Division (sport)

A division is a sub-group of a sports league. In many larger leagues teams are broken up in to conferences and/or divisions for the purpose of scheduling and reduction in travel (as well as traveling expenses). Usually leagues are not broken up into smaller group until there are at least 8 teams to form multiple divisions. Many leagues use geographic names to for the names of their divisions such at North (or Northern), Great Lakes, New England, Pacific, Central, or Canadian.

Division is also used in American collegiate and European leagues to differentiate playing level. In the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the divisions are also used to indicate what level of financial offerings the institutions are allowed to use such as athletic scholarships vs financial aid and academic scholarships. Many European leagues use a system of Promotion and relegation from year to year where some of the top teams in each level get promoted to the next level up while some of the poorer performing teams are relegated to the next lower level. The European model encourages teams to set a goal of getting to the top level league as in many cases better players play in the top level leagues and can justify teams charging more for tickets, sell more merchandise, get more fans to watch the games, as well as more money from lucrative television contracts.