The NCAA Basketball and Its Distinction from NBA

The NCAA Basketball and Its Distinction from NBA

Some years after the invention of the game basketball, several schools and associations have sought to emulate the game, and thus made their own rules for the game. The fame of the game has led for associations to be organized not just in the US or in Canada but as well as in other neighboring countries. As proof to this, the FIBA or the International Basketball Federation was established.

In the US, there are two primary leagues that are considered as cornerstone and foundation of the game. One is the NBA or National Basketball Association and the second is the NCAA or the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NBA is specifically focused to basketball while the NCAA has is responsible for other sports that involves college students from different schools in the US. NCAA basketball is just one division of the NCAA but because of the popularity of the game, the association gained the tag as a sole basketball league.

Though quite similar, the NCAA and NBA have differences. These range from different disciplines and specification of the game. Here are some of the differences of the NCAA basketball from the NBA:

• Attendees – The attendees or the athletes in the NBA are considered professional players. Most often they are no longer connected with any collegiate school. The NCAA basketball players, however, are full time athletes that represent their school in the Division conference.

• Rules – In terms of the size of the court, the NBA rules and that of the NCAA basketball are somewhat alike. However, there are smaller details in the game that these two leagues completely differ from each other. One example for this is the number of personal fouls allowable before a player may be expelled from the game; in NBA 6 allowable personal fouls while in the NCAA, it’s only 5 personal fouls. Other rules that differ from each other can be checked and compared at their respective websites.

• Conferences – Though both of these leagues are divided into conferences – NBA: East and West and NCAA basketball: Division I, Division II, and Division III – the places the leagues are representing are very much different. In the NCAA, the teams represent their respective school. In NBA on the other hand, teams represent a specific city of a particular state.

The differences stated above are simply the most observable between the two leagues. However, specifically, one can see many other differences when he looks closely on how the games of both leagues are played. The NCAA is divided with two 20 minutes game while the NBA is divided into 4 quarters which make it exceed 8 minutes in the whole duration of the game from the NCAA.

The NBA’s shot clock is set to 24 seconds as compared to35 seconds on the NCAA. There are other distinctions in these two games and as the years pass by, expect that more and more changes and variation between these two will be made by their respective committees.

The NCAA basketball is sometimes considered as the training ground of players who wish to be part of the NBA. Over the years, there had been several players from the NCAA who made it to the NBA.

So no matter how different these two are there are just things that make both leagues connect from each other.