NCAA Division I

NCAA divisions
Division I Division II Division III
v t e

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 Division II and Division 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 more players receiving athletic scholarships than FCS teams and formerly (until 2024) had minimum game-attendance requirements. 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.

Division I athletic programs generated $8.7 billion in revenue in the 2009–10 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,^[4] and are called "revenue sports".^[5] 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.^[6]

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).^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^[9]

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."^[10]

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).

Finances

Under NCAA regulations, all Division I conferences defined as "multisport conferences" must meet the following criteria:^[11]

• A total of at least seven active Division I members. However, the NCAA's Grace Period rule (Bylaw 20.02.9.2) allows conferences to operate for up to two years with less than the minimum.^[12]
• 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, with at least two of those five being team sports. If a conference officially sponsors an NCAA "emerging sport" for women (as of 2023–24, acrobatics & tumbling, equestrianism, rugby union, stunt, triathlon, or wrestling), that sport will be counted if five members (instead of six) sponsor it.

FBS conferences must meet a more stringent set of requirements for NCAA recognition than other conferences:^[13]

• 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.^[14]

Conference	Nickname	Founded	Members	Sports	Headquarters	Total NCAA Titles	Men's NCAA Titles	Women's NCAA Titles	Co-ed NCAA Titles
American Athletic Conference ‡	AAC	1979 [a]	13 [b][c]	20	Irving, Texas	55	37	18	0
Atlantic Coast Conference †	ACC	1953	18 [d]	28 [e]	Charlotte, North Carolina	150	87	58	5
Big Ten Conference †	Big Ten	1896	18 [f]	28	Rosemont, Illinois	317	229	72	16
Big 12 Conference †	Big 12	1996	16 [g]	25	Irving, Texas	166	163	3	0
Conference USA ‡	CUSA	1995 [h]	10 [i][j]	19	Dallas, Texas	1	1	0	0
Division I FBS Independents[k]	Independents	–	3[l]	1	–
Mid-American Conference ‡	MAC	1946	12 [m][n]	24 [o]	Cleveland, Ohio	4	4	0	0
Mountain West Conference ‡	Mountain West	1999	11 [p][q][r]	19	Colorado Springs, Colorado	21	13	5	3
Pac-12 Conference	Pac-12	1915 [s]	2 [t][u]	24	San Francisco, California	501	309	174	18
Southeastern Conference †	SEC	1932	16	22	Birmingham, Alabama	223	118	104	1
Sun Belt Conference ‡	Sun Belt	1976	14 [v]	20	New Orleans, Louisiana	29	16	12	1

† "Power Four" conferences that had guaranteed berths in the New Year's Six, the bowl games associated with the College Football Playoff, before the playoff's 2024 expansion to 12 teams
‡ "Group of Five" conferences

Notes

Conference	Nickname	Founded	Football members	Sports	Headquarters
Atlantic Sun Conference	ASUN	1978	5 [a][b]	21	Atlanta, Georgia
Big Sky Conference	Big Sky	1963	12 [c]	16 [d]	Ogden, Utah
Big South Conference	Big South	1983	2 [e][f]	19	Charlotte, North Carolina
Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference[g]	CAA Football	2007[h]	16 [i][j]	1	Richmond, Virginia
Independents[k]			2 [l]	1
Ivy League[m]		1954	8	33[n]	Princeton, New Jersey
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference[o]	MEAC	1970	6 [p]	14	Norfolk, Virginia
Missouri Valley Football Conference	MVFC	1982	11 [q]	1	St. Louis, Missouri
Northeast Conference	NEC	1981	9 [r][s]	24	Somerset, New Jersey
Ohio Valley Conference	OVC	1948	7 [e][t]	1	Brentwood, Tennessee
Patriot League		1986	7 [u]	24	Center Valley, Pennsylvania
Pioneer Football League	PFL	1991	11	1	St. Louis, Missouri
Southern Conference	SoCon	1921	9 [v]	20	Spartanburg, South Carolina
Southland Conference	SLC	1963	12 [w]	17	Frisco, Texas
Southwestern Athletic Conference[x]	SWAC	1920	12	18	Birmingham, Alabama
Western Athletic Conference	WAC	1962	4 [a][y]	20	Arlington, Texas

