Upon seeing the success of the baseball league over the years, many collegiate club softball teams began to take notice and wondered why there was no league for them. Thus in 2006, the NCBA started the National Club Softball Association (NCSA) in order to bring structure and consistency to collegiate club softball nationwide. With an initial membership total of 36 teams for the inaugural season and steady growth since, the NCSA appears now boasts more than 140 member teams.
In 2007, the NCBA began to realize that an obvious disparity in talent level was developing within the baseball league. Smaller schools and first-year programs were struggling to be competitive with some of the club baseball programs from larger schools or those that had been in operation for many years. In an effort to both even the playing field and maximize the club baseball experience for all teams in the league, the NCBA split into two divisions (DI and DII). Teams in both divisions compete for their own respective World Series title and national championship crown.
After nine years of growth and success, the National Club Baseball Association, LLC looked to continue its growth by providing its services to a broader array of collegiate club sports. In order to do so, it was felt that a name change was in order to better describe the scope of the company’s business. Thus in 2009, the National Club Baseball Association, LLC was officially renamed the National Federation of Collegiate Club Sports Leagues, LLC. In an effort to brand the new company image and logo, the organization decided to do business as CollClubSports. With a new name, a new logo, and a new mission, CollClubSports proudly continues the NCBA’s tradition of success in providing collegiate student-athletes with the opportunity to participate in competitive, organized collegiate club athletic leagues, while continually striving to enhance the experience for all participants.
Additionally in 2009 several club sports directors approached CollClubSports inquiring about building a National Governing Body for collegiate club football. Geographic pockets of college club football teams were already in existence, but no one was tying them together under a uniform set of rules or crowning a champion. Thus in 2010 CollClubSports launched the inaugural season of the National Club Football Association (NCFA). The first 2 seasons featured the National Champion being crowned via a final Coaches Poll at the end of the season, however in 2012 through 2014 the NCFA would pair the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the final rankings in a National Championship Bowl Game. Beginning in 2015, the NCFA would again transition it’s post season format into a playoff style where each of the four conference champions would automatically qualify for a spot in the post season in hopes of advancing to the National Title game.
In 2012 once again several club sports directors approached CollClubSports requesting that we consider forming a club basketball league stating that our model would enhance the collegiate club basketball experience for their teams. CollClubSports conducted market research and determined that there was enough interest across the country in men’s club basketball to support the formation of a league. Thus, in 2013 the National Club Basketball Association (NCBBA) was born. The first season consisted of 26 teams which culminated in an 8 team National Championship Tournament. Over the years, the NCBBA has grown to more than 130 teams competing for the coveted NCBBA National Title. CollClubSports projects that the future of the NCBBA is strong with the potential of growth matching if not exceeding that of the NCBA with inception of a DII league and a women’s league to come in the not so distant future.
In 2017 the NCBA once against reached another monumental moment of growth for the organization. Due to an over saturation of teams that have joined DII, the NCBA decided to once again expand it’s divisional offerings. NCBA DIII was created to provide a competitive and nurturing experience for new teams coming on board as well as those teams not finding success on the field in DII. DIII will begin serving as the developmental league for teams while the decrease in the number of conferences in DII will provide expanded opportunities for teams to qualify for the post season.
As the NCBBA continued to grow and achieve national success, more and more schools began reaching out requesting for the development of a women’s club basketball league. In 2019, CollClubSports research determined there were enough women’s teams in existence to launch the National Club Basketball Association – Women’s Division (NCBBA-W). An aggressive goal of achieving 35 member teams was set for the inaugural season (2019-20). Achieving this number would be the largest inaugural membership in the history of any new CollClubSports league. What resulted could not have been expected by anyone involved, as the 2019-20 NCBBA-W season tipped off with an astounding 52 member teams! Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly shut down the season in the spring of 2020 and kept the league dormant for the entire 2020-21 season. But the NCBBA-W continues to look strong and expects a full return to competition starting in the fall of 2021 with even more teams signing on to participate.