NCAA Division I

NCAA Division I is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers, with large budgets, more elaborate facilities and more athletic scholarships than Division II and Division III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition.
This level was previously called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the lower-level College Division; these terms were replaced with numeric divisions in 1973. The University Division was renamed Division I, while the College Division was split in two; the College Division members that offered scholarships or wanted to compete against those who did became Division II, while those who did not want to offer scholarships became Division III.
For college football only, D-I schools are further divided into the Football Bowl Subdivision, the Football Championship Subdivision, and those institutions that do not have any football program. FBS teams have more players receiving athletic scholarships than FCS teams and until 2024, had minimum game-attendance requirements. The FBS is named for its series of postseason bowl games, with various polls ranking teams after the conclusion of these games, while the FCS national champion is determined by a multi-team bracket tournament.
For the 2020–21 school year, Division I contained 357 of the NCAA's 1,066 member institutions, with 130 in the Football Bowl Subdivision, 127 in the Football Championship Subdivision, and 100 non-football schools, with six additional schools in the transition from Division II to Division I. There was a moratorium on any additional movement up to D-I until 2012, after which any school that wants to move to D-I must be accepted for membership by a conference and show the NCAA it has the financial ability to support a D-I program.

Finances

Division I athletic programs generated $8.7 billion in revenue in the 2009–10 academic year. Men's teams provided 55%, women's teams 15%, and 30% was not categorized by sex or sport. Football and men's basketball are usually a university's only profitable sports, and are called "revenue sports". From 2008 to 2012, 205 varsity teams were dropped in NCAA Division I - 72 for women and 133 for men, with men's tennis, gymnastics and wrestling hit particularly hard.
In the Football Bowl Subdivision, between 50 and 60 percent of football and men's basketball programs generated positive revenues. However, in the Football Championship Subdivision, only four percent of football and five percent of men's basketball programs generated positive revenues.
In 2012, 2% of athletic budgets were spent on equipment, uniforms and supplies for male athletes at NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision school, with the median spending per-school at $742,000.
In 2014, the NCAA and the student athletes debated whether student athletes should be paid. In April, the NCAA approved students-athletes receiving free unlimited meals and snacks. The NCAA stated "The adoption of the meals legislation finished a conversation that began in the Awards, Benefits, Expenses and Financial Aid Cabinet. Members have worked to find appropriate ways to ensure student-athletes get the nutrition they need without jeopardizing Pell Grants or other federal aid received by the neediest student-athletes. With their vote, members of the council said they believe loosening NCAA rules on what and when food can be provided from athletics departments is the best way to address the issue."
According to the finance section of the NCAA page, "The NCAA receives most of its annual revenue from two sources: television and marketing rights for the Division I Men's Basketball Championship and ticket sales for all championships. That money is distributed in more than a dozen ways — almost all of which directly support NCAA schools, conferences and nearly half a million student-athletes. About 60% of the NCAA's annual revenue — around $600 million — is annually distributed directly to Division I member schools and conferences, while more than $150 million funds Division I championships".

Football conferences

Under NCAA regulations, all Division I conferences defined as "multisport conferences" must meet the following criteria:

A total of at least seven active Division I members. However, the NCAA's Grace Period rule allows conferences to operate for up to two years with less than the minimum.
Separate from the above, at least seven active Division 1 members that sponsor both men's and women's basketball.
Sponsorship of at least 12 NCAA Division I sports.
Minimum of six men's sports, with the following additional restrictions:
* Men's basketball is a mandatory sport, and at least seven members must sponsor that sport.
* Non-football conferences must sponsor at least two men's team sports other than basketball.
* At least six members must sponsor five men's sports other than basketball, including either football or two other team sports.
Minimum of six women's sports, with the following additional restrictions:
* Women's basketball is a mandatory sport, with at least seven members sponsoring that sport.
* At least two other women's team sports must be sponsored.
* At least six members must sponsor five women's sports other than basketball, with at least two of those five being team sports. If a conference officially sponsors an NCAA "emerging sport" for women, that sport will be counted if five members sponsor it.
FBS conferences

FBS conferences must meet a more stringent set of requirements for NCAA recognition than other conferences:

A total of at least eight active FBS members.
To be counted toward this total, a school must participate in conference play in at least six men's and eight women's sports, including men's and women's basketball, football, and at least two other women's team sports.
* Each school may count one men's and one women's sport not sponsored by its primary conference toward the above limits, as long as that sport competes in another Division I conference. The men's and women's sports so counted need not be the same sport.

