The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), founded in 1906, is the major governing body for intercollegiate athletics in the United States and currently conducts national championships in its sponsored sports, except for the top level of football. Before the NCAA offered a championship for any particular sport, intercollegiate national championships in that sport were determined independently. Although the NCAA sometimes lists these historic championships in its official records, it has not awarded retroactive championship titles.

Prior to NCAA inception of a sport, intercollegiate championships were conducted and usually espoused in advance as competitions for the national championship. Many winners were recognized in contemporary newspapers and other publications as the "national intercollegiate" champions. These are not to be confused with the champions of early 20th-century single-sport alliances of northeastern U.S. colleges that were named "Intercollegiate League" or "Intercollegiate Association." These leagues generally included some of the colleges that later became the Ivy League, as well as an assortment of other northeastern universities.

Even after the NCAA began organizing national championships, some non-NCAA organizations conducted their own national championship tournaments, usually as a supplement to the NCAA events. A notable example is that of NCAA Division III men's volleyball. Although the NCAA Men's National Collegiate Volleyball Championship, established in 1970, was in theory open to D-III schools, none had received a berth in that tournament. As a result, a separate championship event, open only to D-III schools, was created in 1997. That event was discontinued after its 2011 edition once the NCAA announced it would sponsor an official Division III championship starting in 2012.

The historical championship event outcomes included in the primary list section were decided by actual games organized for the purpose of determining a champion on the field of play. Lists of other championships for collegiate athletic organizations are referenced in later sections (see Table of Contents). It does not include Helms Athletic Foundation or Premo-Porretta Power Poll selections, which were awarded retrospectively.^[1][2]

Championship game outcomes prior/concurrent to NCAA inception

Men's teams

Baseball

• 1893 Yale def. Amherst, 9–0

Tournament was played at the Chicago World's Fair and included Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Yale, Amherst, Wesleyan and Vermont.^[3] William McKinley attended the opening game.^[4] It was organized by the Columbian National Inter-Collegiate Baseball Association, notably by its secretary, Amos Alonzo Stagg, then the new head football coach at the University of Chicago.^[5]

NCAA from 1947.

Basketball

• 1904 Hiram College won the 1904 Olympic Games collegiate championship tournament, def. Wheaton College, 25–20, and Latter-Day Saints University (later, Brigham Young University), 25–18.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]}
• 1908 Chicago def. Pennsylvania, 2 games to 0 (21–18, 16–15)^[12][13]
• Amateur Athletic Union annual United States championship – College teams were runners-up in 1915, 1917, 1920, 1921, 1932, and 1934. Four college teams won the championship (final game results):^[14]

• 1916 Utah def. Illinois Athletic Club, 28–27
• 1920 New York University def. Rutgers, 49–24
• 1924 Butler (Indiana) def. Kansas City Athletic Club, 30–26
• 1925 Washburn College (Kansas) def. Hillyard Shine Alls, 42–30

• 1920 Pennsylvania def. Chicago, 2 games to 1 (24–28, 29–18, 23–21)^[15]
• 1922 Wabash College (Indiana) won the first national intercollegiate championship tournament, which was held in Indianapolis.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]} Five 1922 conference champions and a runner-up^[24] from these conferences participated: Pacific Coast Conference, Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Western Pennsylvania League, Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Western Conference and Eastern Intercollegiate League declined invitations to participate.^[25]
• 1930 Pittsburgh def. Montana State 37–36 in contest billed as a "championship game" according to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.^[26]
• 1938 Temple def. Colorado, 60–36 in first National Invitation Tournament^[27]

NCAA from 1939.

• 1939–1950 NIT winners:^{[28][29][30][31][32][33]}

• 1954 Holy Cross claims a national championship for its 1954 NIT victory.^[34]
• 1943–1945 Red Cross War Benefit Games:^[35][36]

• 1943 Wyoming, winner of NCAA tournament, def. NIT champion, St. John's, 52-47 (OT)
• 1944 Utah, winner of NCAA tournament, def. NIT champion, St. John's, 43-36
• 1945 Oklahoma A&M, winner of NCAA tournament, def. NIT champion, DePaul, 52–44

Boxing

• 1924 Penn State def. Navy, 18–16^[37][38]
• 1925 Navy def. Penn State, 23–11^[39]
• 1926 Navy def. Penn State, 15–13^[40][41]
• 1927 Penn State def. Navy, 22–21^[42]
• 1928 Navy def. Penn State, 19–18^[40][43]
• 1929 Penn State def. Navy, 23–13^[44]
• 1930 Penn State def. Western Maryland, 19–14^[45][46]
• 1931 Navy def. Western Maryland, 20–16^[47]

NCAA from 1932–1960.^[48]

Cross country

Inter-Collegiate Cross Country Association (1899–1907)
Inter-Collegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (1908–37)^[49][50][51]

NCAA from 1938.

