aa Brentwood Tennessee AutomaticPatriot League Patriot 1986 ab 10 ac ad 23 Center Valley Pennsylvania AutomaticPioneer Football League PFL 1991 11 1 St Louis Missouri AutomaticSouthern Conference SoCon 1921 10 ae 20 Spartanburg South Carolina AutomaticSouthland Conference af SLC 1963 10 ag ah 18 Frisco Texas AutomaticSouthwestern Athletic Conference SWAC 1920 12 18 Birmingham Alabama AbstainsWestern Athletic Conference WAC 1962 13 ai aj 20 Englewood Colorado Automatic shared d See also List of NCAA Division I FCS football programs Notes Of the 14 full members five do not sponsor football at all Three play football outside of the ASUN Liberty as an FBS independent Stetson in the Pioneer Football League and Bellarmine outside of NCAA control in the weight restricted variant of sprint football In addition to the full members the ASUN has 12 associate members that participate in at least one sport Air Force Cleveland State Detroit Mercy Robert Morris and Utah participate only in men s lacrosse Charleston Stephen F Austin and UNC Wilmington participate only in beach volleyball Coastal Carolina and Delaware State compete only in women s lacrosse Delaware State will move women s lacrosse to the Northeast Conference after the 2023 season Lindenwood participates in both men s and women s lacrosse Mercer competes in beach volleyball and men s lacrosse 12 full members and 5 football members in 2023 with loss of Jacksonville State and Liberty 11 full members and 4 football members in 2024 with loss of Kennesaw State a b The ASUN and WAC are partners in a football alliance that has one automatic bid to the FCS playoffs 12 football members with Cal Poly and UC Davis both full members of the non football Big West Conference as football only affiliates In addition to the full members and football affiliates Binghamton and Hartford are associate members in men s golf Hartford will leave in 2023 as part of its planned transition to NCAA Division III The Big South has three full members that compete for its football championship plus three football only associates in Bryant North Carolina A amp T and Robert Morris The Big South will merge its football league with that of the Ohio Valley Conference in 2023 when Campbell leaves for both sides of the CAA and North Carolina A amp T joins CAA Football 9 members in 2023 with loss of Campbell In addition to the full members and football affiliates Furman Mercer and Wofford are associate members in women s lacrosse Potentially 18 sports in 2023 depending on organizational details of the Big South OVC football merger The CAA football conference officially known as CAA Football and legally a separate entity from the all sports CAA was only founded in 2007 but has a continuous history dating to the late 1930s although not under the same charter The New England Conference was formed by five New England state universities plus one private university in that region Northeastern in 1938 Four of the public schools Maine UMass New Hampshire and Rhode Island were in the CAA football conference through the 2011 season However UMass football left for the MAC in 2012 URI football initially planned to leave for the Northeast Conference in 2013 but decided to remain in the CAA In 1946 the four then remaining members of the New England Conference affiliated with two other schools to form the Yankee Conference under a separate charter with athletic competition starting in 1947 In 1997 the Yankee Conference was absorbed by the Atlantic 10 Conference The A 10 inherited the Yankee Conference s automatic berth in the Division I AA now FCS playoffs In addition to the four charter New England Conference members mentioned above five other members of the Yankee Conference at the time of the A10 merger are still in the CAA football conference After the 2006 season all of the A 10 football teams left for the new CAA football conference CAA Football inherited the A10 s automatic berth in the FCS playoffs The CAA has 13 full members but only seven of them are part of CAA Football Currently six associate members fill out the ranks of CAA Football Albany Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island Richmond and Villanova Villanova is also a CAA associate in women s rowing 14 full members and 15 football members in 2023 with the following changes Addition of Campbell to both sides of the league Addition of all sports member North Carolina A amp T to CAA Football In addition to the CAA Football associates the CAA has four associate members that each participate in one sport Eastern Michigan UC San Diego and UConn in women s rowing Fairfield plays men s lacrosse 21 sports under CAA administration with the all sports CAA also governing CAA Football Note that Independents is not a conference it is simply a designation used for schools whose football programs do not play in any conference All of these schools have conference memberships for other sports Although the conference considers 1954 to be its founding date the