Participation Levels in NCAA

       Participation levels in NCAA sports were at an all time high in 2006-2007 for both male and female student-athletes. There are more then 400,000 student-athletes participating in sports for which the NCAA conducts championships, which includes student-athletes competing on more than 18,000 teams. In just 26 years from 1981-2007, the overall women's participation in collegiate athletics went from 64,390 to 172,634, while the men had grown from 167,055 to 230,259. The number of NCAA student-athletes and the teams on which they compete continue to climb. For the ninth consecutive year, data from the NCAA Sports Sponsorship has shown a dramatic increase in athletic opportunities   where the NCAA sponsors championships.

            Of the sports-participation total, 57 percent are male student-athletes. While there are typically more males in the NCAA student-athlete population, there tends to be more women’s teams than men’s. The number of women’s championship sports teams in fact has increased annually for the past 29 years. While the number of men’s teams has decreased in three of the last 10 years, it has increased steadily since 2003-04. The 2010-11 totals are an all-time high.

            Basketball is the most frequently sponsored women’s sport, followed by volleyball, cross country, soccer, softball, tennis, and track and field. Basketball also leads the way in men’s sport sponsorship, followed by cross country, baseball, golf, soccer, tennis, track and field, and football.

            I figured men’s football and women’s softball would be the highest sponsored sports throughout the NCAA, but with basketball leading the way it comes as no surprise. I never realized that women’s basketball has grown so much in the past 25 years at the collegiate level. I wonder what it will look like in the next 10 years for both women’s and men’s NCAA sports-participation and sponsorship.