Overview

College Athletics Overview by the Numbers

Schools, teams & Participation 2022-23:

By our count about 2,099 post-secondary schools sponsor varsity sports. Basketball is sponsored by the most schools (2,020) followed by Volleyball, Soccer, Baseball & Softball. A few colleges sponsor only one sport while a handful of schools sponsor close to 40 teams. Football is sponsored by less than 900 schools but has the most participants due to its large rosters – an average team size of 109 players. In total,  over 650,000 student-athletes will participate in intercollegiate competition on nearly 29,000 teams during the 2022-23 season:

Varsity Sport			# of Sponsoring Schools	Men's Teams	Women's Teams	Total Teams		Male Athletes	Female Athletes	Total Athletes		Avr Roster Men's Teams	Avr Roster Women's Teams
Totals - All Sports			2,099	13,459	15,345	28,804		384,083	280,194	664,277
Totals by Sport:
Basketball			2,020	1,983	1,950	3,933		34,230	28,821	63,051		17	15
Volleyball			1,830	277	1,824	2,101		4,511	29,682	34,193		16	16
Soccer			1,744	1,459	1,670	3,129		44,259	44,046	88,305		30	26
Baseball			1,709	1,707	-	1,707		64,052	-	64,052		38	-
Softball			1,701	-	1,697	1,697		-	34,889	34,889		-	21
Cross Country			1,610	1,508	1,598	3,106		19,628	19,305	38,933		13	12
Track & Field			1,353	1,239	1,345	2,584		38,516	37,268	75,784		31	28
Golf			1,319	1,227	1,047	2,274		11,990	7,853	19,843		10	8
Tennis			1,114	908	1,092	2,000		9,408	10,314	19,722		10	9
Football			893	891	-	891		97,300	-	97,300		109	-
Swimming & Diving			687	558	678	1,236		11,635	15,136	26,771		21	22
Lacrosse			645	463	594	1,057		17,977	14,832	32,809		39	25
Wrestling			436	431	135	566		12,377	2,052	14,429		29	15
Field Hockey			288	-	287	287		-	6,630	6,630		-	23
Bowling			219	123	217	340		1,446	2,107	3,553		12	10
Hockey			189	185	131	316		5,586	3,255	8,841		30	25
Beach Volleyball			179	4	179	183		76	2,802	2,878		19	16
Rowing			152	73	151	224		2,920	7,488	10,408		40	50
Water Polo			125	92	115	207		1,901	2,053	3,954		21	18
Gymnastics			87	15	85	100		322	1,789	2,111		21	21
Equestrian			77		77	77		-	2,071	2,071		-	27
Rodeo			72	72	72	144		1,257	1,017	2,274		17	14
Rugby			58	35	43	78		1,252	1,257	2,509		36	29
Acrobatics			48	-	48	48		-	1,314	1,314		-	27
Fencing			46	36	45	81		689	765	1,454		19	17
Skiing			41	39	40	79		485	459	944		12	11
Stunt			40	-	40	40		-	1,044	1,044		-	26
Triathlon			40	4	40	44		15	294	309		4	7
Squash			37	33	32	65		500	428	928		15	13
Sailing			33	31	33	64		583	379	962		19	11
Rifle			29	24	29	53		111	209	320		5	7
Archery			27	25	26	51		207	218	425		8	8
Flag Football			25	-	25	25		-	417	417		-	17
Sprint Football			17	17	-	17		850	-	850		50	-
Other Sports			**
Totals - All Sports			2,099	13,459	15,345	28,804		384,083	280,194	664,277

Participation by Athletic Association:

With the exception of a handful of independent programs, virtually all schools belong to an athletic association. There are a number of schools with dual memberships based on their sport mix so consequently there is no singular number available of unique members for each association.  Here’s how association membership breaks out for basketball:

About 54% of schools that sponsor varsity sports are NCAA members,  but since NCAA schools in general offer more and larger sports programs,  around 78% of all college athletes compete within NCAA sanctioned competition.

Athletic Participation by Gender:

With few exceptions,  virtually all schools sponsoring intercollegiate sports must meet Title IX mandates which require equal participation opportunities for male and female students. While there is no actual Title IX “quota”,  for college athletics as a whole, the percentage of male and female athletes is virtually 50/50 after excluding football:

Why exclude football?  While female athletes are eligible to participate in college football, by its nature it’s an overwhelming male sport with huge rosters. And unlike say the relationship of baseball and softball,  there is no equivalent female counterpart sport to football.  So in terms of raw data, football throws a pretty big monkey wrench into athletic participation numbers.

However the objective of Title IX is to provide equal participation opportunities to both male and female students, and college athletic departments nationwide have actually done an excellent job here – nearly 50% of all (non-football) college athletes and nearly 43% of all college athletes nationwide are female. As a comparison, these  percentages are over double the percentage of females graduating with computer science (20%) or engineering degrees (22%) – both of these departments are also subject to Title IX compliance.

International Student-Athlete Participation:

International student-athletes make up a material percentage of participants in all associations and divisions.  The following International participation percentages for NCAA Division I and II schools are  reported in the NCAA December 2022 rends report:

International student-athlete participation data was reported only for NCAA Division I and II schools. The international participation percentage is significantly lower for almost all NCAA Division III,  NAIA and NJCAA schools.

Varsity v Club status

We report data strictly on varsity level collegiate athletic programs, virtually all of which compete within and are subject to rules of each School’s respective athletic association. It is estimated that in excess of  one million post secondary students athletes also compete in college club and intramural sports programs, the data presented on this site does not include these sports or participants.