College Athletics Glossary
Here is CampusCompare’s list of college athletics key terms to get you movin’ and shakin’! From Big ten to NCAA to Title IX. Jump in!
Big ten:
The Big Ten conference is the United State’s oldest NCAA Division 1 college athletic conference. Its eleven member institutions are mostly located in the Midwestern United States and include the University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Penn State University, Purdue University and University of Wisconsin. Ten of the eleven conference schools are considered Public Ivies (like the Britney Spears of the trailor park!) and promote academic achievement and athletic excellence. The Big Ten football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division 1-A), the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport.
Blue chip athletes:
Elite athletes. The best of the best. The cream of the crop in your sport. Generally only blue chip athletes have coaches knocking on their door and offering them an athletic scholarship to play for their team.
Full ride athletic scholarship:
An athletic scholarship that pays for your college education including tuition, room and board etc. A very competitive scholarship, most students don’t get these scholarships but get partial scholarships instead (see below).
Ivy League Schools:
The Ivy League is an athletic conference which includes colleges located in the Northeastern United States (Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and Yale University). These schools participate in the NCAA Division 1. The term Ivy League now refers to elite schools with academic excellence, selectivity in admissions and social elitism. Interesting tidbit: The Ivy League’s name comes from the Ivy plants that cover many of these institutions historic buildings.
The NAIA is the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. It is an organization that promotes athletics as an integral part of education. NAIA member colleges award athletic scholarships and tend to comprise of smaller colleges.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the most well known collegiate athletic association. It is a voluntary organization through which the nation’s colleges and universities govern their athletics programs. It is comprised of around 1,200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals committed to the best interests, education and athletics participation of student-athletes. The NCAA is in charge of all areas of athletics for four-year colleges members including recruiting, eligibility and financial aid.
NCCA Division 1:
The most competitive division of NCAA colleges, and offers full and partial athletic scholarships.
NCAA Division 2:
The second tier, with an above average level of competition, a somewhat lower profile than division 1 as well as scholarship opportunities.
NCAA Division 3:
It’s made up mostly made up of smaller colleges, which range from division powerhouses to no-cut teams. Athletes in this division are students first, athletes second. There are no athletic scholarships (but division 3 schools still have financial aid and academic scholarships).
NCAA Letter of Intent:
This is a document that sets out your agreement or “intent” to attend the college for which you have signed for 1 academic year in exchange for college financial aid, including an athletic scholarship. The NCAA letter of intent is for Division 1 and 2 athletes.
NCCAA:
The NCCAA is the National Christian College Athletic Association. Many NCCAA colleges are also NCAA or NAIA members. The NCCAA is divided into Division1 and 2 schools. Division 1 colleges offer athletic scholarships, Division 2 colleges do not. The NCCAA is an association of Christian-centered collegiate institutions whose mission is to use athletic competition as an integral component of education, evangelism and encouragement.
NJCAA:
The NJCAA is the National Junior College Athletic Association. It is also a collegiate athletic association but exclusively for two-year junior colleges and community colleges. There are about 550 institutions belong to the NJCAA. NJCAA member schools in Division1 and 2 offer athletic scholarships. NJCAA Division 3 schools do not offer athletic scholarships.
NJCAA Letter of Intent:
Basically the same as for the NCAA Letter of Intent and commits the athlete to that institution for 1 academic year.
Online Recruiting Services:
A middle man between you and the coach. These are online services that prepare your athletic resume for you and they have up to date databases containing the names and contacts of all the college coaches. They help you make a connection with the coach and aid in getting you out there so that you can get an athletic scholarship. Not all online recruiting services are created equally. Some are scams that guarantee you a scholarships while others can cost over $3000 to use them. There is no point using an athletic recruiting service that just posts your profile online. Coaches don’t go surfing the web very often looking for talent; don’t use a service that sends your resume out on their letterhead, it must look like it was written and sent by you. So shop around and know that you can do most of that work yourself.
Partial athletic scholarship:
Most athletic scholarships are partial, meaning that you will get some money towards your college education, but it will not count towards all of your tuition, room and board, textbooks and additional college costs.
Recruiting:
The act of being recruited by a coach into an athletics program. Often you need to be proactive about being recruited and hand your stats, and what you think you can offer to coaches.
Title IX:
Title IX is a federal law that states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participating in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” In other words, a law to make sure girls have as many opportunities as boys in athletics.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Glossary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
