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How many divisions in ncaa basketball
Our Three Divisions - NCAA.org
Our Three Divisions
The NCAA’s three divisions were created in 1973 to align like-minded campuses in the areas of philosophy, competition and opportunity.
Division I
Division II
Division III
Schools
350
310
*Numbers do not include provisional or reclassifying schools.
438
Median Undergraduate Enrollment
8,960
2,428
1,740
Students Who Are Athletes
1 in 23
1 in 10
1 in 6
Percentage of Student-Athletes in Division
Athletics Scholarships
Multiyear, cost-of-attendance athletics scholarships available
57 percent of athletes receive athletics aid
Partial athletics scholarship
60 percent of athletes receive athletics aid
No athletics scholarships
80 percent of athletes receive non-athletics aid
What are the eligibility requirements in each division?
College-bound students who want to compete at a Division I or Division II school must meet standards set by NCAA members. For Division III, athletes must meet the admissions standards set by the school. Eligibility standards can be found here.
How is each division governed?
NCAA schools develop and approve legislation for their own division. Groups of presidents and chancellors lead each division in the form of committees with regularly scheduled meetings.
Did You Know?
Division I student-athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student body.
Division II is the only division with schools in Alaska, Puerto Rico and Canada.
Division III's largest school has 25,725 undergraduates. The smallest? 285.
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What Are NCAA Divisions? Division 1 vs 2 vs 3
You've likely heard of the different divisions for college sports, but how are they organized, and why is there more than one division? And if you want to be a student athlete, which division is best for you?
In this article, I'll break down the differences between NCAA divisions to give you a better idea of what separates Division I, II, and III schools. For those of you who wish to participate in intercollegiate athletics, you can get an idea of which division would best suit your interests and abilities. For those of you who don't want to compete but care about sports, you can use this guide to determine if the division of a college's sports teams will be a determining factor for you when selecting a college.
What Is the NCAA?
The NCAA is the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It's the major governing body for intercollegiate athletics. More than 1200 colleges and universities are members of the NCAA. It's a "non-profit" organization that brings in roughly one billion dollars in revenue each year.
Generally speaking, NCAA divisions separate schools by the level of competition and the resources of their athletic departments. Most collegiate sporting events you see on television, from March Madness to the College World Series, are competitions between Division I schools.
Division I offers the highest level of competition and Division I schools' athletic departments have the biggest budgets. Division III is the lowest level of competition in the NCAA, and Division III schools also tend to have the smallest athletic department budgets.
What Are the NCAA's Responsibilities?
The NCAA's primary responsibilities are to oversee championships and to enforce and establish rules for its member institutions. Many NCAA rules deal with financial aid for athletes, recruiting, and determining athlete eligibility. Additionally, the NCAA is responsible for changes to the rules of some of the sports that it governs.
NCAA member institutions are divided into three divisions: Division I, II, and III.
For football, Division I is further divided into Football Bowl Subdivision schools (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision Schools (FCS).
The purpose of the divisions is to create parity and a more level playing field in intercollegiate sports. Also, the existence of divisions gives smaller schools with fewer resources the opportunity to compete for championships.
There is prestige and publicity associated with competing in NCAA sports, especially at the highest levels in the major sports. For example, Butler, a somewhat unknown school in Indianapolis previously, received $639 million of publicity by reaching the final game of the NCAA men's Division I basketball playoffs in 2010.
Colleges want the opportunity for the exposure and prestige that NCAA participation can give them. Generally, the higher the division, the more possible publicity a school can receive through its athletics program. Even at the lower levels, though, NCAA sports programs generate publicity and attract students (and their tuition) from across the world.
Let's go into further depth about each of the NCAA divisions to determine the differences between them.
Division I
Division I schools have the biggest student bodies, the largest athletic budgets, and the most athletic scholarships. More than 350 schools that field more than 6,000 teams providing opportunities to more than 170,000 student-athletes are members of NCAA Division I.
All of the major sports conferences, including the SEC, Big 10, Pac 12, and ACC are composed of Division I schools.
Ivy League Institutions are Division I, but they don't offer athletic scholarships. The Ivy League schools are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale.
NCAA Rules for Division I Schools
The NCAA sets standards for its member institutions to meet in order for a school to reach or maintain Division I status. These rules are set to ensure competitive balance and gender equity.
Also, there are specific rules for football and basketball. Because those are the sports that generate the most revenue, they're more closely monitored, and the disparity between the haves and have-nots in those sports is much greater.
Division I schools have to sponsor at least six sports for men and eight sports for women.
Each playing season (fall, winter, and spring) has to be represented by each gender.
For sports other than football and basketball, Division I schools must play 100% of the minimum number of contests against Division I opponents. Anything over the minimum number of games has to be 50% Division I.
Men's and women's basketball teams have to play all but two games against Division I teams.
Men's basketball teams must play 1/3 of their games in their home arenas.
Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program, and there are maximum athletic financial aid awards for each sport that a Division I school can't exceed.
FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision)
The FBS is the highest level of collegiate football. FBS schools participate in bowl games. There is an obscene amount of money in FBS football, so much so that the highest paid FBS coaches make over $7 million annually. In 2019, Forbes valued the Texas A&M football team at $147 million.
FBS teams have to meet minimum attendance requirements. An FBS team must average 15,000 people in actual or paid attendance per home game. Attendance requirements must be met once in a rolling two-year period. In 2019, average attendance for an FBS home game was 41,129. If a team can't even average 15,000 people, most likely it can't be competitive with other FBS teams.
There are both public and private colleges in the FBS. Examples of private FBS schools include Stanford, Notre Dame, Duke, and Northwestern. Examples of public FBS schools include Alabama, Oklahoma, UCLA, and Michigan.
The University of Alabama football team having some fun with President Obama
FCS (Football Championship Subdivision)
FCS is the next highest level of collegiate football after FBS. FCS schools participate in an NCAA-run championship.
FCS teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements, but just so you can compare the attendance figures with those of FBS schools, the 2019 average FCS home game attendance was 7,281.
Examples of FCS private schools include Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Colgate. Examples of FCS public schools include Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC Davis, North Dakota State University, and Illinois State University.