athletic league s origins go back to the turn of the 20th century The Ivy League considers the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League EIBL a men s basketball only conference founded in 1901 as part of its history Every school that had been an EIBL member would become part of the Ivy League In 1945 the eight schools that would eventually form the athletic Ivy League entered into the Ivy Group Agreement which governed football competition between the schools The original agreement was renewed in 1952 The official founding date of 1954 reflects the extension of the Ivy Group Agreement to all sports As part of the agreement Brown the only one of the original Ivy Group that had not joined the EIBL did so All sports competition began in 1955 with the EIBL directly absorbed into the new league The football conference currently consists of 6 of the 8 member schools In addition to the full members Monmouth North Carolina A amp T and UAB participate in women s bowling The football conference dates to 1985 but the conference charter was established in 1982 See History of the Missouri Valley Football Conference for more details 12 members in 2023 with addition of Murray State The conference has 7 full members that sponsor football Duquesne of the non football Atlantic 10 is a football associate In addition to Duquesne which is also an NEC associate in bowling the NEC has 10 other associate members that participate in one or more sports Coppin State and Norfolk State are associates only in baseball Daemen and D Youville both Division II members are associates in men s volleyball a sport with a combined D I and D II championship Delaware State competes in baseball and women s golf It will add women s lacrosse and women s soccer to its NEC membership in 2023 Fairfield and Rider are field hockey associates Howard competes in men s and women s golf women s lacrosse men s and women s soccer and men s and women s swimming amp diving Maryland Eastern Shore competes in baseball and men s and women s golf North Carolina Central is an associate in men s and women s golf The football conference consists of 6 of the 10 member schools plus Murray State a former full member that is playing OVC football in the 2022 season before joining the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2023 Morehead State plays non scholarship football in the Pioneer Football League while Little Rock SIU Edwardsville and Southern Indiana do not sponsor football In addition to the full members Chattanooga is an associate in beach volleyball Murray State is also a rifle associate and will remain so after the football team departs in 2023 The OVC will merge its football league with that of the Big South Conference in 2023 Possibility of 17 sports in 2023 depending on organizational details of the impending Big South OVC football merger The Patriot League was founded as the football only Colonial League in 1986 In 1990 it became an all sports conference and adopted its current name Five of the full members do not sponsor FCS football American Boston University and Loyola Maryland do not sponsor football at all Army is an FBS independent and Navy plays in the American Athletic Conference Fordham and Georgetown are associate members in football In addition to the football associates two other schools have single sport membership MIT otherwise a Division III institution is an associate in women s rowing Richmond is a women s golf associate In addition to the full members the SoCon currently has 9 associate members each of which plays one sport in the conference Appalachian State Bellarmine Campbell Davidson Gardner Webb and Presbyterian are members in men s wrestling Georgia Southern North Georgia a Division II institution and UAB are members in rifle Rifle has a single national championship for all divisions The Southland Conference has announced that it will adopt a new name in the near future most likely after the 2022 23 school year The football conference currently consists of 8 of the 10 member schools In addition to the full members six schools are associate members in one or more sports Augusta otherwise a Division II member competes in both men s and women s golf Boise State and San Jose State compete in beach volleyball Bryant competes in men s amp women s golf and tennis Francis Marion otherwise Division II competes in men s golf NJIT competes in men s and women s tennis 13 full members and 6 football members Of the full members six do not sponsor football at all while New Mexico State plays as an FBS independent 10 full members and 4 football members in 2023 with loss of New Mexico State and Sam Houston 10 full members and 5 football members no later than 2025 with addition of football by full member UTRGV In addition to the full members and football associates the WAC currently has 8 associate members that house one or two sports in the conference Air Force and UNLV participate in men s soccer and men s swimming and diving Houston