The National Collegiate Athletic Association is an organization that colleges and universities voluntarily join to enable the association to govern, regulate and enforce the rules of select sports games. A SWOT analysis of the NCAA identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the association, in terms of operations, finances, marketing and overall management.

Strengths

The NCAA’s SWOT analysis identifies the aspects of the association that are performing on par or above average. The internal pieces and components are areas the association has the ability to control. For example, the NCAA’s strengths could be increasing college memberships, increasing membership fees, recruiting compliance, an increase in the number of professional former-NCAA athletes and strong brand messaging during live events.

Weaknesses

The weaknesses identified by the SWOT analysis focus on aspects that are substandard or in great need of improvement. The internal pieces and components are areas the association has the ability to control. For example, the NCAA’s weaknesses could be poor NCAA alumni outreach, low event turnout, high event ticket prices, a limited selection of NCAA governed sports or nonexistent brand messaging among non-sports consumer demographics.

Opportunities

The NCAA’s SWOT analysis identifies aspects of the association that could potentially expand the association’s operations, financial activities and market share. The external pieces and components are factors in the marketplace involving the NCAA’s current operations. For example, the NCAA’s opportunities could be increasing NCAA sports’ advertising rates, broadcast and radio contracts, larger stadiums and sports venues being built, a rising economy and recruiting deregulation.

Threats

The threats that the NCAA’s SWOT analysis identifies focus on aspects that could potentially hurt or damage the association’s operations, financial activities or market share. The external pieces and components are factors in the marketplace involving NCAA’s activities. For example, the NCAA’s threats could be new Federal Communications Commission broadcast regulations, a weak scatter market, a decrease in the number of colleges and universities, or a decrease in demand for sporting events.

Construction of the SWOT Analysis

Constructing the NCAA SWOT analysis chart involves designing a two-by-two spreadsheet. Within the two-by-two spreadsheet, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats should be equally represented with each category in one of the four boxes. Strengths should appear in the upper-left, weaknesses in the upper-right, opportunities in the lower-left and threats in the lower-right.