Notes

No.	Sport	Founded	Teams[15]	Conf.	Scholarships per team	Season	Most Championships
1	Football	1869 (FBS)[16] 1978 (FCS)[17]	257 (130 FBS, 127 FCS)	24 (10 FBS, 14 FCS)	85 (FBS) 63.0 (FCS)	Fall	Princeton (28)
2	Basketball	1939[18]	351	32	13	Winter	UCLA (11)
3	Baseball	1947[19]	299	30	11.7	Spring	USC (12)
4	Soccer	1959[20]	204	23	9.9	Fall	Saint Louis (10)
5	Ice hockey	1948[21]	61	6	18.0	Winter	Denver (10)
6	Lacrosse	1971[22]	74	10	12.6	Spring	Syracuse (10)
7	Volleyball	1970[23]	29	5	4.5	Spring	UCLA (19)
8	Water polo	1969[24]	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 133 FBS programs can award financial aid to as many as 85 players, with each player able to receive up to a full scholarship. The 128 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 most recent 2023 NCAA soccer season (part of the 2023–24 academic year), four of the 10 FBS conferences do 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, Southland, and SWAC. The Ohio Valley Conference is the most recent conference to add men's soccer; it started sponsoring the sport for the first time in the 2023 season. 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 CUSA's remaining four teams (three of which fully joined 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, one to the Big East Conference, and one to the Ohio Valley Conference.
  • The Pac-12 will be reduced to two full members in 2024, with only Oregon State sponsoring men's soccer. Oregon State will house most of its non-football sports in the West Coast Conference in the 2024–25 and 2025–26 school years. Pac-12 men's soccer affiliate San Diego State will move that sport to the Western Athletic 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, Southeast, 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. Lindenwood will drop men's lacrosse after the 2024 season (2023–24 school year).
• 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, 33 D-II schools are competing in the National Collegiate division in 2023–24; eight of these are members of Conference Carolinas, the first all-sports league outside Division III to sponsor the sport; six are members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; and four are either full or affiliate members of the East Coast Conference, which began sponsoring the sport in 2023–24.
• 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.^[25] 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 schools that are leaving the Pac-12 in 2024.

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)[26]	Teams (1982)[26]	Change	Athletes[26]	Season
1	Track (outdoor)	1921[27]	287	230	+57	11,387	Spring
2	Track (indoor)	1965[28]	264	209	+55	10,369	Winter
3	Cross country	1938[29]	315	256	+59	5,032	Fall
4	Swimming and diving	1937[30]	130	181	−51	3,826	Winter
5	Golf	1939[31]	292	263	+29	2,958	Spring
6	Wrestling	1928[32]	76	146	−70	2,665	Winter
7	Tennis	1946[33]	233	267	−34	2,293	Spring

D-I college wrestling has lost almost half of its programs since 1982.^[34]

No.	Sport	Founded	Teams[26]	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	North Carolina (11)
8	Ice hockey	2001	34	5	18.0	Winter	Wisconsin (7)
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.^[26] 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",^[35] became an official NCAA championship sport in 2015–16.^[36]
• * = 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.

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)[26]	Teams (1982)[26]	Change	Athletes[26]	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 and 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

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)	[37]
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)	All	ESPN, The CW	$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)	[38]
Mid-American Conference (MAC)	All	ESPN	$100m ($8m)	[39]

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."^[40]

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's
Acrobatics & tumbling	–	14.0[41]
Baseball	11.7[42][nb 1]	–
Basketball	13[48]	15[49]
Beach volleyball	–	6.0[nb 2]
Bowling	–	5.0[41]
Cross country/Track and field	12.6[52][nb 3]	18.0[41][nb 4]
Equestrian	–	15.0[41]
Fencing	4.5[52]	5.0[41]
Field hockey	–	12.0[41]
Football	85 (FBS)[54][nb 5] 63.0 (FCS)[55][nb 6]	–
Golf	4.5[52]	6.0[41]
Gymnastics	6.3[52]	12[57]
Ice hockey	18.0[58][nb 7]	18.0[nb 8]
Lacrosse	12.6[52]	12.0[41]
Rifle	3.6[52][nb 9]	–
Rowing	–	20.0[41]
Rugby	–	12.0[41]
Skiing	6.3[52]	7.0[41]
Soccer	9.9[52]	14.0[41]
Softball	–	12.0[41]
Stunt	–	9.0[41]
Swimming and diving	9.9[52]	14.0[41]
Tennis	4.5[52]	8[57]
Triathlon	–	6.5[41]
Volleyball	4.5[52]	12[57]
Water polo	4.5[52]	8.0[41]
Wrestling	9.9[52]	10.0[41]

The NCAA also has rules specifying the sport in which multi-sport athletes are to be counted, with the basic rules being:^[61]

• 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.^[62]
• 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.

Subdivisions in Division I exist only in football.^[63][64] 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.