Christian and San Jose State participate only in men s soccer Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado participate in women s swimming and diving New Mexico State will remain an affiliate in that sport after its departure for C USA Sacramento State participates in baseball Wyoming participates in men s swimming amp diving Division I non football schools Edit Several Bowl Subdivision and Championship Subdivision conferences have member institutions that do not compete in football Such schools are sometimes unofficially referred to as I AAA 88 The following non football conferences have full members that sponsor football The America East Conference has four football sponsoring schools Albany Maine and New Hampshire play in CAA Football the technically separate football league of the Colonial Athletic Association CAA Bryant is playing football in the Big South Conference in 2022 the final season before the Big South and Ohio Valley Conference OVC merge their football leagues The Atlantic 10 Conference has seven football sponsoring members Davidson and Dayton play in the PFL Duquesne plays in the Northeast Conference NEC Fordham plays in the Patriot League Rhode Island and Richmond play in CAA Football UMass plays FBS football as an independent The current Big East Conference has four football sponsoring schools Three play in FCS Butler in the PFL Georgetown in the Patriot League and Villanova in CAA Football The fourth UConn plays as an FBS independent Three Big West Conference members have football programs UC Davis and Cal Poly play FCS football in the Big Sky Conference and Hawaiʻi plays FBS football in the Mountain West Conference The Horizon League has two football schools Robert Morris plays Big South football and Youngstown State plays in the Missouri Valley Football Conference MVFC Barring any further realignment Robert Morris will move to the new football league to be formed in 2023 when the Big South and OVC merge their football leagues The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference MAAC has one football school with Marist playing in the PFL The Missouri Valley Conference has eight football schools Drake Illinois State Indiana State Missouri State Murray State Northern Iowa Southern Illinois and Valparaiso Drake and Valparaiso play in the PFL all others except Murray State compete in the MVFC a separate legal entity from the MVC despite the similar name Murray State is playing the 2022 football season in its former full time home of the OVC before joining the MVFC in 2023 The Summit League has six football schools five of which play in the MVFC North Dakota North Dakota State South Dakota South Dakota State and Western Illinois The sixth St Thomas of Minnesota plays in the PFL The West Coast Conference has two football schools in BYU and San Diego which respectively play football as an FBS independent and a PFL member BYU will leave the WCC and the FBS independent ranks in 2023 when it joins the Big 12 Conference The following Division I conferences do not sponsor football These conferences still compete in Division I for all sports that they sponsor Conferences Edit Conference Nickname Founded Members Sports HeadquartersAmerica East Conference America East 1979 9 a 18 Boston MassachusettsAtlantic 10 Conference A 10 1975 15 b 22 Newport News VirginiaBig East Conference Big East 2013 c 11 d 23 e New York City New YorkBig West Conference Big West 1969 11 f 18 Irvine CaliforniaHorizon League Horizon 1979 11 g 19 Indianapolis IndianaIndependents h Independents 2 i Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference MAAC 1980 11 j 25 k Edison New JerseyMissouri Valley Conference MVC Valley 1907 12 l 17 St Louis MissouriThe Summit League The Summit 1982 10 m 19 Sioux Falls South DakotaWest Coast Conference WCC 1952 10 n o 15 San Bruno CaliforniaSee also List of NCAA Division I non football programs Notes In addition to the full members there are five associate members California Stanford and UC Davis are associates in field hockey Merrimack is an associate in men s lacrosse VMI is an associate in men s and women s swimming amp diving In addition to the full members four schools are single sport associates High Point and Hobart the latter a Division III member that plays men s lacrosse in Division I compete in men s lacrosse Lock Haven otherwise a Division II institution and Saint Francis Pennsylvania compete in field hockey The current Big East was formed in 2013 as a result of the split of the original Big East Conference The original conference charter was retained by the football sponsoring schools now known as the American Athletic Conference While both leagues claim 1979 as their founding date the current Big East maintains the history of the original conference in all sports that it sponsors The pre split histories of Big East football and rowing the two sports that are sponsored by The American but not the current Big East are not recognized by either offshoot conference