Fencing

Intercollegiate Fencing Association (1894–1943)

Team Foils

Three-Weapon Championship

† The first IFA three-weapon trophy was awarded in 1923. However, all three weapons (foil, épée, saber) were contested in the IFA tournament as early as 1920.^[55]

NCAA 1941–42 and from 1947.

Football

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has never conducted a national championship event at the highest level of college football, currently its Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Neither has the NCAA ever officially endorsed an FBS national champion. Since 1978, it has held a championship playoff at the next lower level of college play. Prior to 1978, no divisions separated teams, and champions were independently designated by "selectors," composed of individuals and third-party organizations using experts, polls, and mathematical methods.^[95] These efforts have continued and thrived for the higher FBS level. From the beginning, the selectors' choices have frequently been at odds with each other.^[96] The NCAA has documented both contemporaneous and retroactive choices of several major national selectors in its official NCAA Football Records Book.^[95] These selections are often claimed as championships by individual schools.

Golf

1897–1938

See Pre-NCAA college golf champions

NCAA from 1939.

Gymnastics

• 1899 No team title. Yale gymnasts won 4 out of 6 individual events, shared a tie for victory in one event and also won the individual all-around. 19 schools participated.^[97]
• 1900 Columbia def. 2nd place Yale, 26 – 17^[98]
• 1901 Yale def. 2nd place Columbia, 20 – 14^[99]
• 1902 Yale def. 2nd-place Columbia, 16 – 15^[100]

In 1903, the Western Conference instituted an annual conference championship meet.^[101] Although early interest was expressed by the Intercollegiate Association in establishing a recognized national championship event with the Western Conference,^[102] that interest did not reach fruition. In later years, the University of Chicago, a perennial Western Conference power, participated in several of the annual championship meets of the Intercollegiate Association.

• 1917 Chicago def. 2nd-place Haverford, 14½ – 10^{[103][104][105]}
• 1918 not held
• 1919 not held
• 1925 Navy def. Chicago, 33 – 12, in a dual meet between winners of the Intercollegiate and Western Conference championship meets.^[106]

"n the twenty year period from 1910 to (the end of 1929) ... Navy has participated in 91 tournaments and dual meets and won 87 of them, including all seven of the intercollegiate championship events entered."^[107] (Those seven events were conference, not national, championships.) Navy was so strong that the Intercollegiate Association asked Navy not to participate in the 1926 championship meet.^[108] Navy was not a participant in the 1926, 1927 and 1928 meets.

• 1944 Penn State won the National AAU team title during a five-year hiatus in the NCAA championships for World War II.^[109]

NCAA from 1938.

Ice hockey

• Amateur Athletic Union conducted annual National Ice Hockey Championships during 1931–1948, except during most of the World War II years.^[110] College teams won the championship on at least two occasions:

• 1940 Minnesota^[111] def. Amesbury, 9–4, and Brock-Hall, 9–1^[112][113]
• 1942 Boston College^[114] def. High Standard H.C., 3–2, Massena H.C., 9–8, and defending champion St. Nicholas H.C., 6–4^[115]

NCAA from 1948.

Lacrosse

• 1881 Harvard def. Princeton, 3–0

The first intercollegiate lacrosse tournament was held in 1881 with Harvard beating Princeton in the championship game. New York University and Columbia University also participated. From 1882 through 1970 (excepting 1932–1935), the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association and the collegiate lacrosse associations from which it evolved chose annual champions based on season records. These associations were the ILA (1882–1905), IULL (1899–1905), USILL (1906–1925) and USILA (1926–1970).^[116][117] In 1912 and 1921, the USILL conducted championship games between the winners of its Northern and Southern Divisions. Efforts to conduct such games in other years during its existence were unsuccessful.^[116]

• 1912 Harvard def. Swarthmore, 7–3
• 1921 Lehigh def. Syracuse, 3–1

NCAA from 1971.

Rifle

National Rifle Association

National Indoor Intercollegiate Match

1924–79^[118]

Men/Coed (year of conversion to Coed undetermined)

In the contemporary press, the type of competition utilized for this match was referred to as "shoulder-to-shoulder." This distinguished it from the "telegraphic" or "postal" form of competition.