What does it take to be a Div 1 basketball team? I haven't heard of half of these schools.?

Question

These teams are not Div 1 Football, so what makes them Div 1 basketball? Surely it isn't size alone... some of these schools are TINY!!

Answer 1

Your school has to have the facilities, and apply to the NCAA, based on certain criteria you will be placed as an idependent, or in a conferance, also they can put you in divison 1,2 or 3

Answer 2

Basketball doesn't have 1-A and 1-AA like football does.

There are 119 1-A football schools.

There are about 340 Division 1 basketball schools.

I bet there are some 1-A football teams you've never heard of. I know that I always get surprised by some new ones every September!


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Answer 3

It all depends on the size of the school's budget, facilities and number of athletic scholarships available to student-athletes. For those schools that have just one athletic team in Division I, the whole athletic system has to be up to the par of Division I rules because of Title IX.

In the NCAA Bylaws (Bylaw 20.9.1.2) in order to qualify for a Division I school you must have a financial aid expenditure in $985,923 total in 06-07. At least $492,961 of that has to be towards women's sports at the school. They have to have at least $1,049,022 in minimum financial aid in 2007-08 with $524,511 of that in women's sports.

According to the same Bylaw, 50 full grants (financial aid scholarship/grants) with 25 in women's sports is the minimum for the football, men's and women's basketball combined. If the institution doesn't sponsor men's or women's basketball then then there is a minimum of 35 grants for the gender that is without the basketball team. All financial aid awards go towards the totals, so the schools that don't have "athletic scholarships" like Butler can count academic scholarships.

There's also considerdation into whether the school can afford to host schools and support the costs of participating in a Division I conference. So it doesn't have anything to do with the number of the students as much as it does the facilities and number of athletic programs.

There's a lot more to it then I could possibly fit here, but that's the main part of the requirements. You can read about in the NCAA Bylaws (The Division I requirements start with Bylaw 20.9 on page 372): http://www.ncaa.org/library/membership/division_i_manual/2006-07/2006-07_d1_manual.pdf

Football has Division I subdivisions (I-A, I-AA). There is Division II and III in all other sports. And outside of the NCAA some of smallest schools (for instance divisions of Indiana University like Indiana University Southeast) had NAIA which is seperate but similiar to the NCAA.

Answer 4

Most of the Division I basketball teams ARE in Division I football. All but 8 of the 31 confererences in basketball fall under this category - but football further divides it into Division I-A and Division I-AA. Almost all of the "big" schools that you'd see on football games on TV are I-A.