Ncaa
Your Guide to Sports in College (School Girl)
Julia, 16 from Pennsylvania writes...
Okay, so I've been doing a lot of college research recently and I've been looking at doing sports at the college level. On the College Board, sports are listed as either varsity, intercollegiate, intramural, club, or scholarship. What in the world does all of that mean?
Janet says...
Sports are a wonderful way to make friends, keep fit, and expand your extra curricular repertoire. However, not all sports programs are created equal and not all share the same goals. The general level of the sports program at a school can be easily determined by its division in the NCAA (this is only applicable for American schools). The NCAA has three divisions: I, II, and III.
- Division I schools are those that may as well be professional sports, it is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics in the United States. These schools offer the greatest number of athletic scholarships and are permitted to do so. Likewise, these schools can offer full-ride scholarships for their athletes and attending these schools and playing sports there give students the greatest chance at being drafted into the pros. Sports at these schools are a business. Some examples of these schools include the University of Pittsburgh, West Virginia University, University of California Los Angeles, and Washington State University. All Division I schools must field athletes in at least seven sports for men and seven for women (or six for men and eight for women) with two team sports for each gender. There are several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Division II and III.
- Division II is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It offers an alternative to both the highly competitive (and highly expensive) level of intercollegiate sports offered in NCAA Division I and to the non-scholarship level offered in Division III. Schools that are Division II can offer partial scholarships to students as a means to make a college education more affordable and to keep a good team, but the orientation is more on sports as a part of the whole academic experience. Schools that are Division II include the University of Charleston (WV), San Francisco State University, New York Institute of Technology, and University of Alaska Anchorage.
- Division III is the bottom level for NCAA sports. Division III schools cannot offer scholarships specifically for athletics as the other two divisions can, though with that said, they have the most flexibility in what sports are offered and often the easiest availability of sports to beginners. Division III schools still compete with other schools, but these schools have the greatest emphasis on academics and view sports as being important to being students, all students, not just the elite. Division III schools include Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Wheaton College (IL), and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Additionally, some schools are not members of the NCAA at all, but are members of the NAIA. The NAIA is a smaller organization and many of its schools if in the NCAA would be admitted into Division II.
So that frames the tiers of sports programs here in the United States. As for the terms you saw on College Board, let's quickly run through them:
- Varsity teams are those that primarily represent the academic institution. These are the teams that are specifically competitive with other top teams from other schools. Typically schools are considered to have varsity athletics if they are Division I, they play the types of games that you can watch on ESPN or even network TV.
- Intercollegiate sports are simply those played between colleges. They are not typically of the sort that are going to make it onto TV, just simply a game played between colleges. Intercollegiate sports are usually those played at the Division II and Division III levels if you want to put it in a sort of equivalency sense.
- Intramural sports are those played with other schools and organizations locally. Intramural sports are often at the Division III level or sometimes not even that. Intramural sports are played more for the fun of the sport and benefits for the individuals playing them. These are not particularly competitive.
- Club sports don't even fall on the NCAA's radar. These are sports often on campus because students are organize them. These sports will rise and fall in popularity as the students on campus exhibit their interest in them. Though schools with club sports often have some of the widest offerings for types of sports in that there are no issues with compliance with NCAA policies and regulations.
- Scholarship sports are simply those where students can receive scholarships for their athletic skills and what they contribute to the school's athletic program. All Division I and Division II schools have at least some spots that qualify as full or partial scholarships so that would be these schools.
Now, outside of the US the sports systems and terms are different, but this is a pretty good guide to the language of athletics at the American school. Though really, regardless of where anyone goes to school, I strongly recommend students become involved in at least one sport because it is a wonderful way to make friends, stay fit, and get even more out of your college experience--and I say this having taken up a sport while I was in college (rowing). I've graduated from college now and I still enjoy the sport that I took up in college.
Tags: college, school girl, sports, ncaa