NCAA Division I facts for kids

NCAA Division I logo

NCAA Division I (often called D-I) is the top level of college sports in the United States. It is managed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Many players from all over the world come to play at this level. Division I schools are known for their big sports programs, large budgets, impressive facilities, and more athletic scholarships compared to Division II and Division III schools. Many smaller schools also compete at this high level.

This division was once known as the University Division. In 1973, the NCAA changed to using numbers for its divisions. The University Division became Division I. The College Division was split into two: Division II for schools that offered scholarships or wanted to compete with those that did, and Division III for schools that chose not to offer sports scholarships.

For college football only, Division I schools are further divided. These groups are the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Some schools do not have a football program at all. FBS teams have more players on athletic scholarships than FCS teams. The FBS is famous for its postseason bowl games, where teams are ranked after the games. The FCS national champion is decided by a tournament with many teams.

For the 2020–21 school year, Division I included 357 of the NCAA's 1,066 member schools. This included 130 in the FBS, 127 in the FCS, and 100 schools without football. Six other schools were in the process of moving from Division II to Division I. Until 2012, there was a pause on schools moving up to Division I. Now, any school that wants to move to Division I must be accepted by a conference and show the NCAA it has the money to support a Division I program.

How College Sports Are Funded

Division I sports programs generate a lot of money. For example, in the 2009–10 school year, they made $8.7 billion. Men's teams brought in 55% of this, women's teams 15%, and 30% was not linked to a specific gender or sport. Football and men's basketball are usually the only sports that make a profit for a university. These are often called "revenue sports."

From 2008 to 2012, 205 sports teams were cut in NCAA Division I. This included 72 women's teams and 133 men's teams. Men's tennis, gymnastics, and wrestling were especially affected.

In the Football Bowl Subdivision (which had 130 schools in 2017), about 50 to 60 percent of football and men's basketball programs made more money than they spent. However, in the Football Championship Subdivision (which had 124 schools in 2017), only about four percent of football and five percent of men's basketball programs made a profit.

In 2014, the NCAA and student-athletes discussed whether student-athletes should be paid. In April of that year, the NCAA approved free unlimited meals and snacks for student-athletes. The NCAA stated that this change helped ensure student-athletes received the nutrition they needed without affecting other financial aid they might receive.

The NCAA gets most of its yearly money from two main sources: TV and marketing rights for the Division I Men's Basketball Championship, and ticket sales for all championships. This money is then shared in many ways, mostly to support NCAA schools, conferences, and nearly half a million student-athletes. About 60% of the NCAA's yearly money, around $600 million, is given directly to Division I member schools and conferences. More than $150 million funds Division I championships.

Football Conferences

All Division I conferences that include many sports must meet certain rules set by the NCAA. These rules ensure that conferences have enough member schools and offer a variety of sports for both men and women.

For example, a conference needs at least seven active Division I member schools. It also needs at least seven members that offer both men's and women's basketball. Conferences must sponsor at least 12 NCAA Division I sports in total.

There are also specific rules for how many men's and women's sports must be offered. Men's basketball is always required, and at least seven members must have a men's basketball team. Similar rules apply to women's basketball.

FBS Conferences

FBS conferences have even stricter rules to be recognized by the NCAA. They must have at least eight active FBS member schools. To count towards this total, a school must play in conference games for at least six men's and eight women's sports. These must include men's and women's basketball, football, and at least two other women's team sports.

† These are the "Power Four" conferences. They had guaranteed spots in the important "New Year's Six" bowl games before the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams in 2024. ‡ These are the "Group of Six" conferences.

FCS Conferences

Non-Football, Multi-Sport Conferences

Some conferences offer many sports but do not compete in football. These conferences still need to meet the general NCAA Division I rules for the number of men's and women's sports they offer.

Popular Sports in Division I

Men's Team Sports

Here are some of the most popular men's team sports in Division I, ranked by the number of possible scholarships.

The NCAA ranks sports by the total number of possible scholarships. Scholarship numbers for "head-count" sports (where each player gets a full scholarship) are shown without a decimal. Numbers for "equivalency" sports (where scholarships can be split) have a decimal.

• Football: Division I football programs are split into FBS and FCS. FBS programs can give scholarships to up to 85 players, with each player getting a full scholarship. FCS programs can give the equivalent of 63 full scholarships, which can be split among up to 85 players.
• Soccer: As of the 2023 NCAA soccer season, some FBS conferences do not offer men's soccer. The Ohio Valley Conference recently added men's soccer in 2023.
• Ice Hockey: Most Division I ice hockey teams are in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, or Colorado. Only one all-sports conference, the Big Ten Conference, sponsors a men's hockey league. Many Division II and III schools also play in Division I ice hockey.
• Lacrosse: Most Division I lacrosse teams are in the Northeast, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic states. Lindenwood dropped men's lacrosse after the 2024 season.
• Water Polo: The number of Division I schools offering men's water polo has decreased over the years. All champions since 1998 have been from California schools.

