NCAA Division I

Division I is the highest level of college sports in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. Its schools generally have the biggest budgets, the best facilities, and offer more their students more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III.

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

Below is a list of sports conferences belonging to Division I:

Football Bowl Subdivision

• American Athletic Conference
• Atlantic Coast Conference
• Big Ten Conference
• Big 12 Conference
• Conference USA
• Mid-American Conference
• Mountain West Conference
• Pacific-12 Conference
• Southeastern Conference
• Sun Belt Conference

Football Championship Subdivision

• Big Sky Conference
• Big South Conference – As of the 2023 football season, the Big South and Ohio Valley Conferences are partners in a football-only alliance that has a single automatic berth in the FCS playoffs.
• Ivy League
• Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
• Northeast Conference
• Ohio Valley Conference – Partner with the Big South Conference in football.
• Patriot League
• Southern Conference
• Southland Conference
• Southwestern Athletic Conference

These conferences only play football:

• CAA Football – Although run by the all-sports Coastal Athletic Association, it is legally separate.
• Missouri Valley Football Conference
• Pioneer Football League
• United Athletic Conference – A football-only partnership between the ASUN Conference and Western Athletic Conference.

Other conferences

These conferences do not play football, but do play basketball:

• America East Conference
• ASUN Conference – Partner in the United Athletic Conference.
• Atlantic 10 Conference
• Big East Conference
• Big West Conference
• Coastal Athletic Association – As noted above, the CAA football conference is separate from the all-sports conference.
• Horizon League
• Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
• Missouri Valley Conference
• The Summit League
• West Coast Conference
• Western Athletic Conference – Partner in the United Athletic Conference.

These conferences play more than one sport, but do not play either football or basketball:

• Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (men's and women's swimming and diving, plus women's beach volleyball)
• Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

These conferences only play ice hockey:

• Atlantic Hockey (men only) – Will merge with College Hockey America in 2024. The name of the merged conference has yet to be announced.
• Central Collegiate Hockey Association (men only)
• College Hockey America (women only) – Will merge with Atlantic Hockey in 2024.
• ECAC Hockey
• Hockey East
• National Collegiate Hockey Conference (men only)
• New England Women's Hockey Alliance
• Western Collegiate Hockey Association (women only)

The only Division I all-sports conference that plays either men's or women's ice hockey is the Big Ten. It started a men's hockey league in 2013–14.

The Ivy League technically sponsors ice hockey for both men and women, but does not hold a championship tournament. All Ivy League schools that play ice hockey play in Hockey East. The Ivy League determines its champion from results of ECAC Hockey games that involve two Ivy members.

These conferences only play water polo. Two run men's and women's leagues, and the other runs only a women's league.

• Collegiate Water Polo Association
• Golden Coast Conference (women only)
• Western Water Polo Association

One conference competes only in wrestling:

• Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association

These conferences play only one sport:

• Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges
• Pacific Coast Swim Conference

In some sports, the NCAA does not split schools into divisions because only a small number of schools play a given sport. Technically, conferences in these sports are not Division I. However, most of the schools in these conferences are in Division I in other sports.

These conferences only play men's volleyball (note that women's volleyball is split into divisions):

• Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association
• Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association

These conferences only compete in skiing:

• Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association
• Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association

These conferences only compete in gymnastics:

• Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League (men only)
• Midwest Independent Conference (women only)
• Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference (women only)

These conferences only compete in rifle shooting:

• Great America Rifle Conference
• Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference
• Patriot Rifle Conference

This conference only does fencing:

• Midwest Fencing Conference