To better understand the U.S. college sports system, we must begin by talking about the three different leagues that comprise it: NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA.
The first substantial difference between the leagues is that the first two (NCAA, NAIA) are leagues that host colleges and universities with a duration of 4 years that once completed give access to a Bachelor’s degree while the so-called Junior colleges of the duration of two years give access to an Associate’s degree instead (Diploma).
The NCAA is the league of 1098 universities. It is divided into three divisions (D1, D2, D3) and offers 23 sports. Only D1 and D2 offer athletic scholarships to its athletes who number more than 176,000 and receive partial or full scholarships. Universities that are part of D3 can only award academic scholarships to their athletes and not to the athletes. Each year, the NCAA offers more than $1 billion in athletic scholarships!
NAIA is the league of some 300 universities and offers a choice of 13 sports. NAIA is a smaller league in terms of numbers than the NCAA with “only” 77,000 student-athletes. The colleges that make up NAIA are similar in number to NCAA D2 colleges, with the difference being that NAIA typically offers more scholarship options. More than 90% of NAIA-administered colleges offer scholarships to their students.
The colleges that make up the NJCAA are the so-called Junior Colleges which are two-year colleges. NJCAA student athletes attend their first two years at NJCAA colleges and then finish their last two years at four-year colleges (NCAA, NAIA). This is a good option for players looking to get large scholarship amounts, but also for players who do not have good grades in school or do not speak English well. Therefore, NJCAA is a good stepping stone to start a college career in the United States and then complete your graduation from an NAIA or NCAA college. There are 525 colleges in the NJCAA.
NCAA and NAIA coaches often prefer to recruit NJCAA players as opposed to players playing abroad, since, in the first case, they have the opportunity to see the athlete during sports practice and also their academic performance in the U.S. context.
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