Men's Individual Sports

This table lists men's individual Division I sports with at least 1,000 athletes.

College wrestling in Division I has lost almost half of its programs since 1982.

Women's Team Sports

Here are some of the most popular women's team sports in Division I, ranked by the number of possible scholarships.

• Women's soccer has been the fastest-growing NCAA Division I women's team sport for a long time. It grew from 22 teams in 1981–82 to 335 teams in 2021–22. However, in recent years, beach volleyball has grown even faster, from 14 Division I teams in 2011–12 to 62 in 2021–22.
• The number of scholarships for indoor volleyball and beach volleyball are partly connected. Schools with both teams have specific rules about how many scholarships they can offer for each.

Women's Individual Sports

This table lists women's individual Division I sports with at least 1,000 athletes.

TV Deals and Money for Sports

NCAA Division I schools have TV contracts that show their most popular sports, like football and men's basketball, on TV channels. These contracts can bring in a lot of money, especially for Division I schools in the biggest conferences. For example, in 2016, the Big Ten conference signed deals with Fox and ESPN worth $2.64 billion over six years.

The NCAA also has its own TV contracts. The NCAA's contract to show the men's basketball championship tournament, known as March Madness, was an $11 billion deal with CBS and Turner that ran from 2010 to 2024.

For the 2023–24 fiscal year, the conferences that earned the most money were:

1. Big 10 — $928 million (each member school received $63.2 million)
2. SEC — $840 million (each member school received $50.5 million)
3. Big 12 — $558 million (each member school received $34.8 million)
4. ACC — $487 million (each member school received $28 million)
5. Pac-12 — (information not available)

Scholarships and Roster Limits

The NCAA has rules about how many scholarships schools can give out and how many players can be on a team's roster.

Rules Before July 1, 2025

Through the 2024–25 school year, the NCAA limited the total financial aid a Division I school could give in each sport. Sports were divided into two types for scholarships:

• "Head-count" sports: The NCAA limited the total number of players who could receive scholarships. Each player could get a full scholarship.
• "Equivalency" sports: The NCAA limited the total amount of money a school could offer in scholarships for a sport. This money could be split into many partial scholarships.

The table below shows the number of scholarships allowed in each sport before these rules changed.

New Rules Since July 1, 2025

Following a legal case in 2024, scholarship limits were replaced by roster limits in all sports. These new limits took effect in the 2025–26 school year. They apply to schools in the "Power Four" conferences and the Pac-12, as well as other programs that chose to follow these new rules.

Student-athletes who were already on NCAA teams before the 2025–26 school year and still had time to play were allowed to continue without counting against the new roster limits.

† Even though indoor and outdoor track & field are different sports, the new NCAA rules list them together with a roster limit of 45 for both men and women.

Rules for Multi-Sport Athletes

The NCAA also has rules for athletes who play more than one sport. For example:

• Anyone who plays football is counted in that sport, even if they don't get financial aid from the football program.
• Basketball players are counted in basketball, unless they also play football.
• Athletes in men's ice hockey are counted in that sport, unless they also play football or basketball.
• Athletes in both men's swimming and diving and men's water polo are counted in swimming and diving, unless they play football or basketball.
• For other multi-sport athletes, the school can choose which sport they are counted in.

Football Subdivisions

Division I has different levels only for football. In all other sports, all Division I conferences are considered equal. The football subdivisions were given names to show the different levels of play.

As of the 2023 season, the main differences between Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Championship Subdivision (FCS) schools are their scholarship rules and how their national champions are decided. Before the 2023 season, FBS schools had to average at least 15,000 fans at their games. This rule was removed early in the 2023 season. Instead, new rules for athletic funding were added. Starting in the 2027–28 school year, FBS schools must spend at least $6 million each year on athletic scholarships and fund the equivalent of at least 210 full scholarships across all their sports.

Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)

The Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), once called Division I-A, is the highest level of college football. FBS schools play in postseason bowl games. The champions of the top conferences, along with other highly ranked teams, get special invitations to the access bowls.

Before the House settlement, FBS schools could give financial aid to a total of 85 football players. Now, the House settlement changed this to a 105-player roster limit.

As of the 2025 college football season, there are 134 full FBS members, plus two schools that are transitioning. Kennesaw State became a full FBS member before the 2025 season. Delaware and Missouri State are becoming full FBS members in 2026 after joining Conference USA in 2025.

Since the 2016 season, all FBS conferences have been allowed to hold a championship game. This game does not count towards the limit of 12 regular-season games. Conferences can now decide how teams qualify for these championship games. Before 2016, only conferences with at least 12 football teams split into divisions could hold these "exempt" championship games. The winner of a conference championship usually gets a special invitation to a specific bowl game.

Some conferences have numbers in their names, but these numbers often do not match the actual number of member schools. For example, the Big Ten Conference kept its name even after it grew to 18 members. The Big 12 Conference also kept its name after its membership changed. Conferences also sometimes ignore their regional names when adding new schools from different parts of the country.