In addition to the full members the following schools are Big East affiliates in one or more sports Liberty Old Dominion Quinnipiac and Temple participate in field hockey Denver participates in men s and women s lacrosse Akron will become a men s soccer affiliate in 2023 22 NCAA sanctioned sports plus the non NCAA and fully coeducational esports In addition to the full members Sacramento State is a member in beach volleyball and men s soccer In addition to the full members the following schools are Horizon affiliates in tennis Belmont Eastern Illinois Lindenwood Southern Indiana Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech participate in men s tennis only Chicago State participates in both men s and women s tennis Note that Independents is not a conference it is simply a designation used to indicate schools which are not a member of any conference Chicago State and Hartford 1 independent in 2023 with Hartford joining the NCAA Division III Commonwealth Coast Conference In addition to the full members 14 other schools are MAAC affiliates in at least one sport Albany Dayton and Hartford participate in women s golf Hartford will leave the MAAC in 2023 as part of its Division III transition Drake Robert Morris Sacred Heart and Stetson participate in women s rowing Sacred Heart also competes in men s lacrosse LIU St Francis Brooklyn Villanova VMI and Wagner participate in women s water polo LIU VMI and Wagner also compete in men s lacrosse Jacksonville participates in women s rowing and the non NCAA sport of men s rowing La Salle participates in women s golf and women s water polo 23 NCAA recognized sports plus two non NCAA sports esports fully coeducational and men s rowing In addition to the full members three schools house one sport in the conference Little Rock and Marshall are associates in women s swimming amp diving Marshall is an MVC associate for the 2022 23 season only its full time home of the Sun Belt Conference will add the sport in 2023 24 SIU Edwardsville is an associate in men s soccer Bowling Green Northern Illinois and Western Michigan become men s soccer associates in 2023 In addition to the full members three schools are single sport associates and three others house multiple sports in the conference Drake and Illinois State are men s tennis associates Eastern Illinois Lindenwood and Southern Indiana are associates in men s soccer plus men s and women s swimming amp diving Northern Colorado is a baseball associate 9 members in 2023 with loss of BYU In addition to the full members Creighton is an associate member in women s rowing Of these the two that most recently sponsored football were the Atlantic 10 and MAAC The A 10 football league dissolved in 2006 with its members going to CAA Football the technically separate football league operated by the all sports Colonial Athletic Association In addition four A 10 schools Dayton Fordham Duquesne and Massachusetts play football in a conference other CAA Football which still includes two full time A 10 members Rhode Island and Richmond The MAAC stopped sponsoring football in 2007 after most of its members gradually stopped fielding teams Among current MAAC members that were in the conference before 2007 only Marist which plays in the Pioneer Football League still sponsors football From 2013 to 2021 the Western Athletic Conference was a non football league having dropped football after a near complete membership turnover that saw the conference stripped of all but two of its football sponsoring members The two remaining football sponsoring schools Idaho and New Mexico State played the 2013 season as FBS independents before becoming football only members of the Sun Belt Conference in 2014 Both left Sun Belt football in 2018 with Idaho downgrading to FCS status and adding football to its all sports Big Sky Conference membership and New Mexico State becoming an FBS independent The WAC added two more football sponsoring schools with the 2020 arrival of Tarleton and Utah Tech then Dixie State from Division II both schools planned to be FCS independents for the foreseeable future The WAC would reinstate football at the FCS level in 2021 coinciding with the arrival of four new members with FCS football 89 90 for its first season it entered into a formal partnership with the ASUN Conference to give it enough playoff eligible members to receive an automatic playoff berth 91 This partnership was renewed for the 2022 season with five ASUN and three WAC schools participating though each conference will play its own schedule 92 Division I in ice hockey EditMain article College ice hockey See also List of NCAA Division I ice hockey programs Providence College Friars play Cornell in the NCAA Hockey East Regional at the Dunkin Donuts Center April 7 2019 Some sports most notably ice hockey 93 and men s volleyball have completely different conference structures that operate outside of the normal NCAA sports conference structure As ice hockey is limited to a much