National Collegiate Athletic Association (Ncaa)
One of the world's most influential governing bodies for inter-collegiate sports was founded in America when President Theodore Roosevelt set out to find a way to regulate football, with its dangerous, sometimes fatal, formation called the Flying Wedge. Now, as the twentieth century comes to a close, more than 860 American educational institutions hold membership in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), an organization which sets the rules for the recruiting and eligibility of student athletes, governs the organization of athletic conferences, sets the playing rules for 20 intercollegiate sports, and conducts 80 national championships in three competitive divisions.
In 1905 the primary offensive weapon in football was the kick return, with the ball carrier protected behind a fast-moving, wedge-shaped formation of his teammates. Blocking and gang-tackling resulted in many injuries and even some deaths, causing many colleges and universities to discontinue the sport. President Theodore Roosevelt invited college athletics leaders to two White House conferences in 1905 to discuss possible reforms, resulting in a meeting of 13 institutions in early December 1905, to make changes in the rules of football. To enforce the new rules, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States was founded later that month, with 62 members. Five years later, the name of the association was shortened to the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
For several early years the NCAA was primarily a discussion group and rule-making body, but in 1921 it organized its first national championship, in track and field. Gradually, more championships were held, more legislative bodies formed, and more institutions admitted. To be an active member of the NCAA, a college or university must be accredited academically, must maintain at least four intercollegiate sports for men and four for women (except for single-gender institutions), agree to comply with the association's rules concerning financial aid, recruiting, playing seasons, and post-season competition, as well as respecting the penalties imposed by infractions of those rules.
When World War II ended, there was a renewed interest in sports competition, and college athletics became a lucrative business on campuses throughout the country. Reports of rule violations involving the recruiting of student athletes led the NCAA to adopt a "sanity code," with guidelines to regulate practices in financial aid as well as recruitment. The association was also concerned with the proliferation of post-season football games and with the effects of unrestricted television on college athletics, particularly football. With membership increasing and the problems becoming more complex, the NCAA recognized the need for a full-time professional staff, and in 1951 Walter Byers was named executive director.
Abuses of recruiting rules continued, however, and in 1952 the NCAA recognized the need for a mechanism to implement the regulations. The enforcement program voted in by the membership called for cooperation among the athletic conferences, institutions, and the NCAA to delve into reports of violations and determine appropriate penalties. A staff was employed by the association to investigate allegations and determine whether an official inquiry was necessary. Institutions found guilty of inappropriate payoffs to student athletes were heard before the Committee on Infractions, and the resulting penalties ranged from a reduction in the number of athletic scholarships to an institution's being banned from post-season competition. That same year a national headquarters was established in Kansas City, Missouri, and the membership voted at its annual convention to control the televising of football games, also passing legislation to govern post-season bowl games.
In 1973, in the first Special Convention of the NCAA ever held, member institutions were divided into three legislative and competitive divisions. Division I—made up of the sports programs in the major colleges and universities—and Division II were allowed to offer scholarship grants to athletes, and Division III, made up of smaller institutions, would operate without such grants. Further classification occurred five years later when Division I members voted to create subdivisions I-A and I-AA in the sport of football.
Women became a part of the NCAA sports activities in 1980 when ten championships for female athletics were established for 1981-82 in Divisions II and III. The historic 75th NCAA Convention in 1981 adopted an all-encompassing governance plan to include women's sports programs, service, and representation. The delegates also expanded the women's national championship program by adding 19 events. Women athletes now participate in basketball, crosscountry, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, indoor and outdoor track, lacrosse, rifle, rowing, skiing, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, and volleyball.
The Presidents Commission was created in 1984, and in 1985 that body called a landmark special Convention to address continuing problems in the areas of compliance and enforcement, and members took decisive action to strengthen the association's efforts. Another special Convention was called in June 1987, to launch an 18 month National Forum on critical problems in college athletics. In the late 1990s the national staff of more than 200 NCAA employees, based in Overland Park, Kansas, was led by President Cedric W. Dempsey.
The phenomenal success of sports in America—both at the box office and in television ratings—has created problems for the NCAA in its attempts to uphold the integrity of college athletics. The most popular series of sports events on television is March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament for Division I. This tournament began in 1939 with a crowd of 5,500 at Evanston, Illinois, but crowds have grown to a top of 64,959 at the 1987 final four competition at the New Orleans Superdome, and television ratings have rivaled those of the National Football League's Super Bowl. March Madness has also attracted illegal sports wagering, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has estimated that $2.5 billion was illegally bet on the 1995 Division I basketball championship.
The breadth of the problem has been shown by a University of Cincinnati study involving Division I basketball and football players. There were 648 respondents to the survey, indicating that 25.5 percent had gambled on other college sporting events, with 3.7 percent having bet on a game in which they played, and that 0.5 percent had received payment for not playing well in a game. Because wagering on sports has the potential of undermining the integrity of athletic events, the NCAA opposes all forms of legal and illegal betting on sports and has taken steps to declare athletes ineligible for competition if found guilty of participating in any gambling activity. Some institutions have discontinued their participation in basketball because of this problem.
The NCAA has also provided a service to athletics by keeping statistics on the competitions in baseball, basketball, and football in all divisions. An important museum for fans interested in sports history is the NCAA Hall of Champions, which includes photographic and video salutes to all its sports and championships. Since its creation in 1990, thousands of sports enthusiasts have toured the facility. A new Hall of Champions is scheduled to open in conjunction with the 2000 Final Four basketball games in Indianapolis in March of that year. The new Hall will feature interactive, technologically enhanced video displays and hands-on exhibits to bring alive the college sports experience.
One of the latest problems which the NCAA has addressed is devising a method of declaring the national championship in Division I-A football. In Division I-AA, Division II, and Division III, the championship is won in a post-season playoff, but scheduling, as well as post-season bowl bids, have made it difficult to use the same method in the major division. In 1999 Tennessee was named the number one team after defeating Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl; a complicated formula had determined that they were the two strongest teams, based on difficulty of schedule, season's records, polls, and other factors. The NCAA will continue to set the selection rules and alternate among the major bowl sites in assigning the important game between the two top contenders.
Further Reading:
Falla, Jack. NCAA: The Voice of College Sports. Kansas City, National Collegiate Athletic Association, 1981.
Finebaum, Ted. I Hate the NCAA: 303 Reasons Why You Should Too. New York, Crane Hill Press, 1996.
Salter, David F., and Thomas M. Jones. Blueprint for Success: An In-Depth Analysis of NCAA Division III Athletics and Why It Should Be the Model for Intercollegiate Reform. New York, F. Merrick, 1993.
Weissburg, Ted. Breaking the Rules: The NCAA and Recruitment in America's High Schools. New York, Watts Franklin, 1995.
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