Division II
Almost 300 schools are part of Division II. Division II schools still offer athletic scholarships, but there are fewer scholarships than in Division I. Full athletic scholarships are more common in Division I; most Division II athletes receive partial athletic scholarships.
The schools and athletic department budgets are smaller in Division II than in Division I. While Division I schools often travel nationally to compete, regional rivalries dominate the schedules of Division II.
Examples of Division II schools include UCSD, University of West Florida, Northern Michigan University, Oklahoma Baptist University, and Valdosta State University.
Rules for Division II Schools
Just like for Division I schools, the NCAA sets standards for Division II schools in order to maintain competitive balance, opportunities for all athletes, and gender equity.
Division II schools have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women (or four for men and six for women), with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender.
Each sport has contest and participant minimums. Football and men's and women's basketball must play at least 50% of their games against Division II, FBS, or FCS opponents.
Unlike Division I, there are no attendance requirements for football or arena game requirements for basketball. There are maximum financial aid awards for each sport.
Division III
Division III is the largest of all of the NCAA divisions. In Division III, there are 444 institutions and more than 170,000 student-athletes.
A key difference in Division III is that there are no athletic scholarships. However, a majority of the athletes are on some form of academic or need-based aid. Also, there are shorter practice hours and less travel for games in D III.
In Division III, the emphasis is on the value of competing in sports to the participant. There is less of a focus on generating revenue or creating events for spectators.
Examples of Division III schools include Babson College, California Institute of Technology, Emory, Eastern Connecticut State University, and the University of Rochester.
Rules for Division III Schools
The rules for Division III are designed to maintain gender equity and to ensure that schools offer a minimum number of opportunities to all athletes.
Division III schools have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women, with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender.
There are contest and participant minimums for each sport.
Major Differences Between NCAA Divisions
Division I teams are the most prestigious, have the most money, and have the highest caliber of athletes. Division I schools also are the largest on average.
Division II still offers scholarships, but they are rarer and smaller, and Division II schools typically have fewer athletic department funds and fewer sports teams than Division I schools. There are an average of 18 sports at Division I schools and 15 at Division II schools.
Division III offers no athletic scholarships, tends to have the lowest level of competition, but the highest number of participants across all divisions. Division III schools offer an average of 18 sports per school. Also, Division III has the highest average percentage of the student body participating in sports.
Here's a breakdown by the numbers of these differences between NCAA divisions.
Generally, the biggest disparities between divisions are in the traditional revenue generating sports of football and men's basketball. While the average attendance of a home football game at an FBS school is over 41,000, the average attendance of a home football game at a Division III school is less than 2,000. Many FBS head coaches receive multi-million dollar salaries. Meanwhile, many Division III head football coaches also have teaching positions at their colleges to supplement their incomes.
It's important to note that just because a school is in a lower division doesn't mean that its student body doesn't care about sports or that the school is not as concerned with its athletes. Many Division II and III schools have passionate fan bases, especially in the high profile sports and for teams that regularly compete for championships.
Other Intercollegiate Sports Associations
Besides the NCAA, there are two other governing bodies for intercollegiate sports, the NAIA and the NJCAA.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, or the NAIA, has about 300 member institutions. NAIA schools are smaller and have relatively low athletic department budgets, roughly on par with Division III schools.
However, unlike NCAA Division III, NAIA schools do offer athletic scholarships. Examples of NAIA schools include Morningside College, Mayville State University, and Florida Memorial University. The NAIA doesn't have the prestige of the NCAA, but it offers an alternative for smaller schools that want to compete.
The National Junior College Athletics Association, or NJCAA, is the governing board for sports at two year colleges. Members of the NJCAA can also offer athletic scholarships.
Scholarship Limits by Sport and Division
For those of you who are hoping to get an athletic scholarship, the following chart will help give you an idea of the number of athletic scholarships available for each sport in each division. If you're trying to get an athletic scholarship for college, this chart can inform you of your available opportunities, and you can see the differences in available athletic scholarships by division. Some of these numbers have changed slightly, but they're roughly accurate.
You may notice that, for most sports, there aren't an equal number of scholarships available in the same sport in the same division for men and women. The primary reason for this is because the NCAA, for both ethical and legal reasons, wants schools to give roughly the same amount of aid to men and women; because there are so many scholarships for football, there are more maximum scholarships for women in most of the other sports.
Also, even though there are more scholarships in some sports at the NJCAA level than at the NCAA level, keep in mind that the scholarships are worth significantly more at the NCAA level because two-year colleges are much cheaper.
Finally, on the chart you'll see the term "head count sport" next to some sports. A head count sport can only offer full scholarships. The head count sports are FBS football, Division I basketball, Division I women's gymnastics, and Division I women's volleyball. Most sports aren't head count sports and also offer partial scholarships.
Final Note: Which NCAA Division Is Best for You?
There are pros and cons of each NCAA division, and you can determine which division may be best for you based on your priorities and aspirations.
If you are an athlete, you should be realistic about your current skill level, your athletic goals, and your desire to compete. If you want to go to the Olympics or become a professional in your sport, perhaps you should attend a Division I school and test yourself against the top athletes. If you're only being recruited by Division II schools, maybe it's in your best interest to attend one of them and have a better chance to compete, rather than walking on at a Division I school and possibly not getting a chance to participate in a real game.
If you're a sports fan, maybe you'd enjoy the environment at Division III sporting events where you can get really close to the action and often for free. Or, maybe you would prefer to go to an FBS school to get the opportunity to be in a stadium with 100,000 other screaming fans and be able to regularly watch your school compete on national television.
Ideally, athletics should only be one factor in determining your college decision, and it should be less of a concern to you than academics. However, sports can play a huge role in your collegiate experience. The NCAA division of your school does play a part in determining what your college experience will be like.
What's Next?
Now that you're familiar with what separates NCAA divisions, you can find a full listing of Division I, II, and III schools by state.
Also, if you're an athlete, learn about how the recruiting process works.
For the NCAA clearinghouse, find out what SAT scores and ACT scores you need to qualify.
Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:
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Justin Berkman
About the Author
Justin has extensive experience teaching SAT prep and guiding high school students through the college admissions and selection process. He is firmly committed to improving equity in education and helping students to reach their educational goals. Justin received an athletic scholarship for gymnastics at Stanford University and graduated with a BA in American Studies.