smaller number of almost exclusively Northern schools there is a completely different conference structure for teams 93 These conferences feature a mix of teams that play their other sports in various Division I conferences and even Division II and Division III schools For most of the early 21st century there was no correlation between a team s ice hockey affiliation and its affiliation for other sports with the exception of the Ivy League s hockey playing schools all being members of the ECAC For example before 2013 the Hockey East men s conference consisted of one ACC school one Big East school four schools from the America East one from the A 10 one CAA school and two schools from the D II Northeast 10 Conference while the Central Collegiate Hockey Association CCHA and Western Collegiate Hockey Association WCHA both had some Big Ten representation plus Division II and III schools Also the divisional structure is truncated with the Division II championship abolished in 1999 The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ceased its sponsorship of the sport in 2003 94 with the remaining members forming Atlantic Hockey For the next decade no regular all sport conferences sponsored ice hockey Starting with the 2013 14 season Division I men s hockey experienced a major realignment The Big Ten Conference began to sponsor ice hockey and their institutions withdrew their membership from the WCHA and CCHA 95 Additionally six other schools from those conferences withdrew to form the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference at the same time 96 unreliable source The fallout from these moves led to the demise of the original CCHA two more teams entering the NCHC and further membership turnover in the men s side of the WCHA Women s hockey was largely unaffected by this realignment The Big Ten still has only four members with varsity women s hockey full members Michigan and Michigan State only ice men s teams as does hockey only member Notre Dame with six teams required under conference bylaws for official sponsorship As a result the only changes in women s hockey affiliations in the 2010 14 period occurred in College Hockey America which saw two schools drop the sport and three new members join The next significant realignment took place after the 2020 21 season when seven of the 10 then current men s members of the WCHA left to form a revived CCHA 97 which in turn led to the demise of the men s side of the WCHA 98 Conferences Edit Conference Nickname Founded Members Men WomenAtlantic Hockey AHA 1997 10 a 10 noneBig Ten Conference Big Ten B1G 1896 b 7 7 noneCentral Collegiate Hockey Association CCHA 1971 2020 c 8 d 8 noneCollege Hockey America CHA 1999 e 5 f none 6ECAC Hockey N A 1961 g 12 12 12Hockey East HEA 1984 h 12 11 10Independents 6 i 6 noneNational Collegiate Hockey Conference NCHC 2011 j 8 8 noneNew England Women s Hockey Alliance NEWHA 2018 k 7 l none 7Western Collegiate Hockey Association WCHA 1951 m 8 none 8Notes 11 members in 2023 with return of Robert Morris Founded as an all sports conference in 1896 but did not sponsor ice hockey until 2013 14 First version founded in 1971 and disbanded in 2013 reestablished in 2020 with play resuming in 2021 22 The current CCHA considers the original league to be part of its history 9 members in 2023 with addition of Augustana SD Founded as a men s only conference in 1999 with women s hockey added in 2002 Men s hockey was dropped after the 2009 10 season 6 members in 2023 with return of Robert Morris Founded as a men s only conference in 1961 A women s invitational tournament was first held in 1985 regular season play began informally in 1988 before becoming officially sponsored in 1992 Originally part of the Eastern College Athletic Conference but independent of that body since 2004 Founded as a men s only conference in 1984 with women s hockey added in 2002 Alaska Alaska Anchorage Arizona State Lindenwood LIU and Stonehill Date of founding play began in 2013 14 Founded as a scheduling alliance in 2017 formally organized as a conference in 2018 Received official NCAA recognition in 2019 8 members in 2023 with addition of Assumption Founded as a men s only conference in 1951 with women s hockey added in 1999 Men s hockey was dropped after the 2020 21 season Classification debate EditIn the early 21st century a controversy arose in the NCAA over whether schools will continue to be allowed to have one showcased program in Division I with the remainder of the athletic program in a lower division as is the case of notably Johns Hopkins University lacrosse as well as Colorado College and University of Alabama in Huntsville in ice hockey This is an especially important issue in hockey which has no Division II national championship and has several schools whose other athletic programs compete in Division II and Division III This controversy was resolved at the 2004 NCAA Convention in Nashville Tennessee when the members supported Proposal 65 1 the amended legislation