The NCAA is the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It’s the major governing body for intercollegiate athletics. More than 1200 colleges and universities are members of the NCAA. It’s a “non-profit” organization that brings in roughly one billion dollars in revenue each year.
Generally speaking, NCAA divisions separate schools by the level of competition and the resources of their athletic departments. Most collegiate sporting events you see on television, from March Madness to the College World Series, are competitions between Division I schools.
Division I offers the highest level of competition and Division I schools’ athletic departments have the biggest budgets. Division III is the lowest level of competition in the NCAA, and Division III schools also tend to have the smallest athletic department budgets.