Increases in women's sports participation continue to be the driving force behind the changing demographic profile of NCAA student-athletes.

The most recent NCAA research shows that overall student-athlete participation increased for the fourth straight year, primarily because of an increase of about 2,500 female student-athletes, most of which are the result of women's ice hockey and water polo becoming NCAA championship sports.

The numbers from the NCAA's annual Sports Sponsorship and Participation Report show that a total of 355,688 student-athletes participated in NCAA championship sports in 2000-01, an increase of 590 (.17 percent) from the previous year. Women's participation fueled that jump, as 149,115 females were recorded in NCAA sports, up from the 146,617 recorded in 1999-00. Men's participation actually declined slightly over the same period, from 208,481 in 1999-00 to 206,573 in 2000-01. It was the seventh drop in men's participation from one year to the next since sports-participation data began being compiled annually in 1981-82, but by far not the most dramatic. That came in 1987-88 when there was an almost 6 percent decrease.

The rise in women's participation has been steady during the 20 years of annual data compilation, as the total has more than doubled during that span.

In addition to the growth of women's ice hockey and water polo, the most recent increase may also be attributed to a jump in women's golf programs (20 new teams and 148 student-athletes) and women's soccer programs (13 new teams and 360 student-athletes). The latter continues a trend that has seen almost 200 new women's programs added in soccer since 1995-96. Soccer also continues to supply the greatest number of female athletes (18,548), about 200 more than outdoor track and field.

Women's rowing also is growing, up three programs in 2000-01, the eighth straight increase for that sport.

Men's sports

Football continues to account for about one-fourth of all men's participants, though the total of 56,804 football participants is down from the 57,593 in 1999-00 due to seven fewer teams.

Men's sports on the rise are few, and those that increased from 1999-00 did so only slightly. Notable decreases were found in baseball (19 teams), wrestling (nine teams), and swimming (four teams). Baseball's drop came mostly in Divisions II (seven teams) and III (10 teams). In wrestling, each division lost three teams. The 225 teams is the sport's lowest total in the 20 years of annual data compilation. In men's swimming, sponsorship fell from 374 to 370. The total is not far from the 1981-82 total of 377, but the percentage of the NCAA membership sponsoring men's swimming has dropped from almost 48 percent to just over 35 percent.

Teams per institution

New to the participation study this year is a report on the average number of men's and women's teams sponsored by each institution. The new category demonstrates institutions' commitment to gender equity over the years, as the overall discrepancy between men's and women's teams has gone from an average of 8.7 men's teams and 6.1 women's teams in 1981-82 to 7.5 and 8.0, respectively, in 2000-01. The average number of women's teams is higher in all three divisions.

Also new this year is that the breakdown of ethnicity in the participation numbers has been separated out into a new report: the NCAA Student-Athlete Ethnicity Report. The numbers indicate that a high proportion of African-American participation continues to be in football, basketball and track. The highest proportion is in women's bowling (79.7 percent), but that sport is sponsored by only 23 institutions.

Forty percent of African-American male student-athletes participate in basketball, while a little more than 30 percent participate in football. In women's basketball, the proportion of African-American participation is 24.7 percent, and the proportion in track and field is about 20 percent each for men's and women's indoor and outdoor.

The other sports with a higher than 5 percent African-American participation rate were cross country (9.4 percent men, 10.4 percent women), men's soccer (6.3 percent), women's softball (6.4 percent), men's and women's tennis (5.4 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively) and men's and women's volleyball (5.6 percent and 9 percent, respectively).

Both the participation report and the ethnicity report will be made available at no charge in a PDF format in the sports library section of NCAA Online (www.ncaa.org). Those interested should click on "News & publications" on the left-hand side of the front page and then click the "view online" option. Click on "research" for this and other research-oriented information.

Users will need Adobe Acrobat software to view PDF files. Adobe Acrobat is available free of charge and may be downloaded by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the research section (or any other section).

A limited number of hard copies will be made available for sale. No hard copies will be mailed to the membership.