co sponsored by Colorado College Clarkson University Hartwick College the Johns Hopkins University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rutgers University Newark St Lawrence University and SUNY Oneonta 99 100 Each school affected by this debate is allowed to grant financial aid to student athletes who compete in Division I programs in one men s sport and one women s sport It is still permitted for other schools to place one men s and one women s sport in Division I going forward but they cannot offer scholarships without bringing the whole program into compliance with Division I rules In addition schools in Divisions II and III are allowed to play up in any sport that does not have a championship for the school s own division but only Division II programs and any Division III programs covered by the exemption can offer scholarships in those sports Five Division I programs at waiver schools were grandfathered with the passing of Proposal 65 1 Clarkson University men s and women s ice hockey Colorado College men s ice hockey women s soccer Johns Hopkins University men s and women s lacrosse Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute men s ice hockey women s ice hockey moved up to Division I in 2005 St Lawrence University men s and women s ice hockeyAn additional three programs were grandfathered in Proposal 65 1 but no longer are sponsored in Division I Hartwick College men s soccer women s water polo men s soccer dropped to Division III in 2018 with women s water polo discontinued at the same time Rutgers University Newark men s volleyball dropped to Division III in 2014 SUNY Oneonta men s soccer dropped to Division III in 2006 See also EditList of NCAA Division I institutions List of NCAA Division I athletic directors List of current NCAA Division I champions List of NCAA Divisions II and III schools competing in NCAA Division I sports List of schools reclassifying their athletic programs to NCAA Division I Progress toward degreeReferences Edit Crowley Joseph N 2006 In The Arena The NCAA s First Century NCAA Publications p 42 Archived from the original on May 16 2016 Retrieved June 11 2010 Composition and Sport Sponsorship of the NCAA Membership NCAA Retrieved July 4 2015 Multidivision and Reclassifying for 2014 15 PDF NCAA Archived from the original PDF on March 22 2015 Retrieved July 4 2015 a b Bylaw 20 9 6 Sports Sponsorship 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF August 7 2020 pp 406 07 Retrieved August 20 2020 a b c Who We Are Our Three Divisions NCAA Retrieved August 20 2020 Bylaw 20 9 3 Financial Aid Requirements 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF August 7 2020 pp 405 06 Retrieved August 20 2020 Bylaw 20 9 5 Three Season Requirement 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF August 7 2020 p 406 Retrieved August 20 2020 Divisional Differences and the History of Multidivision Classification NCAA org The Official Site of the NCAA NCAA org Retrieved July 9 2015 In the news June 7 Archived January 2 2013 at the Wayback Machine Ncaa org 2011 06 07 Retrieved on 2013 08 17 Bylaw 20 8 2 Division II Options When No Division II Championship Is Conducted 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 403 Retrieved August 20 2020 a b Big schools win battle St Petersburg Independent Associated Press January 13 1978 p 5C Archived from the original on March 7 2016 What to do with I AA Football stassen com Retrieved November 19 2009 Thomas Katie April 26 2011 Gender Games Answering Questions About Roster Management and Title IX The New York Times Retrieved May 1 2011 Mandel Stewart June 23 2014 The real reason the Big Ten added Maryland and Rutgers survival Sports Illustrated pp 52 56 Retrieved June 20 2014 Maryland athletics financial woes reveal a broken college sports revenue model June 28 2012 Maryland athletics financial woes reveal a broken college sports revenue model Washington Post Archived from the original on December 19 2013 Retrieved August 25 2017 NCAA Revenues Expenses Division I Report 2004 2010 p 13 NCAA Revenues Expenses Division I Report 2004 2010 p 14 Gearing Up A Deep Look at College Football Equipment SpareFoot October 16 2013 Archived from the original on February 12 2014 Retrieved September 30 2019 Brutlag Hosick Michelle Council Approves Meals Other Student Athlete Well Being Rules Bylaw 20 02 5 Multisport Conference 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF August 7 2020 pp 394 95 Retrieved August 20 2020 Bylaw 20 02 6 Football Bowl Subdivision Conference 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF August 7 2020 p 395 Retrieved August 20 2020 NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report October 2012 page 192 http www ncaapublications com productdownloads PR2013 pdf 1869 Schedule and Results College Football Sports Reference College Football Retrieved July 2 2021 Division I FCS Football Championships Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 The Final Four PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 CWS Brackets PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 Division I Men s Soccer Championships Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 Frozen Four Records PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 Division I Men s Lacrosse Championships Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 National Collegiate Men s Volleyball Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 National Collegiate Men s Water Polo Championships Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report October 2011 page 184 http www ncaapublications com productdownloads PR2012 pdf a b c d e f g h NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report 1956 57 through 2021 22 PDF NCAA October 27 2022 Retrieved December 24 2022 Division I Men s Outdoor Championships Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 Division I Men s Indoor Championships Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 Division I Men s Cross Country Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 Division I Men s Swimming amp Diving Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 NCAA Division I Men s Golf Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 Division I Wrestling Championships Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 Division I Men s Tennis Records Book PDF National Collegiate Athletic Association Retrieved July 2 2021 The Future of Collegiate Wrestling Isn t at Division I Level Forbes September 26 2017 NCAA s newest championship will be called beach volleyball Press release National Collegiate Athletic Association June 30 2015 Retrieved July 3 2015 NCAA DII DIII membership approves Sand Volleyball as 90th championship Press release National Collegiate Athletic Association January 17 2015 Retrieved March 23 2015 Report Big Ten getting 2 64 billion in new TV deal Freep com June 20 2016 Retrieved September 20 2018 Mountain West nears seven year 116 million media rights deal CBS Sports March 9 2013 MAC CBS Sports Net TV sign deal for football basketball games beginning this season Cleveland com June 3 2015 Bylaw 15 02 3 Counter 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 208 Retrieved December 17 2020 See also Bylaw 15 5 1 pp 219 221 for a more comprehensive discussion of when an individual becomes a counter in most sports and Bylaw 15 5 6 3 pp 227 28 for a discussion of this concept specifically applying to football a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Bylaw 15 5 3 1 2 Women s Sports Maximum Equivalency Limits 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 223 Retrieved December 17 2020 a b Bylaw 15 5 4 Baseball Limitations 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 pp 225 26 Retrieved December 17 2020 Bylaw 15 5 4 1 Minimum Equivalency Value 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 225 Retrieved December 17 2020 Bylaw 15 1 2 Types of Aid Included in Limit 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 pp 210 11 Retrieved December 17 2020 Condaras Jen September 9 2014 Daily Compliance Item 9 9 14 15 5 4 1 Baseball Equivalencies Daily Compliance Item Retrieved June 20 2017 Bylaw 15 5 4 1 1 Exception Need Based Athletics Aid Only 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 225 Retrieved December 17 2020 Bylaw 15 5 4 1 2 Exception Final Year of Eligibility and Not Previously Aided 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 225 Retrieved December 17 2020 Bylaw 15 5 5 1 Men s Basketball 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 226 Retrieved December 17 2020 Bylaw 15 5 5 2 Women s Basketball 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 226 Retrieved December 17 2020 a b Bylaw 15 5 8 1 Institutions That Sponsor Women s Beach Volleyball and Women s Volleyball 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 229 Retrieved December 17 2020 a b Bylaw 15 5 8 2 Institutions That Sponsor Women s Beach Volleyball but Do Not Sponsor Women s Volleyball 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 229 Retrieved December 17 2020 a b c d e f g h i j k l m Bylaw 15 5 3 1 1 Men s Sports Maximum Equivalency Limits 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 222 Retrieved December 17 2020 a b Bylaw 15 5 3 1 3 Maximum Equivalency Limits Institutions That Sponsor Cross Country but Do Not Sponsor Track and Field 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 222 Retrieved December 17 2020 a b Bylaw 15 5 6 1 Bowl Subdivision Football FBS 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 226 Retrieved December 17 2020 a b Bylaw 15 5 6 2 Championship Subdivision Football FCSD 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 226 Retrieved December 17 2020 Stephenson Creg April 14 2017 NCAA adopts 10th assistant restricts off field staff hires satellite camps in sweeping vote The Birmingham News Retrieved September 4 2017 a b c Bylaw 15 5 2 Head Count Sports Other Than Football and Basketball 