What is the NCAA and how does the college golf championship work?

The NCAA is the National Collegiate Atheltic Association which concerns the success of college athletes.

There are over 1,000 colleges and universities part of the NCAA and 102 athletics conferences. Almost 500,000 athletes play for 19,886 teams that compete across 90 championships in 24 sports of the NCAA.

The three-division set-up was established in 1973. Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to prospective athletes and in general, larger schools compete in Division I events.

The NCAA was founded in 1906 with its headquarters based in Indianapolis, Indiana. With 90 yearly championships, 46 women’s and 41 men’s, the NCAA sports include basketball, baseball, track and field, softball, football, cross country, field hockey, bowling, golf, fencing, lacrosse, soccer, gymnastics, rowing, swimming and diving, beach volleyball, volleyball, ice hockey, water polo, rifle, tennis, skiing and wrestling.

American politician Charlie Baker is the president of the NCAA, taking over from Mark Emmert in 2023. The NCAA requires all of its athletes to be amateurs and to remain eligible, the athletes mustn’t sign contracts with sports clubs, earn a salary in a sport or make agreements with agents.

Universities also require students to have graduated from high school, complete the minimum required academic courses and have a qualifying grade-point average to participate in college athletics.

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How does the NCAA golf championship work?

The NCAA Division I Men’s Championship is played in late May or early June and it is the top annual tournament. The teams that win their Division I conference championships get automatic spots in regionals. The selection committee then decides which other teams get through to the regionals.

The top-performing teams in each regional go to the championship. Also, the best players in each tournament from teams not qualified also go to the next round as individuals.

The NCAA Championship was stroke play until 2008, but it became stroke play and match play from 2009 onwards. The top eight teams after 54 holes of stroke play are seeded and a match play playoff concludes the event.

There is also an award for the lowest-scoring individual and this portion of the championship has been won by Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw and Hale Irwin.

In 2024, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State, Auburn, Ohio State and Georgia Tech were the eight teams to qualify from the stroke play section to the match play last-eight section.

Auburn won the NCAA Championship in 2024 in the men’s top division, beating Florida State 3-2 in the final at Omni LA Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad. Hiroshi Tai of Georgia Tech won the individual championship. Winning the NCAA individual championship now earns you an invitation to the Masters.

Houston owns the most NCAA team titles with 16 and Oklahoma State have 11. In terms of individual champions, Mickelson and Crenshaw both won it three times and Scott Simpson, Richard Crawford, Dexter Cummings, George Dunlap and Fred Lamprecht won it twice.

In terms of the women’s Division I championship, this is played in May. Golf was one of 12 sports added to the program in 1981. Through 2014, it was a stroke play competition but from 2015, after 72 holes of stroke play, the top eight teams play in a single-elimination match play to determine the champion.

Stanford beat UCLA 3-2 in the final in Carlsbad in 2024 which was the university’s third win. Arizona State has won the most championships in the women’s sphere, owning eight titles with Duke on seven.

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