Collection: NCAA | College

Following those White House meetings and the reforms which had resulted, Chancellor Henry MacCracken of New York University organized a conference of 13 colleges and universities to initiate changes in football playing rules; at a follow-on meeting on December 28, 1905, in New York, 62 higher-education institutions became charter members of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS). The IAAUS was officially established on March 31, 1906, and took its present name, the NCAA, in 1910.

For several years, the NCAA was a discussion group and rules-making body for college sports. Still, in 1921, the first NCAA national championship conducted: the National Collegiate Track and Field Championships. Gradually, more rules committees formed, and more tournaments were created, including a basketball championship in 1939.

In the late 1940s, there were only two colleges in the country, Notre Dame and Pennsylvania, with a national TV contract, a significant source of revenue. In 1951, the NCAA voted to prohibit any live TV broadcast of college football games during the season.

No sooner had the NCAA voted to ban television than public outcry forced it to retreat. Instead, the NCAA voted to restrict the number of televised games for each team to stop the slide in gate attendance. University of Pennsylvania president Harold Stassen defied the monopoly and renewed its contract with ABC. November 17, football teams are usually getting ready for Bowl Games.