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 pp 221 22 Retrieved December 17 2020 a b Bylaw 15 5 7 Ice Hockey Limitations 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 228 Retrieved December 17 2020 Bylaw 15 4 2 1 2 Women s Sports Maximum Equivalency Limits 2020 21 NCAA Division II Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 167 Retrieved December 17 2020 Bylaw 20 9 6 Sports Sponsorship 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 409 Retrieved December 17 2020 See also Bylaw 20 9 9 1 sports sponsorship requirements for FBS schools p 411 and Bylaw 20 9 10 1 sports sponsorship requirements for FCS schools p 413 Bylaw 15 5 9 Multi Sport Participants 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 pp 229 30 Retrieved December 17 2020 Bylaw 15 5 9 1 2 Championship Subdivision Football Exception FCS 2020 21 NCAA Division I Manual PDF NCAA August 7 2020 p 229 Retrieved December 17 2020 This exception refers to Bylaw 15 5 6 2 1 pp 226 27 which in essence describes non scholarship FCS programs Wieberg Steve August 3 2006 NCAA to rename college football subdivisions USA Today Retrieved November 19 2009 BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editorbnielsen jg tc com September 11 2007 gt Sports gt So what s in a college football subdivision name JG TC com Retrieved November 19 2009 a b Football Bowl Subdivision Membership Requirements pdf file 2012 National College Football Attendance PDF NCAA Retrieved October 14 2013 College Football Scholarships NCAA and NAIA Football Recruiting Collegesportsscholarships com Retrieved November 19 2009 DI Council lifts football signing initial counter limits for two years Press release NCAA May 18 2022 Retrieved May 19 2022 College football FBS conferences with fewer than 12 members now able to hold championship game Press release NCAA January 13 2016 Retrieved January 19 2016 An unlikely champ for Big Ten expansion Paterno Berry Tramel s Blog Blog newsok com Archived from the original on July 8 2012 Retrieved November 19 2009 Ground Zero East Lansing Big Ten Roundtable Antepenultimate edition Groundzeroeastlansing blogspot com November 11 2008 Retrieved November 19 2009 FCS Football Standings ncaa com 2018 Retrieved January 12 2019 Kirshner Alex August 25 2018 The differences between FBS and FCS football explained quickly SB Nation Retrieved January 12 2019 NCAA Division I Football Championship Div1fbchampionship com Archived from the original on March 29 2010 Retrieved November 19 2009 Barnett Zach November 15 2018 With one week to go here s your FCS playoff primer footballscoop com Retrieved January 6 2019 Haskell Bob July 7 1981 NCAA expands I AA playoffs to eight teams Bangor Daily news Maine p 15 The FCS College Football Weekly Preview Fcspreview com Archived from the original on February 16 2008 Retrieved November 19 2009 New York Times 2006 11 17 Saunders Alan June 11 2020 Robert Morris to Join Horizon League in Most Sports Football to Big South Pittsburgh Sports Now Retrieved June 13 2020 Patriot League Presidents Endorse Change in Football Athletic Aid Policy Press release Patriot League February 13 2012 Archived from the original on February 17 2012 Retrieved February 29 2012 1 Archived June 21 2009 at the Wayback Machine WAC Announces Expansion Plans to Reinstate Football Press release Western Athletic Conference January 14 2021 Retrieved January 15 2021 WAC Announces Expedited Entrance for Four Texas Institutions Press release Western Athletic Conference January 21 2021 Retrieved January 25 2021 ASUN WAC Conferences Announce Football Partnership for 2021 Press release ASUN Conference February 23 2021 Retrieved February 23 2021 WAC ASUN Renew Football Partnership Press release Western Athletic Conference May 18 2022 Retrieved May 28 2022 a b Conferences Inside College Hockey Retrieved November 19 2009 History of the MAAC Augenblick org June 30 2003 Retrieved April 27 2012 Big Ten confirms plan to sponsor hockey starting in 2013 14 season USCHO com U S College Hockey Online USCHO com March 21 2011 Retrieved April 27 2012 New National Collegiate Hockey Conference Announced With Six Top College Programs COLORADO SPRINGS Colo July 13 2011 PRNewswire Colorado Prnewswire com Retrieved April 27 2012 Johnson Randy February 18 2020 CCHA will be new name for seven teams leaving WCHA in 2021 22 Star Tribune Minneapolis Retrieved April 22 2020 Christensen Joe July 2 2021 WCHA s men s hockey era officially ends after 70 years Star Tribune Minneapolis Retrieved July 3 2021 Clarkson University News Faculty Rep Student athlete Groups Oppose Ncaa Proposal 65 Clarkson edu December 22 2003 Archived from the original on August 26 2009 Retrieved 2009 11 19 Johns Hopkins Gazette January 5 2004 Jhu edu January 5 2004 Retrieved November 19 2009 External links EditOfficial website Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title NCAA Division I amp oldid 1129821890, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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