Division I (NCAA) - frwiki.wiki
For articles of the same name, see Section 1.
Logo used by the NCAA for divisions I, II, and III.
Division I (DI) is the highest National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic-level university in the United States. The universities that are members are usually known for their athletes (many of the most prestigious universities in the academic field are part of it). They have the biggest budgets, the most modern amenities, and give out more sports scholarships, which are limited in number depending on the sport and gender. The levels below DI are Division II and Division III.
This high level was formerly called NCAA Academic Division ( Division NCAA University ) as opposed to the lower levels called Division College Division ( College Division ). In 1973, these names changed:
University Division becomes Division 1 ;
College division divided:
Scholarship universities are Division 2 ;
non-scholarship universities are Division 3 .
In 1978, Division 1 was split into Division 1-A (consisting of the major football teams) and Division I-AA . Schools that do not sponsor college football remain in Division I.
In 2006, the IA and I-AA divisions were redesignated as division NCAA Division 1 Football Bowl (or FBS) and Division NCAA Division 1 Football Championship (or FCS) respectively. FBS teams are authorized to provide financial aid in the form of 85 varsity scholarships awarded to 85 players, while FCS teams are limited to financial aid of 63 varsity scholarships that can be distributed to a maximum of 85 players. Therefore, FCS teams can provide partial scholarships, which is not allowed in FBS. FBS-owned teams are also required to have a minimum attendance at their home games, i.e. an average of 15,000 paid members per game, while FCS teams are not required to justify a minimum paid entry. The post of the regular season of these divisions also differs. From 1978 years FCS teams determine their national champion in the playoff system . FBS teams are invited to play bowl in according to the places obtained in various rankings, 2 teams are considered the strongest fighting for the national champion title during the BCS national championship game. However, since the 2014 season, a system has been introduced to determine the national champion play - offs with the participation of four teams: play - off college football. It consists of two semi-finals and a final. Despite this change, American Football Division 1 FBS currently remains the only NCAA sport that does not determine its champion as a result of the championship system.
In the 2014 season, Division 1 consisted of 345 teams out of 1,066 teams recognized by the NCAA. Of these 345 teams, 125 were in the FBS, 125 were in the FCS, 95 universities did not have an American football program, and 6 universities were in transition (teams wishing to move from Division 2 to Division 1). Since 2012, there has been a moratorium on any additional movement to Division 1. This moratorium implies that a team wishing to integrate Division 1 must, on the one hand, become a member of one of its conferences, and on the other hand, demonstrate to the NCAA that it has everything financial guarantees needed for development there.
All Division I universities must be represented in two team sports (2 women and 2 men) and must have athletes in at least:
seven sports played by men plus seven sports played by women, or
six sports played by men and eight sports played by women.
First Division Universities must provide minimum financial assistance for their athletic programs. Maximum amounts that cannot be exceeded are set for each sport. These amounts differ for universities operating in Division 2 and 3.
Teams of each gender must compete in different competitions each season. Each sport has a minimum number of matches and athletes, as well as scheduling criteria. With the exception of American football and basketball, Division 1 teams must face other Division 1 teams in 100% of the minimum scheduled matches. If other matches are organized, a minimum of 50% of them must be played against teams from Division 1. Men's and women's basketball teams can only play two matches against teams other than teams from Division 1. In addition, men's basketball teams must play. 1/3 home games.
In addition to schools with all sports programs in Division 1, the NCAA allows certain Division 2 and 3 schools to have one of their men's teams and one of their women's teams to participate in Division 1 sports (excluding football and basketball). provided those schools sponsored those sports prior to the 2011 rule change.
In addition, Division 2 schools are eligible to compete in Division 1 in sports that do not host national championships in Division 2, provided the schools comply with Division 1 rules regarding financial capacity and scholarship-related criteria.
CV
1 Breakdown of sports grants by sport
2 divisions in American football
2.1 Football Bowl Division (FBS)
2.2 Football Championship Division (FCS)
3 Division I (non American football championship)
4 Division I Hockey
5 Notes and references
Distribution of sports grants by sports
Non-exhaustive list of sports scholarships
Sport
Teams
Conferences
Scholarships for men in sports
Women's Sports Scholarships
Rowing
22
-
-
20
Baseball
298
31 years old
11. 7
-
Basketball
351 (M) 348 (W)
32 (men and women)
13
15
beach volleyball
48
6
-
6
Bowling
33
4
-
5
Offroad
31 (M) 31 (W)
12.6
18
Warehouse
68 (M) 103 (W)
10 (M) 13 (W)
12.6
12
Fencing
21 (M) 25 (W)
3
4.5
5
Football
252
24
85 (FBS) 63 (FTS)
no championship
Football)
203 (M) 327 (W)
23 (M) 32 (W)
9. 9
14
Golf
36 (M) 25 (W)
-
4.5
6
Gymnastic
21 (M) 25 (W)
-4 (H) -(F)
6.3
12
Hockey
59
5
18
18
Field hockey
78 (w)
11(F)
-
12
fight
72 (B)
-
9.9
-
Softball
291
32
-
12
Skis
13
4
6.3
7
Tennis
64
-
4.5
8
Shoot
16 (m) 23 (w)
4
3. 6
-
Volleyball
22 (M) 332 (W)
3 (M) 32 (W)
4.5
12
Water polo
42
3
4.5
8
American football divisions
Football Bowl Division (FBS)
Updated 1 - July 2021
Conference
Nick
Members
Sports
Male
Female
Atlantic Coast Conference
ACC
15
25
12
13
American Athletic Conference
American
11
22
10
12
Big Ten Conference
Big Ten
14
28 year
14
14
Conference Big 12
Big 12
10
21 years old
10
13
US Conference
C-USA
14
21 years old
9
10
Independent FBS
Independent
7
Mid American Conference
MAC
12
24
11
13
Mountain West Conference
MW or MWC
12
18
8
10
Conference "Pacific-12"
Pac-12
12
23
11
12
Southeastern Conference
DRY
14
21 years old
9
12
Sun Belt Conference
Sun Belt
12
17
8
9
Football Championship Division (FCS)
Updated 1 - th July 2021
Conference
