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Its predecessor, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS), was established on March 31, 1906 to set rules for amateur sports in the United States. Its creation was urged by then-president Theodore Roosevelt in reaction to his concern over the growing amount of serious injuries and deaths occurring in collegiate football.

The IAAUS later became the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910.

Up until the 1980s the association did not offer women's athletics. By 1982 however, all divisions of the NCAA offered national championship events for women's athletics and most members of the AIAW joined the NCAA.

In 1973, the NCAA split its membership into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III. Under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships. Generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in III. Division I football is further divided into I-A and I-AA.

The NCAA's legislative structure is broken down into cabinets and committees, consisting of various representatives of its member schools. These may be broken down further into sub-committees. Legislation is then passed on to the Management Council, which oversees all the cabinets and committees, and also includes repsentatives from the schools, such as athletic directors and faculty advisors. Management Council legislation goes on to the Board of Directors, which consists of school presidents, for final approval.

The NCAA staff itself provides support, acting as guides, liaison, research and public and media relations. The current NCAA president is Myles Brand , former school president of Indiana University.

Sports sanctioned by the NCAA include basketball, baseballBusch Stadium in Saint Louis, Missouri. Baseball is a team sport in which a small hand-sized ball is thrown and hit with a bat. Scoring involves running and touching markers on the ground called bases, hence the name. The ball itself is also called a base (men), softballSoftball is a team sport for two teams in which the object is to score runs by advancing around a circuit of four bases, known as a "diamond". It is a direct descendant of baseball, (sometimes referred to as "hardball" to differentiate the two) but differ (women), footballAmerican football known in the United States simply as football is a competitive team sport that rewards players' speed, agility, skill, tactics, and brute strength as they run and throw a ball, and block, tackle, and outrun each other, trying to force th (men), cross country, field hockeyField hockey is a popular sport for men and women in many countries around the world. It is simply known as hockey in most countries, especially those in which ice hockey is not very prominent. Field hockey has several regular, prestigious international t (women), bowlingBowling is the common name for several sports that involve rolling a ball towards a target or to knock down pins. For the use of this term in cricket, see Bowling (cricket). The sports known as bowling may be divided into two distinct groups. The first gr (women), golfThis article is about the sport of golf. For other meanings, see Golf (disambiguation). Golf is an outdoor game where individual players or teams play a small ball into a hole using various clubs. It is defined in the Rules of Golf as playing a ball with, fencingFencing encompasses any system of sword-based offense and defense but is most commonly used to denote styles of European origin. Today it can be considered to refer to the European martial art of swordplay, Olympic sport-fencing, stage-fencing or academic (coeducational), lacrosse, soccer, gymnastics, rowing (women's), volleyball, ice hockey, water polo, rifle (coeducational), tennis, skiing, track & field, swimming & diving, and wrestling (men's).

The NCAA is not the only collegiate athletic organization. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is another collegiate athletic organization.