As of the 2023 season, the main distinctions between Bowl Subdivision and Championship Subdivision schools are scholarship policies and the existence of an official NCAA championship in the latter subdivision.^[65][66] Before the 2023 season, the NCAA required that FBS schools average at least 15,000 attendance, allowing schools to report either total tickets sold or the number of persons in attendance at the games. The requirement was a minimum average of 15,000 people in attendance every other year.^[66] These numbers are posted to the NCAA statistics website for football each year. With new rules starting in the 2006 season, it was possible for the number of Bowl Subdivision schools to drop in the future if those schools were not able to pull in enough fans into the games. Additionally, 14 FCS schools had enough attendance to be moved up in 2012.^[67] Under current NCAA rules, these schools must have an invitation from an FBS conference in order to move to FBS. 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.

FBS attendance requirements were abolished early in the 2023 season, effective immediately. In their place, Division I added new requirements for athletic funding. Effective in 2027–28, FBS schools must fund the equivalent of at least 210 full scholarships across all of their NCAA sports; spend at least $6 million annually on athletic scholarships; and provide at least 90% of the total number of allowed scholarship equivalents across 16 sports, including football.^[65]

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.^[68] 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 current 2024 college football season, there are 133 full members of Division I FBS, plus one transitional school that is considered an FBS member for scheduling purposes. The newest full FBS members are Jacksonville State, James Madison, and Sam Houston, which completed the transition from FCS prior to the 2024 season. The next school to become a full FBS member is Kennesaw State, which joined Conference USA (CUSA) in 2024 and will become a full FBS member a year later. Delaware and Missouri State are set to join CUSA in 2025 and become full FBS members in 2026.

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.^[69] 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.^[70] 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.^[71][72] 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, and later expansions brought the membership totals to 14 in 2023 and 16 effective in 2024. On the other hand, the Pac-12 Conference used names (official or unofficial) that have reflected the number of members from the establishment of its current charter in 1959 until its collapse in 2024. 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 most recent additions (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. An even more extrema example of this phenomenon is the Atlantic Coast Conference. For the first 60 years after its 1953 founding, the ACC consisted entirely of schools in Atlantic Coast states. However, in 2013, the conference added three new schools, two of which (Pittsburgh and, for non-football sports, Indiana-based Notre Dame) were in states without an Atlantic shoreline. The following year saw the ACC add another non-Atlantic school in Louisville. Then, in 2023, the conference announced it would expand in 2024 to the Pacific coast with San Francisco Bay Area rivals California and Stanford, and also add SMU from Dallas–Fort Worth.

Conference	Nickname	Founded	Members	Sports	Headquarters
American Athletic Conference ***	The American	1979 [a]	13 [b][c]	21	Providence, Rhode Island
Atlantic Coast Conference **	ACC	1953	18 [d]	28 [e]	Charlotte, North Carolina
Big Ten Conference **	Big Ten, B1G	1896	18 [f]	28	Rosemont, Illinois
Big 12 Conference **	Big 12	1996	16[g]	25	Irving, Texas
Conference USA ***	CUSA	1995 [h]	10 [i][j]	19	Dallas, Texas
Division I FBS Independents [k]			3[l]
Mid-American Conference ***	MAC	1946	12 [m][n]	22 [o]	Cleveland, Ohio
Mountain West Conference ***	MW	1999	11 [p][q][r]	19	Colorado Springs, Colorado
Pac-12 Conference	Pac-12	1915 [s]	2 [t][u]	24	San Ramon, California
Southeastern Conference **	SEC	1932	16	22	Birmingham, Alabama
Sun Belt Conference ***	Sun Belt, SBC	1976	14 [v]	20	New Orleans, Louisiana

** – "Big Four" or "Power Four" conferences that had guaranteed berths in the "access bowls" associated with the College Football Playoff before its 2024 expansion to 12 teams
*** – "Group of Five" conferences

Notes

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.^[73] 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).^[74] 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.^[75] 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.^[76]

The postseason tournament traditionally begins on Thanksgiving weekend in late November. When I-AA was formed 46 years ago in 1978,^[77] the playoffs included just four teams for its first three seasons, doubling to eight teams for one season in 1981.^[78] 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.^[79]

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,^[80] 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, citing academic concerns. The 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.

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. A former difference was that FCS schools had a limit of 30 players that could be provided with financial aid in a given season, while FBS schools were limited to 25 such additions per season. These limits were suspended in 2020 before being completely eliminated for both subdivisions in 2023.^[65] 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.^[81] 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.^[82]

Conference	Nickname	Founded	Members	Sports	Headquarters	FCS Tournament Bid
Atlantic Sun Conference	ASUN	1978	12 [a][b]	21	Atlanta, Georgia	Automatic (shared)[c]
Big Sky Conference	Big Sky	1963	10 [d]	15	Ogden, Utah	Automatic
Big South Conference	Big South	1983	10 [e][f]	19 [g]	Charlotte, North Carolina	Automatic (shared)[h]
Coastal Athletic Association	CAA	1983 [i]	14 [j][k][l]	21[m]	Richmond, Virginia	Automatic
Division I FCS Independents [n]			2[o]
Ivy League	Ivy League	1954 [p]	8	33[q]	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][x]	25	Somerset, New Jersey	Automatic
Ohio Valley Conference	OVC	1948	11 [y][z]	19 [aa]	Brentwood, Tennessee	Automatic (shared)[h]
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	SLC	1963	12 [af][ag]	18	Frisco, Texas	Automatic
Southwestern Athletic Conference	SWAC	1920	12	18	Birmingham, Alabama	Abstains
Western Athletic Conference	WAC	1962	9 [ah][ai]	20	Arlington, Texas	Automatic (shared)[c]