Nick
Members
Sports
Male
Female
Mixed
Big Sky Conference
Big sky
13
16
7
9
0
Big South Conference
Big South
9
19
9
10
0
Colonial Athletic Association
CAA
12
21 years old
10
11
0
NCAA Division I Independent FCS
IND
0
0
0
0
0
Ivy League ( + )
Ivy League
8
33
17
16
0
Middle Eastern Athletic Conference
MEAC
6
16
8
8
0
Missouri Valley Football Conference
MVFC
11
1
1
0
0
Northeast Conference
NEC
8
24
11
13
0
Ohio Valley Conference
OVC
7
19
8
10
1
Patriot League
Patriot
7
24
11
13
0
Pioneer Football League
PFL
11
1
1
0
0
Southern Conference
SoCon
9
22
11
10
1
Southland Conference
SLC
6
18
8
10
0
Southwest Athletic Conference
SWAC
12
18
8
10
0
Western Athletic Conference
VAK
9
20
10
10
0
Division I (non American football championship)
Updated 1 - July 2021
Conference
Nick
Members
Sports
Male
Female
America East Conference
America East
10 (+ 5 partners)
18
8
10
Atlantic Sun Conference
sun
12 (+ 7 partners)
20
9
11
Conference Atlantic 10
A-10
14 (+ 2 partners)
21 years old
9
12
Big East Conference
Big East
11 (+ 5 partners)
22
10
12
Big West Conference
Big West
11 (+ 1 partner)
18
8
10
Horizon League
Horizon
12
19
9
10
NCAA Division I Indie (Basketball)
Independent
0
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
MAAC
11 (+ 16 partners)
23
10
13
Missouri Valley Conference
MVC/Valley
10 (+ 4 partners)
17
7
10
Major League
Summit
10 (+ 5 partners)
19
9
10
West Coast Conference
WCC
10 (+ 1 partner)
15
6
9
Division I Ice Hockey
Updated 1 - July 2021
Conference
Nick
Members (male/female)
Creation
Atlantic hockey
AHA
10 (10/0)
1997
Big Ten Conference
Big Ten
7 (7/0)
1896
Central Student Hockey Association
CCHA
8 (8/0)
1971, 2020
College Hockey of America
Central House of Artists
5 (0/5)
1999
ECAC Hockey
12 (12/12)
1962
Hockey East
HEA
12 (11/10)
1984
National Collegiate Hockey Conference
NCHC
8 (8/0)
2011
NCAA Division I Indie (hockey)
Independent
3 (3/0)
New England Women's Hockey Union (ru)
newha
6 (0/6)
2018
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
WCHA
8 (0/8)
1951
↑ Founded in 1971 and dissolved in 2013. Reformed in 2020 and the game will debut in 2021.
Notes and links
↑ (EN-US) Joseph N. Crowley, " In The Arena: NASS First Century, " at ncaapublications.com, , pp. 42
↑ (en-US) " Big Schools Win Battle 9 (En-US) " NCAA Membership Composition and Athletic Sponsorship ", NCAA (accessed July 4, 2015)
↑ (en-US) " Multidivision and Reclassifying for 2014-15 ", NCAA (accessed July 4, 2015)
↑ a and b (en-US) " NCAA official website", at NCAA. org (accessed January 4, 2012)
↑ (en-US) « Differences between divisions and classification history of several divisions | NCAA.org - Official site of NCAA ", at NCAA.org (accessed July 9, 2015)
↑ (en-US) " In the News: June 7, ", on Ncaa.org, (accessed August 17, 2013)
↑ (en-US) 2015–16 NCAA Division I Handbook, " Bylaw 20. 8.2: Division II Options When a Division II Championship Is Not Held " [PDF] , NCAA (accessed September 28, 2015) , pp. 346
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This season, 8 Russians play in the NCAA. How are they? - The Interception - Blogs
Editor's Note: You are reading the user blog "The Interception", which talks about European basketball. Don't forget that pluses are still the best way to thank the author.
Before the start of last season, I wrote this text. Then I talked to almost all the Russians who were preparing to compete in the NCAA - there were 11 of them at that time - and tried to understand why Russian youth began to leave more massively for American universities. There have never been such a number of Russians in the NCAA.
A year and a half has passed since then, and half of the guys have left: Konstantin Dotsenko is now playing in the Loko farm club, Zakhar Vedischev is the basis of Krasnodar, Mark Tikhonenko signed a contract with Astana, Andre Toure recently played in Maykop in the second Super League, and Samson Ruzhentsev moved to the Serbian "Mega".
But some stayed in America. They were joined by a few more guys who either just left Russia or got into the NCAA from American schools or the NJCAA. In this text, I will talk about all the Russians who play in the first division of the main student league in the world. If last season I wanted to explain why exactly they are leaving, now I have focused on their career.
If you like reading more, then below is a large text with comments from the players themselves; but this time you have the opportunity not only to read, but also to watch a video about all of our in the NCAA. Inside is my story and a video interview with the guys.
If you watch a video on YouTube, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and leave a comment. This will help promote the channel. Subscribe if you love Russian basketball and want to know more about it.
And now - the promised text about our guys in America.
What is the NCAA
The NCAA is the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States and Canada. It includes almost 1300 schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions. The teams of these universities are represented not only in basketball - the NCAA also has competitions in American football, wrestling, fencing, bowling, softball, gymnastics, tennis and God knows what else.
But basketball is a very popular sport in the association. Both guys and girls have three divisions, which are ranked by strength. This text is only about those Russians who compete in the first, strongest, division.
The NCAA has a playoff called March Madness. When knockout games start, the whole country switches from professionals to students. Although during the season, the teams also have enough attention from fans: the clubs play in large and good arenas, many people come to the matches, the games are shown on television, and sometimes on national television. There are even universities whose fans spend the night in front of the arena in the hope of having time to buy a ticket.
So the NCAA is a really serious tournament, albeit a student one.
How many Russians are there
I have spent an hour and a half of my life checking the composition of all the colleges that are represented in the first division. There are 358 of them. I broke my eyes, learned about the existence of several countries and even about the presence of basketball in these countries, but still I counted all the Russians.
I got eight people, and now we will get to know them better. The sequence on my list doesn't mean anything, it's just that way because I talked to the guys in that order.
I hope I haven't missed anyone. Please write in the comments if you know someone whom I have overlooked.
