User:Nolhare1300/sandbox

Unlike in the rest of the world, in the United States today, many college sports have been skyrocketing in the US and could make a popularity spike around the world as well in many cases competing with professional championships for prime broadcast, print coverage and for the top athletes. The average university sponsors at least twenty different sports and offers a wide variety of intramural sports as well. In total, there are approximately 400,000 men and women student-athletes that participate in sanctioned athletics each year.[2] The largest collegiate sanctioning organization is the NCAA, and the sport that most schools participate in the most is basketball, with 2,197 men's and women's basketball teams at all levels.[3] A close second is cross crounty (with 2,065 NCAA teams) and baseball/softball is third (1,952).[3]

Principles for inter-collegiate athletics include "gender equity, sportsmanship and ethical conduct, sound academic standards, nondiscrimination, diversity within governance, rules compliance, amateurism, competitive equity, recruiting, eligibility, financial aid, playing and practice seasons, postseason competition and contests sponsored by non-collegiate organizations, and the economy of athletic program operations to ensure fair play and equality throughout all college athletic programs and associations." There are also various requirements that organizations like the NCAA require for every athlete to complete before they become a college athlete. The biggest requirement being academics that colleges require in which can vary from school to school like a certain ACT or SAT score, minimum GPA, and a high school diploma.