Notes

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.^[83]

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

• The America East Conference has four football-sponsoring schools—Albany, Bryant, Maine, and New Hampshire. All play in CAA Football, the technically separate football league of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA).
• The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) has seven schools that sponsor football.
  • Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, and West Georgia play in the United Athletic Conference (UAC), which started play in 2023 as a football-only merger between the ASUN and the Western Athletic Conference.
  • Stetson plays in the PFL.
  • Bellarmine does not play NCAA football, instead playing the weight-restricted and non-NCAA variant of sprint football.
• 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. Richmond will leave CAA Football in 2025 for football membership in the Patriot League.
  • UMass plays FBS football as an independent through the 2024 season, after which it will leave the A-10 for the Mid-American Conference.
• 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. Hawaiʻi will leave the Big West in 2026 to become a full Mountain West member.
• The Horizon League has two football schools. Robert Morris plays in the NEC, and Youngstown State plays in the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC).
• The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) has three football schools. Marist plays in the PFL, and Merrimack and Sacred Heart are FCS independents.
• 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 compete in the MVFC (a separate legal entity from the MVC, despite the similar name). Missouri State started a transition to FBS in 2024 and joins CUSA in 2025.
• The Summit League has five football schools, four of which play in the MVFC—North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota, and South Dakota State. The fifth, St. Thomas of Minnesota, plays in the PFL.
• The West Coast Conference's (WCC) only football school, San Diego, plays in the PFL. Oregon State and Washington State, the only members of the Pac-12 Conference beyond the 2023–24 school year, are housing most of their non-football sports in the WCC in 2024–25 and 2025–26.
• The Western Athletic Conference has four football schools, all playing in the UAC—Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, Tarleton, and Utah Tech.

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

Conference	Nickname	Founded	Members	Sports	Headquarters
America East Conference	America East	1979	9 [a]	18	Boston, Massachusetts
Atlantic 10 Conference	A-10	1975	15 [b][c]	22	Newport News, Virginia
Big East Conference	Big East	2013 [d]	11 [e]	23 [f]	New York City, New York
Big West Conference	Big West	1969	11 [g][h]	18	Irvine, California
Horizon League	Horizon	1979	11 [i]	19	Indianapolis, Indiana
Independents[j]	Independents		0
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference	MAAC	1980	13 [k]	25 [l]	Edison, New Jersey
Missouri Valley Conference	MVC / Valley	1907	12 [m][n]	18	St. Louis, Missouri
The Summit League	The Summit	1982	10 [o]	19	Sioux Falls, South Dakota
West Coast Conference	WCC	1952	9 [p][q]	15	San Bruno, California

Notes

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 Coastal 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 latter of which will move football to the Patriot League in 2025). 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;^[84][85] 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.^[86] This partnership was renewed for the 2022 season, with five ASUN and three WAC schools participating, though each conference will play its own schedule.^[87] After the 2022 season, the ASUN and WAC announced a full football merger for 2023 and beyond under the banner of the United Athletic Conference.^[88][89]

Some sports, most notably ice hockey^[90] 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.^[90] 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,^[91] 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.^[92] Additionally, six other schools from those conferences withdrew to form the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference at the same time.^[93] 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.^[94]

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,^[95] which in turn led to the demise of the men's side of the WCHA.^[96]

Accurate for the upcoming 2024–25 season.

Conference	Nickname	Founded	Members	Men	Women
Atlantic Hockey America	AHA	2024 [a]	14 [b]	11	6
Big Ten Conference	Big Ten, B1G	1896 [c]	7	7	none
Central Collegiate Hockey Association	CCHA	1971, 2020 [d]	9 [e]	9	none
ECAC Hockey	N/A	1961 [f]	12	12	12
Hockey East	HEA	1984 [g]	12	11	10
Independents			5 [h]	5	none
National Collegiate Hockey Conference	NCHC	2011 [i]	9 [j]	9	none
New England Women's Hockey Alliance	NEWHA	2018 [k]	8	none	8
Western Collegiate Hockey Association	WCHA	1951 [l]	8	none	8

Notes

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.^[97][98] 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 hockey

An 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)

• List 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 degree

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