USA

Sport in the United States of America (USA) is a very important part of the U.S culture and makes for a fascinating study opportunity for sport students from around the globe. The sporting culture in the U.S. is very different from that of many other countries, which in itself makes the USA sport system unique and worthy of study. Compared to any other nation, Americans prefer a unique set of sports. For example, soccer, the most popular sport in the world, is not as popular in the U.S. compared to the Big 4 of American football, basketball, baseball, and ice hockey. These professional leagues each enjoy massive media exposure and are considered the preeminent competitions in their respective arenas. Soccer is however the number one youth participation sport in the U.S. up to about the age of 13 and growing in recognition with the July 2007 addition of David Beckham to the L.A. Galaxy. Other major differences are that America rarely participates in international competition outside of the Olympics and World Championships, and cricket, played in over 200 countries, is virtually unheard of.

In addition to the difference of popular sports, sports are also organized differently in the United States. There is no system of promotion and relegation like sports in Europe and major sports leagues operate as franchises, not clubs. Also, unlike many other countries where school sports are largely of a recreational nature, high school, college & universities sport competitions are very competitive and play an enormous & very important role in the American sporting history & culture. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA, often read "N-C-Double-A" or "N-C-2-A") is the largest sports organization in the world and is an association of about 1,281 academic institutions that organize the sport programs of the majority of colleges & universities in the U.S. In basketball and football especially, high school and particularly college sports are followed with a fervor equaling or in some cases exceeding that felt for professional sports. College football games can draw crowds in excess of 100,000 and many prominent high school football teams have stadiums that seat tens of thousands of spectators. The college basketball championship tournament played in March, known as March Madness, draws an enormous amount of attention and is a followed more closely than the NBA Finals. Sports are a significant source of revenue for schools competing in Division I (D-I), the highest level of collegiate athletics. This has created controversy as collegiate athletes are considered amateurs and thus may not receive a salary, although many athletes are granted scholarships to attend a school and compete in a sport. Further, among the most popular sports such as basketball and football, coaching success is revered to the point that D-I public schools may extend multi-million dollar contracts to the most proven coaches; several coaches of D-I football and basketball programs are the highest-paid public employees in their respective states.
 
Finally, because of the enormous popularity of college sports with over 1200 NCAA schools competing at that level and coupled with the huge amount of money generated in both college & professional sports, there are more Sport Management & Sport Medicine/Athletic Training jobs available in the USA than in any other country. This is emphasized by the fact that in the USA there are (apprx) 275 schools offering Sport Management Programs and about 200 offering Sport Medicine/Athletic Training programs with a large job pool from the high school to professional level.
 
On behalf of the College Sport Research Institute (CSRI), I want to welcome faculty and students travelling to Chapel Hill, NC with the Sports Travel Academy for our annual Scholarly Conference on College Sport. As the first state-sponsored university in the United States, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a great place to learn about U.S. college sport. We're excited to have international attendees at our conference. It's a win-win opportunity to compare and contrast American college sport with sport around the world."

--Dr. Richard M. Southall, Assistant Professor/Sport Administration Coordinator/Graduate Sport-Administration Program Director/College Sport Research Institute