Evdokimov is the newest member of the NCAA Division I. He joined the Charleston Cougars - the name of the team of the University of Charleston from South Carolina - in early December last year.
This university belongs to mid-major. In the American system, there is a gradation of universities by strength - from low-major to high-major. Mid-major is the middle level. Most Russian guys perform at universities that fall into this category.
Before moving to the USA, Nikita played for the youth team of Lokomotiv-Kuban and for the national team. Last summer, the defender represented Russia under 20 at the Euro Challenger, even though he was only 18.
Evdokimov has an interesting story about how he fell in love with basketball. In fact, it is strange that he did not go to handball, because his dad is the famous Russian handball player Yegor Evdokimov. Six-time champion of Russia, champion of Spain, champion of Belarus, champion of Ukraine, participant of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. At the dawn of his career, Yegor Viktorovich played in his homeland, in the Chelyabinsk region, the city of Snezhinsk. Nikita was born there.
- I fell in love with basketball when I was 9 or 10 years old. My cousin and grandmother and I went on vacation to the Crimea. There was a playground where I constantly ran and played. Grandma suggested trying to sign up for basketball. And before that, I didn’t consider basketball as a sport at all ... But I went to a training session and instantly fell in love. Didn't miss it at all. Then Lokomotiv saw me at the Russian Championship. Together with a team from my city, from Chekhov, we took fourth place, and everyone was very surprised. I was seen by coach Petar Marinkovic, who called me to Loko, ”recalls Evdokimov.
He says that he could have been in the red-green system even earlier. He was invited to the Yug-Basket camp - this is a camp organized by the club and within which it looks for players in its youth system - but then Evdokimov was with relatives in the United States and could not come.
He ended up in the Loko system in 2017. True, Evdokimov says that, even while playing for Krasnodar, he often thought that he actually wanted to try his hand at American basketball. He has relatives living in the USA, he has been there more than once, and when the chance to move to the university appeared, he did not hesitate for a long time.
Evdokimov learned about the university's interest in him in advance, so he spent the summer with benefit: he trained individually with personal trainers in Moscow and Cyprus, where his father plays handball. There, the defender, at the request of the university coach, worked hard on three-pointers and performed at least 500 long-range shots a day.
Evdokimov will be coached at the College of Charleston by Pat Kelsey, a strong specialist who is widely known in college basketball. He once worked with Jeff Teague and Chris Paul.
Alex is not short for Alexander, but his passport name. He was not born in Russia, but in Canada, his parents went there to give birth to Alex. In this country, he lived the first year of his life, after which he left for Moscow. In memory of Canada, Alex has citizenship (he has a double one).
But he started playing basketball in Russia.
— I started playing basketball at Gloria when I was 10-11 years old. People came to my school - and I studied at an ordinary secondary school - who were looking for young guys who were ready to play basketball. They came into my class, saw that I was tall, did a couple of tests, asked me different questions and invited me to practice. I studied at Gloria for a long time, then I got into the MBA Junior Junior League, from there I was taken to the Super League. I played there for literally a year, and after graduating from high school I decided that it would be wise to go to the United States. I contacted Skryagin (Alexander Skryagin, ProFuturo Sports, - note "Interception"), because he was the only person who knows more about moving to the USA than me. We talked to him, I dropped my highlights to him, and he helped me find a school, - says Kotov.
Alex arrived in the US in 2017 and entered the Montverde Academy. This is a very famous program that prepares players for the NCAA. Kotov spent a year in Montverde and won the championship with this team, the result for the season is 35-0. Alex's partners then included, for example, RJ Barrett, who now plays for the New York Knicks in the NBA, and Turkish Efes center Philip Petrushev.
Alex left Montverde not immediately for the NCAA, but for the NJCAA. It is an association of junior colleges and is also often referred to as Juko. A common story for those who feel like they're not ready for the NCAA yet, but want to play hard and improve. Kotov spent two years in this association, after which he moved to the NCAA, to the Illinois State Redbirds team. This is also a representative university of the mid-major category.
Alex has six months left to study at the university, but he can play in the team for another two and a half years. This happened because the players have the right to use the redshirt option. In fact, this is the right of the player to extend his career at the university, even if he has already graduated from the university. Plus, there's also the "cancellation" of the season due to the coronavirus (this happened last year), which also doesn't count, as well as the "cancellation" of the season due to injury (this happened to Alex in his second year in the NJCAA).
In general, these rules are very complicated.
- Due to an injury in my second year at the NJCAA, I opted to save the year. That's plus one season. In addition, this year I had a lot of misunderstandings with the coach, it all started last year. I thought that it would be possible to influence it somehow, to establish relations with him in the summer, but it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. Therefore, after a huge number of meetings, we came to the conclusion that this year it would be easier for me to also take the option to save the year. So this year I'm graduating from university, getting an education, but I still have, roughly speaking, two seasons to play in the NCAA, - says Kotov.
Lakhin is the only Russian who represents a high-major university. This means that the university where Vitya plays often goes to the "March Madness" and has a tangible chance of winning the NCAA.
And the story of Lakhin began in Anapa. The parents wanted to send their sons - Vitya and his brother Vasya - to some kind of team sport so that they would play together. And chose volleyball. But because of the coach, they did not last long in the volleyball section and eventually went to basketball.
Lahin started in fourth grade but quickly rose to the city team. And in the Krasnodar Territory, if you play for the city team, then you are in full view of the Lokomotiv scouts. Vitya did not play Loko on a permanent basis, but by the 7-8th grade he was regularly on the team to participate in the Russian championships. The Railroaders took him as a reinforcement player - this is a common practice in children's competitions.
Further - a matter of chance. Loko juniors played in the final stage of the Russian championship and met CSKA twice - in the group stage and in the semi-finals. Lakhin gave two good games and ... received an invitation from the "soldiers".
At first he did not think of moving anywhere and stayed to finish the season in the south. But summer came, and he still went to see it. He was offered to stay after the first practice. Vitya talked to his parents and a month later he arrived at CSKA.
