Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Organized sport competition and institutions of higher education are inseparable in the United States. But the intertwining of the two as found in the US is not present in other countries. In European and Scandinavian countries, for example, intercollegiate sports competition is virtually nonexistent. Rather, there are club sports outside of the school system where young people in teams compete against other clubs. Canada fits somewhere between the European way and the American system. Jay Coakley and Peter Donnelly describe the Canadian system as one where interuniversity sports are a normal, but not highly significant, part of student life. There just are no parallels with the highly publicized “big-time” sports programs in US universities. However, sport in the Canadian schools is akin to other levels of university sport in the US, such as the NAIA level of competition (2004: 453). In short, sports are social constructions. In this sense, sport and education can be organized and played in many ways. College/university sport in the US is organized into six divisions, five administered by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and one by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) ( Coakley 2004 : 494–6). These divisions reflect athletic budget size, level of competition, rules, and the availability of athletic scholarships. The NCAA Division I is ... log in or subscribe to read full text