College sports
The largest programs are: Among many other sports, the most-watched competitions are American football and basketball, though there are competitions in many other sports, including badminton, baseball, softball, ice hockey, soccer, rugby union, volleyball, lacrosse, field hockey, cricket, handball, swimming and diving, track and field, golf, tennis, table tennis, pickleball, rowing, and many others depending on the university.
[3] Due to the passage of Title IX in the United States, universities must offer an equal number of scholarships for women and for men.
Athletic scholarships are not only determined by the league caps but it varies on the institution, team, and coaches standard.
Most of the games are organized by student associations usually called "Atlética" of the respective student course, resulting in intramural matches between teams of different courses, there are also extramural competitions between different universities, a famous derby are the matches between students from the Mackenzie University and Universidade de São Paulo - USP in São Paulo.
UniSport Nationals is an annual multi-sport event held in Australia among its 43 member universities and tertiary institutions.
There is an annual national event which covers a large number of sports and competitive cultural activities (such as debating).
[9] During the early stages of World War II in the region, most universities suspended their sports programs.
Japan began to engage in sports when Western-style sports were introduced to Japan from Europe and the United States as a byproduct of the Westernization policy developed by the Meiji Restoration after three centuries of national isolation.
This was accomplished by so-called "hired foreigners" invited by the new government and Japanese people returning to the West.
Among the Westernization that was taking place in almost all areas of culture, including economics, politics, industrial technology, thought, literature, music, food, clothing, and architecture, the field of education in particular saw a remarkable development of Western-style sports.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the elevation of sports was being planned by "tough Christians" activists who were graduates of public schools and Oxford and Cambridge universities, which were attended by the children of gentlemen who were the dominant class of British society and the children of the emerging middle class bourgeoisie who admired them.
[12][13][14][15] After returning from the U.S., Hiroshi Hiraoka (平岡凞), a railroad engineer, founded Japan's first baseball team, the Shinbashi Club.Rugby was the first sporting event in Japan, with the founding of the Keio University rugby club in 1899.
At a time when the mainstream entertainment for citizens was "watching", such as cherry blossom viewing, visiting temples and shrines, and sumo wrestling viewing, it was exciting for citizens to see university students taking part in American-born baseball games.
[9] Even after World War II, university sports have established a glorious history and tradition, such as the revival of Waseda-Keio_rivalry (ja:硬式野球) at Jingu Stadium in the fall of 1945 and the popularity of Shigeo Nagashima, who supported the golden age of Rikkyo University in the 1960s.
National championships were held that year with Aichi Gakuin University winning the inaugural event.
However, Few tournaments are nationally televised for student athletes in college sports, such as the All Japan University Rugby Championship.
[13][14] In addition to the general entrance examination, Japanese universities also offer Sports Recommendation Admission (ja:スポーツ推薦).
This system is used to admit students who have achieved a certain level of athletic success in order to strengthen and maintain the strength of university sports teams.
It runs the U-League in six sports (baseball, basketball, football, soft tennis and volleyball) and the Club Championship in four team sports (baseball, basketball, football and volleyball).
During the 1970s, the National Union of South African Students worked to create a university sports program where race was not considered in team and competition arrangements.
The assimilation of sports into academic life at Cambridge and Oxford Universities in the nineteenth century has also been documented.
The Wales National Pool at Swansea University provides for a high level development of swimming.
[26] The ARMSSF organizes the annual "Student Sports Games of the Republic of Armenia".
