The most recent NCAA research on student-athlete participation in championship sports shows rates that are down from last year for both genders but still high overall.

The 1982-02 NCAA Sports-Sponsorship and Participation-Rates Report (PDF*) indicates rates that have fallen slightly from last year's all-time highs in both genders. A total of 209,890 male student-athletes participated in championships sports in 2001-02, compared to 214,186 in 2000-01, while 153,601 women participated in 2002-01, down from 155,698 in 2000-01.

Though the decreases of about 2 percent in each gender are the first since the 1996-97 report, they are not alarming decreases given the fluctuation of participation numbers over time. Rates typically fluctuate by 2 or 3 percent from one year to the next because of the changes in NCAA membership.

More importantly, the numbers for both genders remain higher than in any year except 2000-01. Rates in women's participation continue a growth trend that has been almost constant since 1989-90. Women's participation numbers have almost doubled since that time. Increases in women's soccer participation have fueled that climb, as almost 84 percent of NCAA member institutions now field women's soccer teams. About 11 percent sponsored the sport 20 years ago. The growth in women's soccer alone has added more than 17,000 female athletes since 1981-82.

Other women's sports that have experienced continued growth include golf (from 125 teams in 1981-82 to 451 teams in 2001-02), softball (416 to 895), lacrosse (105 to 249) and rowing (43 to 140). Ice hockey sponsorship also has grown dramatically since it became an NCAA championship sport -- now at 69 teams, up from 22 five years ago.

Teams added, dropped

This year's report includes a new tabulation of teams added and dropped since 1988-89. NCAA researchers added this calculation to gain a clearer picture of sponsorship in various sports over time. The Sports-Sponsorship and Participation-Rates Report is used primarily as a real-time measure of sports sponsorship, and while that serves a valuable purpose, it is not meant to be used as a way to measure changes in a "core membership" over time while also trying to account for membership fluctuation.

Thus, the new chart does not include schools that began or dropped NCAA membership in a given year. It shows that a total of 277 teams were dropped in 2001-02 -- 178 men's teams and 99 women's teams. On the other hand, a total of 368 teams were added last year -- 159 men's and 209 women's -- for an aggregate gain of 91 teams in 2001-02 (a net loss of 19 men's teams and a net gain of 110 women's teams).

Last year's aggregate gain is smaller than the three previous year totals of 247 in 1998-99, 323 in 1999-00 and 245 in 2000-01. The largest aggregate loss of 56 teams was in 1997-98 when 282 men's teams and 142 women's teams were dropped, while 121 men's and 247 women's teams were added.

By sport, the added/dropped calculation reveals that soccer has enjoyed the highest aggregate gain in women's sports (+500) since 1988-89, while gymnastics has suffered the largest decrease (-34). The women's sports most frequently added are soccer, golf, indoor track, cross country and softball.

Among men's sports, indoor track sponsorship has seen an aggregate increase of 61 teams, while wrestling has seen an aggregate loss of 99 programs. The largest aggregate drops in wrestling were in 1992-93 (16 programs), 1996-97 (15 programs) and 1997-98 (16 programs). Other men's sports losing significant sponsorship since 1988-89 are tennis (-53), rifle (-33), gymnastics (-32), and swimming and diving (-22). The men's sports showing the highest net increase in sponsorship are indoor track, lacrosse, cross country, soccer and baseball.

Ethnicity report

In conjunction with the participation-rates report, the NCAA also released the 1999-2000 -- 2001-02 Student-Athlete Ethnicity Report (PDF*). This information provides a general view of recent trends in seven ethnicity categories: American Indian or Alaskan Native; Asian or Pacific Islander; Black, non-Hispanic; Hispanic; nonresident alien; and White, non-Hispanic. These are the same categories that are defined by the federal government and used in the NCAA Graduation-Rates Report.

The largest percentages of black males in various sports are found in basketball (41 percent), football (30.9 percent) and track (20.7 percent indoor; 21.1 percent outdoor). Percentages in all other sports are lower than 10, with the highest of those in cross country (8.8 percent) and volleyball (6.4 percent).

The percentage of black males in basketball is 3.2 percent higher than it was three years ago. In football, the increase is 2.8 percent over the same time period.

The largest percentages of Hispanic males are in volleyball (14.9 percent), soccer (6.4 percent) and wrestling (5.7 percent).

In women's sports, the largest percentages of Blacks are in bowling (82.2 percent), basketball (25.7 percent) and track (20.4 indoor; 20.7 outdoor).

For Hispanic women, the percentages are highest in fencing (5 percent), water polo (4 percent) and softball (3.7 percent).

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/library/research.html). Those interested should click on the "view online" option.

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 at the bottom of this page).

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