Classification History

Schools are classified within American collegiate athletics based on two criteria: the organization of which they are a member (NCAA, NAIA, or other organizations catering to very small colleges which do not prominently support athletics), and the level of emphasis placed on athletics by the school.

For the purposes of historical organization, however, the classifications are only particularly relevant as a determinant of what level of play a school competed at and, more specifically, what championships a school was eligible to compete for in a given year. As a result, classification is a nebulous creature prior to 1936, when what would become the NAIA began its annual tournament. Even then, official affiliations remained very fluid until 1956, when the NCAA officially divided its schools into two classifications. By this time, the NCAA and NAIA had begun requiring schools to be dues-paying members of their organizations, adhering to their rules, to be eligible for championships. Throughout, some schools were members of both the NCAA and NAIA at the same time, adhering to the most restrictive organization's rules when in conflict.

The primary distinction between divisions in the NCAA are the number of sports each school is required to offer and the number of scholarships allowed in each sport. As a brief guideline, Division I schools must sponsor 14 sports and are allowed 13 scholarships for basketball; FBS schools are allowed to have 85 players on full scholarship for football, while FCS schools may offer the equivalent of 63 full scholarships to as many as 85 players. Division II schools must sponsor 10 sports, and are allowed 36 scholarship equivalencies for football and 10 for basketball. Division III schools must offer 10 sports as well, and are prohibted from offering athletic scholarships entirely.

In the NAIA, schools are not required to offer a specific number of sports; indeed, some NAIA member schools only compete in one sport. The divisional separation in the NAIA applies only to basketball; all NAIA schools are allowed the equivalent of 24 scholarships for football; Division I basketball schools may offer the equivalent of 11 scholarships, while Division II schools may offer 6. When the NAIA separated into two divisions for football, this was not the case; the scholarship limits were the same for both divisions, and the distinction between divisions was based on enrollment.

Because the separation into classifications is irrelevant prior to 1936, and information regarding the date at which schools joined the NCAA prior to that time is nearly non-existent, for simplicity's sake this wiki lists all schools as members of the NCAA from its official founding in 1910 until 1936 unless we are aware that they were explicitly not members. (For example, some schools competed with junior college opponents despite being four-year schools and expressly identify themselves has having been members of the National Junior College Athletic Association prior to joining the NCAA.) If we are aware that a school was not an NCAA member prior to 1936, or not a member of either organization at any time after, we list them as unaffiliated. Schools which competed in the NAIA for basketball between 1936 and 1956 are still listed as either NCAA members or unaffiliated schools for football only, as the NAIA did not begin sponsoring a championship in football until 1956.

In the case of schools which transition from one classification to another, we attempt to mark the point of change as the year in which they officially transition, but we may instead have to mark the point of change as the year in which we know they were no longer an eligible member of the prior classification. In a typical four-year transition plan, a school remains eligible for championships in the previous classification during year one, becomes ineligible in year two but are considered to still be members, become members of the new classification in year three but remain ineligible, and become full members in year four. However, the reason for the ineligibility in year two of the transition is because the school is now competing under the rules of the new classification and have begun scheduling accordingly.

This may create some conflict with information available via other sources, because some sources begin listing the school as a new member of the new classification immediately, others don't begin listing them as a member of the new classification until they are eligible to compete for championships, and others may make the change in year two or three of the transition. Still other sources may consider a school to be part of the prior classification until such time as their games in their new conference count in the conference standings, or until they are officially eligible to win conference regular-season championships.

This policy was formalized in May 2014. Earlier pages may not reflect this policy accurately for some time, and confusing sources may result in incomplete accuracy.

The following tables outline the history of classification in American collegiate athletics. The colors indicate the colors used on infoboxes related to each classification throughout this wiki.

Football

The NCAA did not officially classify schools into divisions for football until 1956, but unofficially recognizes the distinction between "major" schools and "other" schools from 1937-1956. That unofficial distinction is not reflected in the following table. Within this wiki, solely for the sake of clarity, we treat the University and College divisions as existing from 1937-1956 in football only even though that designation prior to 1956 was unofficial. Also, we make no distinction between Division I-A and Division I FBS or Division I-AA and Division I FCS; the terms are interchangeable as the change in nomenclature was merely cosmetic.

no classifications	NCAA 1937-1956		NCAA University 1956-1973		NCAA Division I 1973-1977	NCAA Division I-A 1978-2005			NCAA Division I FBS 2006-
						NCAA Division I-AA 1978-2005			NCAA Division I FCS 2006-
			NCAA College 1956-1973		NCAA Division II 1973-
					NCAA Division III 1973-
			NAIA 1956-1969	NAIA Division I 1970-1996				NAIA 1997-
				NAIA Division II 1970-1996

Basketball

no classifications		NCAA 1937-1956	NCAA University 1956-1973	NCAA Division I 1973-
			NCAA College 1956-1973	NCAA Division II 1973-
				NCAA Division III 1973-
	NAIA 1936-1991					NAIA Division I 1991-
						NAIA Division II 1991-