The United States of America is a sports power.
Sports, both professional and amateur, play a huge role in the life of American society.
The main base of amateur sports in the United States are educational institutions – schools and colleges. College sports in the US are incredibly popular.
The beginning of such an incredibly popular collegiate sport in the United States was laid in 1843, when a boat club was organized at Yale University. In 1844, the same club was created at Harvard University.
The history of college sports in the United States begins in 1852, when the first rowing competitions between the teams of Harvard and Yale universities took place. It was as a sports organization that the “Ivy League” (“The Ivy league”), which has become the popular name of the eight most prestigious universities in the United States today, appeared.
The US collegiate sports system includes three associations officially approved by the Governing Body: the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Intercollegiate Athletic Association (NAIA), and the National College Athletic Association (NJCAA).
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a national collegiate athletic association founded on February 3, 1906 as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Since 1910 – NCAA. The NCAA is made up of 1,281 different college and university sports organizations in the United States and Canada. The association is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana headquarters.
The NCAA includes 23 sports and is divided into divisions 1, 2, and 3. The first division significantly surpasses the second and third in terms of the number of sports, the level of sports results, funding and the seriousness of the attitude of athletes to training.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association “holds championships in popular team and individual sports in the United States, such as American football, boxing, golf, athletics, baseball, softball, and basketball. College basketball teams in the United States (since 1891) are most often affiliated with the NCAA.
In addition, the NCAA conducts competitions in popular “original” sports in the United States, relatively uncommon in other countries of the world. Among them are lacrosse (a team game invented by American Indians, which is played with a small ball and racquet clubs), bowling.
Since the 50s of the 19th century, baseball has been very popular in US universities – a team sports game with a baseball ball and a bat (lapta in Russia) – a North American development of the older English lapta, popular in Great Britain and Ireland.
Later, athletics, rugby, and American football became popular. American football is by far the most popular college sport, a transformation of British rugby, football that developed from early forms of rugby and soccer.
On average, US universities participate in 20 sports. This is approximately 400,000 students. They are assigned to university teams officially registered with the student sports association. About two million more American students play sports, being members of unaffiliated clubs.
University sports in the USA are a real school of “team spirit”.
American collegiate sports are very organized. Studying at the university and collegiate sports in the USA are inextricably linked concepts. With unsatisfactory academic performance, a student may not be allowed to train, to play. American student athletes have no special privileges.
The level of university sports in the United States cannot be compared with the level of college sports in any country in the world. Being a student-athlete in the USA is comparable to playing professional sports, only instead of a salary, the student receives payment for his studies at the university. Outstanding student players have earned themselves not only sports fame, but also the right to a “sports” scholarship of several thousand dollars.
Sports in US universities is one of the main marketing tools to attract students. In order to attract the strongest athletes, sports programs are financed. More than a thousand educational institutions in the United States are looking for boys and girls in their sports teams to glorify the university. The basis of amateur sports of the highest achievements in the United States is precisely collegiate sports.
Collegiate sports in the US have given impetus to professional sports for athletes such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, John Isner, Rine Lochte, Rebeca Soni, and many more.
The scale of university sports in the United States is colossal. Popularity and achievements in some sports are comparable to the popularity and level of achievements in professional sports, and national student championships are comparable to the Olympic Games. The strongest student sports teams perform at the highest level.
University sports events are of great interest to the US population.
The best college teams in popular sports in the United States are packed to capacity in excess of 100,000 spectators. Special stadiums designed for games between university teams are built on each campus. Millions of fans across America queue for hours to buy tickets. Often there is not enough space for everyone at the stadiums – then bivouacs are set up nearby.
The press, the Internet, television broadcasts are at the service of university sports. Television broadcasts of college basketball, baseball, American football are watched by millions of viewers across the country.
Collegiate sports in the US are big business with over a billion dollars in annual turnover.
The most outstanding athletes – students receive an invitation to professional sports. It is student sports that are the “forge of personnel” for national teams (including the Olympic ones) and professional leagues.