- The first season was probably the most emotional, full of some moments, memories. Because my brother and I arrived for the first time in a big city. On the one hand, this is a great freedom, because there are no parents nearby, but, on the other hand, this is also a great responsibility. Because you have never done the things that your parents did for you before, like laundry, cleaning, all sorts of small things. Even a waste of money: you never thought about it before, you were given - you spent it. And here you have money, and you know that if you spend everything, then at the end of the month you won’t have any left, ”recalls Vitya.
Lakhin reached the final stage of the youth Euroleague with CSKA and spent a pretty good season overall. Alexey Zhukov, the head coach of the “army” CYBL, left to work as an assistant in Nizhny Novgorod, and Maxim Sharafan came to CSKA from Lokomotiv. He worked with Vitya for three years, and during this time Lakhin managed to understand that he wants to play in Russia only at the highest level - in CSKA - and if it doesn’t work out, then it’s better to leave.
- I realized that it would be very difficult for me to get into the base. This is a top club with the highest goals, and as a young player I need to be not even the same as everyone else, but better, because I have no experience. It was necessary here and now to show some level and bring results. Let's be realistic, there were no players who can immediately enter the CSKA system and show something like that for a long time. Probably the Swede was the last one. I realized that I can’t do that, and since my dream is to be in the NBA, I decided to move closer to this league, this Wednesday, to America. That's why I'm here, - says Vitya.
But not everything was so simple. Back in Russia, Lakhin managed to get injured. He fell in the game moment, and his knee hurt. The medical staff did not suspect anything, and Vitya continued to train. The state of health worsened, but then the pandemic came, everyone went into self-isolation, and the center just went home. The knee was still swollen, but the pain was slowly receding. Vitya did not train and therefore did not feel any signs of deterioration. He already knew that he was leaving for America, and just waited for all the permits.
The injury happened in February and the departure was due in September. In the summer, Lakhin himself did an MRI, which showed that he had ... a torn meniscus. He took the results of the examination to the surgeon who scheduled the operation. Vitya went for it and began to recover in Russia, and he came to the USA with an already operated knee.
Everything should have been fine, but when he started running, the pain returned. Lakhin did another MRI, and it showed that the same meniscus was completely torn. The doctors said that it would take six months to recover. Therefore, Vitya simply missed his first season in the NCAA.
— All this time I didn't train, but I was always with the team: in scouting, in the locker room, in training. All lessons were online, and we lived in an apartment with the team. So that year helped me a lot, because even though I didn’t play, I was in the system and I knew the guys. It was my year of adaptation - to a new culture, to people, to new faces, to food. I had the same feeling as when I came from a small town to Moscow. You leave Russia for any other country - even to America, even to Italy, even to Spain - and you go through the same thing, Lakhin believes.
He adds that the Cincinnati had a new head coach at the end of last season and it was a difficult moment. A new specialist was appointed the day before Lakhin's departure to Russia, when he did not yet understand whether he would remain in the team for the next season or not. Whether to leave it, decided the new head coach. But in the end, the center managed to meet with him before departure and find a common language. The coach wanted to protect the Russians in the composition.
During the summer Vitya worked in the USA on his body and improved his skills. The season began in October, and in December, Lahin was the best freshman of the week in his conference. By the way, he has a situation similar to Alex: academically, Lahin is a sophomore, but he is considered a rookie in the team.
Andrey Savrasov, Georgia Southern Eagles
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 23. 7 minutes average
11.9 points (51.5% two-pointers, 30% three-pointers, 73.1% free throws), 6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.4 block shots, 0.9 steals, 1 loss Andrey's first coach is a well-known Russian specialist Oleg Aktsipetrov.
— I remember that at first I had very different hobbies: football, basketball, taekwondo… But after the first two or three years of training, I realized that basketball is really mine, that I want to do just that. Slowly, I began to play for the sports school of the Admiralteisky district, for the Zenit Junior Junior League, played for the Russian national team U16, U18. We went to different tournaments, and somewhere the scouts saw my game and invited me to the USA, says Savrasov.
Andrey moved to America three years ago - in January 2019of the year. Now he is finishing his third year at the university, in the American education system it is possible to start studying in the middle of the academic year and, accordingly, then graduate also in the middle of the academic year.
Savrasov managed to play for the Texas Tech team, where he spent a year and a half. The first six months he did not play, he spent in redshirt mode - he trained, worked on his body, was with the team, but did not play for it. But the next season already played in the status of a freshman, that is, a freshman.
Andrei didn't get much playing time, but he still wanted to stay at the university. It was a high-major, and Savrasov wanted to prove that he deserved another role.
But then I talked to the head coach, and together they decided that it would be better to change the university in order to continue their career. The coach even helped find a new team, and that's how Savrasov ended up in Georgia, in the Georgia Southern Eagles team. This is a mid-major university.
Now in his second year with the new team, he is in the starting five and generally has a good role on the court. In theory, Andrei can play for the university for another two years, although he graduates from the university in a year.
Vladislav Goldin, Florida Atlantic Owls
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 16.5 minutes avg. free throws), 5.5 rebounds, 0.4 assists, 0.6 block shots, 0.4 interceptions, 1.3 losses He played with his 2001, but at some point the team just fell apart and disappeared.
Goldin was sent to play by the year 2000, and the coach of this team turned out to be familiar with the coach of CSKA-DYBL. Vlad and another guy were offered to the "soldiers" - just to look at them. But the screening went well, and after one of the training sessions, Vlad was offered to move to Moscow. New school, new surroundings, heavy loads, training twice a day - Vlad says that the first six months in the capital were the most difficult time in his life.
- At that time, I probably did not quite understand where I was moving and how much it changed. To be honest, I didn't even really know what DUBL was. Wasn't very knowledgeable. Youth League, Junior Team, Superleague… I knew the tournaments where we played: first the Southern Federal District, then the Russian Championship. When I found out that I was already in Moscow and had to go to the CYBL team for a tryout, I even got scared. But they left me, and I trained at CSKA for another four years. Then he played for the Russian national team U18 and U19, after which he received an offer to try himself in America. I decided to take a chance and moved there to the Prep school,” says Goldin.
Prep school is short for preparatory school. In essence, this is an opportunity to play basketball in the USA before going to university.
In October 2019, Vlad entered Patnam School in Connecticut. This is a small private school about an hour from Boston. Together with the team, Goldin became the champion of America in the championship among preparatory schools.
