Guide
What is juco basketball?
Juco basketball is college basketball played at two-year community colleges that belong to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), the national governing body for two-year college athletics.
Updated Sep 29, 2026
The basics
Juco is short for junior college. Two-year colleges that sponsor athletics belong to the NJCAA, which governs and runs national championships for those schools. The NJCAA has more than 500 member institutions and sponsors 28 sports.
How the NJCAA started
The organization grew out of a specific dispute. In 1938, the NCAA turned down a petition from 13 two-year colleges in California that wanted to compete at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. Those same 13 schools then formed their own association. The NJCAA accepted its first constitution on May 14, 1938, and held its first national championship in May 1939.
Scholarships and letters of intent
NJCAA member schools can offer athletic scholarships. A player who accepts one signs an NJCAA Letter of Intent, which is a written commitment between the school and the player. The school commits to a certain amount of athletic aid, and the player commits to attending that school. The sources do not specify scholarship dollar amounts or limits by sport — those details are in the NJCAA Handbook, which member schools are required to check because it is updated monthly.
Transferring from juco to a four-year school
The NCAA's guide for college-bound student-athletes notes that players transferring from a two-year school to a four-year NCAA school need to review what the NCAA calls its Guide for Two-Year Transfers. That guide is separate from the sources available here. The NCAA Eligibility Center must certify athletics eligibility for any player transferring from a two-year college to an NCAA Division I or Division II school. The sources do not spell out all the academic or athletic requirements that apply.
What the sources do not cover
These sources do not answer how many juco basketball players transfer to four-year programs each year, what the typical scholarship amounts are, or how playing juco affects a player's remaining eligibility at a four-year school. The NJCAA Handbook and the NCAA's Guide for Two-Year Transfers would be the places to look for those answers.
What this page is based on
Every rule stated above was read from one of these documents, not from memory. Open them and check us.
- History of the NJCAA
NJCAA · the body that sets the rule · read Sep 29, 2026
- NJCAA Compliance & Eligibility
NJCAA · the body that sets the rule · read Sep 29, 2026
- 2026-27 Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete
NCAA · the body that sets the rule · read Sep 29, 2026
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