Conference	Nickname	Founded	Members	Sports	Headquarters	Total NCAA Titles	Men's NCAA Titles	Women's NCAA Titles	Co-ed NCAA Titles
American Conference ‡	American	1979	13	20	Irving, Texas	55	37	18	0
Atlantic Coast Conference †	ACC	1953	18	28	Charlotte, North Carolina	150	87	58	5
Big Ten Conference †	Big Ten	1896	18	28	Rosemont, Illinois	317	229	72	16
Big 12 Conference †	Big 12	1996	16	25	Irving, Texas	166	163	3	0
Conference USA ‡	CUSA	1995	12	19	Dallas, Texas	1	1	0	0
Division I FBS Independents	Independents	–	2	1	–
Mid-American Conference ‡	MAC	1946	13	25	Cleveland, Ohio	4	4	0	0
Mountain West Conference ‡	Mountain West	1999	12	19	Colorado Springs, Colorado	21	13	5	3
Pac-12 Conference	Pac-12	1915	2	6	San Ramon, California	501	309	174	18
Southeastern Conference †	SEC	1932	16	22	Birmingham, Alabama	223	118	104	1
Sun Belt Conference ‡	Sun Belt	1976	14	20	New Orleans, Louisiana	29	16	12	1

† "Power Four" conferences that had guaranteed berths in the New Year's Six, the bowl games associated with the College Football Playoff, before the playoff's 2024 expansion to 12 teams

‡ "Group of Five" conferences
;Notes:

FCS conferences

;Notes:

Sports

Men's team sports

Sports are ranked according to total possible scholarships. Scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a decimal point. Numbers for equivalency sports are indicated with a decimal point, with a trailing zero if needed.
Notes:

Football — D-I football programs are divided into FBS and FCS. The 133 FBS programs can award financial aid to as many as 85 players, with each player able to receive up to a full scholarship. The 128 FCS programs can award up to the equivalent of 63 full scholarships, divided among no more than 85 individuals. Some FCS conferences restrict scholarships to a lower level or prohibit scholarships altogether.
Soccer — As of the most recent 2023 NCAA soccer season, four of the 10 FBS conferences do not sponsor men's soccer: the Big 12, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, and the SEC. Several other D-I conferences also do not sponsor the sport: the Big Sky, MEAC, Mountain West, Southland, and SWAC. The Ohio Valley Conference is the most recent conference to add men's soccer; it started sponsoring the sport for the first time in the 2023 season. Conference USA shut down its league after losing most of its men's soccer membership to the Sun Belt Conference, followed by the American Athletic Conference taking in CUSA's remaining four teams as associate members for 2022. The MAC was reduced to 5 men's soccer members in the 2022 season, and shut down its league at the end of that season after being unable to find the sixth member needed to maintain its automatic NCAA tournament bid. Of its final men's soccer members, three moved that sport to the Missouri Valley Conference, one to the Big East Conference, and one to the Ohio Valley Conference.
* The Pac-12 will be reduced to two full members in 2024, with only Oregon State sponsoring men's soccer. Oregon State will house most of its non-football sports in the West Coast Conference in the 2024–25 and 2025–26 school years. Pac-12 men's soccer affiliate San Diego State will move that sport to the Western Athletic Conference.
Ice hockey — Almost all D-I ice hockey programs are in the Northeast, the Upper Midwest, or the Colorado Front Range. Only one D-I all-sports conference, the Big Ten, sponsors a men's hockey league. All other conferences operate as hockey-specific leagues. Of the 61 teams competing in D-I hockey in 2022–23, 22 are otherwise classified as either D-II or D-III; a number of schools from D-II play in D-I ice hockey as the NCAA no longer sponsors a championship in D-II and many have traditional/cultural fan bases that support ice hockey, and the D-III schools were "grandfathered" in to D-I through their having sponsored hockey prior to the creation of D-III.
Lacrosse — The vast majority of D-I lacrosse programs are from the Northeast, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic. Only five D-I programs are not in the Eastern Time Zone: Air Force and Denver on the Colorado Front Range, Lindenwood on the Missouri side of the St. Louis metropolitan area, Marquette in Milwaukee, and Utah. Lindenwood will drop men's lacrosse after the 2024 season.
Volleyball — Of the traditional D-I conferences, only the Big West Conference and Northeast Conference sponsor men's volleyball, with those conferences respectively adding the sport in 2017–18 and 2022–23. Two of the other three major volleyball conferences, defined in that sport as leagues that include full Division I members, are volleyball-specific conferences; the third is the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, a multi-sport conference that does not sponsor football or basketball. In addition to the D-I schools, 33 D-II schools are competing in the National Collegiate division in 2023–24; eight of these are members of Conference Carolinas, the first all-sports league outside Division III to sponsor the sport; six are members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; and four are either full or affiliate members of the East Coast Conference, which began sponsoring the sport in 2023–24.
Water Polo — The number of D-I schools sponsoring men's water polo has declined from 35 in 1987/88 to 22 in 2010/11. No school outside of California has ever made the finals of the championship, and all champions since 1998 have come from one of the four California schools that are leaving the Pac-12 in 2024.