After that, Vlad was called to Texas, to the Texas Tech team - to the same team where Andrey Savrasov had played for a year and a half. Goldin saw that this was a big and serious high-major team, saw the conditions for training and accepted their invitation without hesitation.
— In Texas, things are a little different. The way we played there was not like the way I played before, so the first experience was difficult. And then the head coach left us, replacing TexasTech with Texas. Most of the coaching staff left with him, and our team did not quite understand what to do. Only the assistant coach remained with us. And in the end, I decided to move to another team, to Florida, - say Goldin.
Due to the coronavirus, Vlad has the same situation as most student athletes: academically he is a sophomore, but the last sports season did not count, so he is a freshman in the team. Goldin has three years left to study, and he can play four more.
He himself says that his current team plays more European basketball, so he feels great there.
Alexander Glushkov, Appalachian State Mountaineers
Born in Vladivostok, Glushkov started playing basketball at the age of 13 when he went to summer camp. I came home and told my father: "I want to play basketball." Parents sent Sasha to the section.
Glushkov's first coach is Eduard Sushko. After a year of working with him, Sasha was invited to the Spartak-Primorye system. He played in the Junior Junior League for a year, after which the entire management of the team and almost the entire squad moved to the PSC Sakhalin. At the same time, the base of the club remained in Vladivostok. Glushkov spent a year in the new club, after which he received an invitation from Moscow, from the IBA. His coach Alexander Antipov invited him.
And then it was a matter of chance, and a year later Sasha was already flying to the USA to study at school.
— I came to Moscow and played there for a year. When we were preparing for the Summer Spartakiad in Krasnaya Pakhra at the Trinta base, a coach from the USA arrived there. He was familiar with Alexander Antipov, because before that our guy had already played at the same school. He came just to relax, but he also wanted to look at the players. He probably liked me, and he invited me to school. I took the chance and got into high school. I spent 11-12 classes there, received several offers and decided that I would play in Appalachian State, says Glushkov.
Now Sasha is in his second year, but as you know, last year doesn't count. So Glushkov is considered a “freshman” in the team and can play for the university for another three and a half years, while he has two and a half to study.
When Sasha arrived at the university, he weighed about 90 kg. But now he has noticeably added muscle mass. He began to grow muscles during the last season, but he did the main work in the summer. Due to problems with visas, he could not go home to Russia, and he went to a friend in Houston. There he lived for a month, ate a lot and rocked. As a result, he entered the new season in excellent physical shape. True, the coach still does not really trust him.
Glushkov University is a mid-major who, last year, entered March Madness for the first time in 20 years. Sasha was not released then, but he nevertheless felt the atmosphere of the main student event of the year. Here's what he says about it:
- It was ... unbelievable (unbelievable - approx. "Interception"). Very cool feeling. 64 top teams, all at the highest level. We had two or three hotels, each floor was dedicated to a specific team. I don’t know how much it could be called the same “March Madness”, because, of course, all the measures were taken anyway. We had a quarantine, we had to be tested every day. And so everything was at the highest level,” recalls Glushkov.
David Didenko, UT Martin Skyhawks
2021/22 stats: 11 games, 17 minutes average
6.2 points (37.3% two-pointers, 37.8% three-pointers, 33.3% free throws), 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.3 blocks, 0.2 steals, 1. 7 turnovers 90,003 90,002 David has probably the most atypical fate among all our guys who now play in the first division of the NCAA.
Didenko was born in the north, in the city of Yakutsk. He remembers his childhood quite vividly: he says that the city authorities allowed not to go to school at -45 degrees Celsius, and if the thermometer was only -43, you had to pull yourself together, stick yourselves into a thick down jacket and stomp to school.
— I had a healthy down jacket, maybe five centimeters. I walked around like a big bubble. When I was 8 or 9 years old, we had -57 degrees in winter. Very cold. I didn’t leave the house for two days,” Didenko recalls.
In 2010, David ended up in the USA even before he started playing basketball. He was 10. His older sister was leaving for New York to study English, and David just went with her for a month.
While still in Russia, they found something for him to do in the USA. On the classifieds website, the family looked at a message from a Russian coach who lived there, his name was Boris Karebin. The coach was needed so that David would not just mess around in the States.
But the boy got so caught up in basketball that he eventually wanted to stay. Parents allowed, and he went to an American school. Karebin trained him in Brighton Beach, this is a Russian-speaking area, so immersion in American culture was gradual.
- I first lived in New York, where I arrived, and then I traveled. Lived in Florida, then studied in Georgia, in Tennessee. I travel a lot around the country - sometimes I live there, sometimes there. Somehow I quickly learned English, apparently because I was still young. Literally in a year. In Russia, I studied English for three classes, but could not learn it. Here I first lived with my sister, she pushed me to talk to people, and somehow everything turned out by itself, - says Didenko.
David spent his first year after school in Juko. Remember the story of Alex Kotov? This is the same league that prepares players who have not yet grown up to the NCAA. But already in the second year, Didenko ended up in the first division, at the University of Georgia.
He is currently a UT Martin Skyhawks player, where UT is the University of Tennessee. Accordingly, David now lives and studies in this state. He has a year and a half left at the university, and he can still play the same amount at the university level.
At the same time, he is 21 years old and automatically enters the NBA draft next year. In mocks - that is, expert predictions - he is not drafted, but he still has to play the whole season, so everything is in his hands.
Last on the list - not by value, but simply because he is the only Russian I could not contact - Pavel Zakharov from California Baptist Lancers.
Zakharov was born in Sør-Varanger, Norway. In Russia, Pasha played for the Zenit youth team and helped CSKA play in the youth Euroleague, and in 2018, after playing for the Russian U18 team at the European Championship, he left for the Montverde Academy. We talked about it a little earlier.
He was considered a four-star recruit. In American sports, when they want to talk about the prospects of a particular player, they talk about him in terms of stars, and four stars is very good. Such an assessment helped him get into the Gonzaga College in the NCAA - this is one of the top programs, which, for example, reached the NCAA finals last season, having suffered its first loss of the season in this very final. Pasha then did not go to the parquet. A year before, the team did not get into the "March Madness" only because the championship was stopped due to a pandemic.