FBS Conferences

** – These are the "Big Four" or "Power Four" conferences. They had guaranteed spots in the "access bowls" linked to the College Football Playoff before it expanded to 12 teams in 2024.
*** – These are the "Group of Five" conferences.

Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)

The Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), once called Division I-AA, had 130 teams as of the 2022 season. All these teams play in one of 14 conferences. The "I-AA" name was officially dropped by the NCAA in 2006, but people still sometimes use it. FCS teams can give scholarships to 63 players (compared to 85 for FBS teams). Through the 2025 season, they usually play an 11-game schedule. The FCS regular season schedule is permanently expanding to 12 games, matching FBS, in 2026. The FCS decides its national champion through an NCAA-approved tournament. As of the 2018 season, the tournament starts with 24 teams.

The postseason tournament usually begins in late November. The title game has been held in early January since the 2010 season. The title game is moving to FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee for at least the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

Teams That Don't Play in the FCS Tournament

Some FCS conferences choose not to participate in the official postseason championship tournament.

The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) has its own championship game in mid-December. SWAC teams can still accept invitations to the national championship playoff if their schedule allows. The last SWAC team to play in the I-AA playoffs was Jackson State in 1997.

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) stopped participating in the playoffs with the 2015 season. Like the SWAC, its teams can get at-large bids. These two conferences now play each other in the Celebration Bowl as an alternative postseason game since the 2015 season.

Before the 2025 season, the Ivy League did not play in the FCS playoffs, even though it had an automatic spot. This was due to academic reasons. However, in December 2024, the Ivy League decided to end its ban on football postseason play, and the conference participates in the FCS playoffs from 2025 on.

Schools that are in a transition period after joining the FCS from a lower division are also not allowed to play in the playoffs.

Scholarship Rules

Division I FCS schools can give financial aid equal to 63 full scholarships. Since FCS football is an "equivalency" sport, schools can divide this amount into partial scholarships. However, FCS schools can only have 85 players receiving any type of athletic financial aid for football, which is the same limit as FBS schools.

Some FCS conferences have schools that do not offer any athletic scholarships at all. This includes the Ivy League and the Pioneer Football League (PFL). The Ivy League does not allow any athletic scholarships. The PFL consists of schools that offer scholarships in other sports but choose not to pay for a scholarship football program. The Patriot League started offering football scholarships in the 2013 season.

FCS Conferences

Division I Non-Football Schools

Some Division I conferences have member schools that do not compete in football. These schools are sometimes unofficially called I-AAA.

Several conferences that offer many sports also have schools that play football in other leagues. For example, the America East Conference has four football-sponsoring schools that play in CAA Football. The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) has schools that play football in the United Athletic Conference (UAC) or the PFL. The Big East Conference has schools that play FCS football in the PFL, Patriot League, or CAA Football, and one that plays FBS football as an independent.

The following Division I conferences do not sponsor football at all. They still compete in Division I for all the other sports they offer.

Non-Football Conferences

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, like ice hockey and men's Volleyball, have different conference structures that are separate from the usual NCAA sports conferences.

Since ice hockey is played by a smaller number of schools, mostly in northern areas, it has its own conference system. These conferences include a mix of teams that play their other sports in various Division I conferences, and even some Division II and Division III schools. For example, before 2013, the Hockey East men's conference included schools from different NCAA divisions.

Starting with the 2013–14 season, Division I men's hockey saw big changes. The Big Ten Conference began to sponsor ice hockey, and its schools left their old hockey conferences. Other schools also formed new conferences. These changes led to the end of the original Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA).

Women's hockey was not as affected by these changes. The Big Ten still does not have enough women's hockey teams to officially sponsor the sport.

The next major change happened after the 2020–21 season. Seven men's teams left the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) to form a new CCHA. This led to the end of the men's side of the WCHA.

Ice Hockey Conferences

These conferences are accurate for the 2025–26 season.

Why Some Schools Play Up in Division I

In the early 2000s, there was a discussion in the NCAA about whether schools should be allowed to have one main sports program in Division I while their other sports were in a lower division. This was important for schools like Johns Hopkins University (lacrosse) and Colorado College (ice hockey). This issue was especially key for ice hockey, which did not have a Division II national championship.

This discussion was settled at the 2004 NCAA Convention. The members agreed to allow schools to give financial aid to student-athletes who compete in Division I programs in one men's sport and one women's sport. Other schools can still have one men's and one women's sport in Division I, but they cannot offer scholarships unless their whole sports program meets Division I rules. Also, Division II and III schools can play in Division I for any sport that does not have a championship in their own division.

Five Division I programs at certain schools were allowed to continue under the old rules:

• 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

Three other programs were also allowed to continue under the old rules but are no longer in Division I:

• Hartwick College – men's soccer, women's water polo (men's soccer moved to Division III in 2018, and women's water polo was stopped at the same time)
• Rutgers University–Newark – men's volleyball (moved to Division III in 2014)
• SUNY Oneonta – men's soccer (moved to Division III in 2006)

See also

In Spanish: División I de la NCAA para niños