Zakharov spent two seasons at this university and moved to the California Baptist Lancers in the summer of 2021. Most likely due to playing time, because, obviously, it was much more difficult to get it in Gonzaga. But even at the new university, he still has an average of 10 minutes on the floor and one and a half rebounds. By the way, about playing on the shields: the height of the Russian center is 213 centimeters, in America these guys are called seven-footers.
This is almost all I know about Pavel Zakharov.
It seems that the Russians in the first division of the NCAA are over. If you know someone else that I forgot, please write in the comments.
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For those of you who wish to participate in intercollegiate athletics, you can get an idea of which division would best suit your interests and abilities. For those of you who don't want to compete but care about sports, you can use this guide to determine if the division of a college's sports teams will be a determining factor for you when selecting a college.
Division III is the lowest level of competition in the NCAA, and Division III schools also tend to have the smallest athletic department budgets.
More than 350 schools that field more than 6,000 teams providing opportunities to more than 170,000 student-athletes are members of NCAA Division I.
In 2019, Forbes valued the Texas A&M football team at $147 million.
Division I schools also are the largest on average.
Many FBS head coaches receive multi-million dollar salaries. Meanwhile, many Division III head football coaches also have teaching positions at their colleges to supplement their incomes.
Examples of NAIA schools include Morningside College, Mayville State University, and Florida Memorial University. The NAIA doesn't have the prestige of the NCAA, but it offers an alternative for smaller schools that want to compete.
The primary reason for this is because the NCAA, for both ethical and legal reasons, wants schools to give roughly the same amount of aid to men and women; because there are so many scholarships for football, there are more maximum scholarships for women in most of the other sports.
However, sports can play a huge role in your collegiate experience. The NCAA division of your school does play a part in determining what your college experience will be like.
He is firmly committed to improving equity in education and helping students to reach their educational goals. Justin received an athletic scholarship for gymnastics at Stanford University and graduated with a BA in American Studies.
In 1973, these names changed: 
FBS-owned teams are also required to have a minimum attendance at their home games, i.e. an average of 15,000 paid members per game, while FCS teams are not required to justify a minimum paid entry. The post of the regular season of these divisions also differs. From 1978 years FCS teams determine their national champion in the playoff system . FBS teams are invited to play bowl in according to the places obtained in various rankings, 2 teams are considered the strongest fighting for the national champion title during the BCS national championship game. However, since the 2014 season, a system has been introduced to determine the national champion play - offs with the participation of four teams: play - off college football. It consists of two semi-finals and a final. Despite this change, American Football Division 1 FBS currently remains the only NCAA sport that does not determine its champion as a result of the championship system.
Maximum amounts that cannot be exceeded are set for each sport. These amounts differ for universities operating in Division 2 and 3. 
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Reformed in 2020 and the game will debut in 2021. 
org (accessed January 4, 2012) 
8.2: Division II Options When a Division II Championship Is Not Held " [PDF] , NCAA (accessed September 28, 2015) , pp. 346 
There are even universities whose fans spend the night in front of the arena in the hope of having time to buy a ticket. 
He joined the Charleston Cougars - the name of the team of the University of Charleston from South Carolina - in early December last year. 
Nikita was born there. 
True, Evdokimov says that, even while playing for Krasnodar, he often thought that he actually wanted to try his hand at American basketball. He has relatives living in the USA, he has been there more than once, and when the chance to move to the university appeared, he did not hesitate for a long time. 
2 steals, 0.8 losses 
We talked to him, I dropped my highlights to him, and he helped me find a school, - says Kotov. 
This happened because the players have the right to use the redshirt option. In fact, this is the right of the player to extend his career at the university, even if he has already graduated from the university. Plus, there's also the "cancellation" of the season due to the coronavirus (this happened last year), which also doesn't count, as well as the "cancellation" of the season due to injury (this happened to Alex in his second year in the NJCAA). 
So this year I'm graduating from university, getting an education, but I still have, roughly speaking, two seasons to play in the NCAA, - says Kotov. 
Vitya did not play Loko on a permanent basis, but by the 7-8th grade he was regularly on the team to participate in the Russian championships. The Railroaders took him as a reinforcement player - this is a common practice in children's competitions. 
Because you have never done the things that your parents did for you before, like laundry, cleaning, all sorts of small things. Even a waste of money: you never thought about it before, you were given - you spent it. And here you have money, and you know that if you spend everything, then at the end of the month you won’t have any left, ”recalls Vitya. 
It was necessary here and now to show some level and bring results. Let's be realistic, there were no players who can immediately enter the CSKA system and show something like that for a long time. Probably the Swede was the last one. I realized that I can’t do that, and since my dream is to be in the NBA, I decided to move closer to this league, this Wednesday, to America. That's why I'm here, - says Vitya. 
In the summer, Lakhin himself did an MRI, which showed that he had ... a torn meniscus. He took the results of the examination to the surgeon who scheduled the operation. Vitya went for it and began to recover in Russia, and he came to the USA with an already operated knee. 
You leave Russia for any other country - even to America, even to Italy, even to Spain - and you go through the same thing, Lakhin believes. 
7 minutes average 
When I found out that I was already in Moscow and had to go to the CYBL team for a tryout, I even got scared. But they left me, and I trained at CSKA for another four years. Then he played for the Russian national team U18 and U19, after which he received an offer to try himself in America. I decided to take a chance and moved there to the Prep school,” says Goldin. 
1 rebounds, no assists, 0.1 blocks, 0.1 steals, no losses 
He was familiar with Alexander Antipov, because before that our guy had already played at the same school. He came just to relax, but he also wanted to look at the players. He probably liked me, and he invited me to school. I took the chance and got into high school. I spent 11-12 classes there, received several offers and decided that I would play in Appalachian State, says Glushkov. 
True, the coach still does not really trust him. 
7 turnovers 90,003 90,002 David has probably the most atypical fate among all our guys who now play in the first division of the NCAA. 
The coach was needed so that David would not just mess around in the States. 
But already in the second year, Didenko ended up in the first division, at the University of Georgia. 
Most likely due to playing time, because, obviously, it was much more difficult to get it in Gonzaga. But even at the new university, he still has an average of 10 minutes on the floor and one and a half rebounds. By the way, about playing on the shields: the height of the Russian center is 213 centimeters, in America these guys are called seven-footers. 
