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College basketball is established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA. It is most often refers to the American basketball competitive governance structure.

In 1891, Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball. On April 8, 1893, the first recorded game involving a college basketball team took place in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. In this game, a team from Geneva College defeated the New Brighton YMCA. On February 9, 1895, the first intercollegiate game was played between the Minnesota State School of Agriculture and Hamline College in which the former defeated the latter by a score of 9 to 3. On January 18, 1896, the first intercollegiate game involving the now familiar five-player format occurred in Iowa City, Iowa in which the University of Chicago defeated the University of Iowa 15 to 12. Previously, Each team was consisted of seven to nine players.

The NCAA was founded in Chicago in 1906. The first NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship tournament was held in Evanston, Illinois in 1939. 5,500 fans attended the game . Oregon was successful in winning the national championship that year by defeating Ohio state 46 to 33.

In those days, the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) was generally thought to be of as much quality as the NCAA Tournament. It was a flourishing tournament with different teams and more fan attendance from New York or East Coast. In fact, the NIT was formed the year before the NCAA created their championship tournament. The NCAA had taken over as the dominant tournament by the early 1950s while the NIT became a place for postseason play for those teams that couldn't quite make the "Big Dance". It is still played at Madison Square Garden.

Few African-American players were allowed in major college programs from the 1920s until 1947. Jackie Robinson was one notable exception. He was a multi-sport star (1939-1941) at UCLA just before World War II, who went on to greater fame for breaking Major League Baseball's 20th-century color line. Robinson's performance was very much impressive at UCLA. For two years, He remained highest scorer in basketball competition in the Pacific Coast Conference, national champion long (then "broad") jumper, the school's first athlete to letter in four sports, All-American football halfback and varsity baseball shortstop.

In 1947, William Garrett integrated big-time college basketball by joining the basketball program at Indiana University. The gentlemen's agreement that had barred black players from the Big Ten Conference was broken by Garrett. At that time, the Big Ten Conference was college basketball's most important conference.

Indiana had a leader of the largest black YMCA in the world in the late 1940s. A visionary university president, who believed his institution belonged to all citizens of the state; a passion for high school and college basketball; and a teenager who was, as nearly as any civil rights pioneer has ever been, the perfect person for his time and role. Slowly from there, Division I college basketball became integrated.

The Loyola University (Chicago) teams of the early 1960s are thought to be responsible for ushering in a new era of racial equality in the sport. They were coached by George Ireland and were successful in shattering all remaining color barriers in NCAA men's basketball. Loyola broke the longstanding gentlemen's agreement in early 1961.Ireland played four black Loyola starters in every game for the 1962-63 season. That season, Loyola also became the first team in NCAA Division I history to play an all-black lineup.

In 1963, the nation was shocked when Loyola changed college basketball forever by starting four black players in the NCAA Championship game, as well as playing five black players during the game. Loyola's stunning upset of two-time defending NCAA champion Cincinnati was the crowning achievement in the school's nearly decade long struggle with racial inequality in men's college basketball. It was highlighted by the tumultuous events of that year's NCAA Tournament.

In the 1966 NCAA championship game saw another memorable event for African-Americans in college basketball. In this championship, Texas Western College coach Don Haskins started 5 African-American players. The Miners beat favorite Kentucky 72-65 to win the 1966 NCAA title. The team's victory inspired the 2006 movie Glory Road.

The Illinois State Redbirds hired Will Robinson as the first African-American head coach of a major college basketball program in 1970,.

Moses Malone went on to a Hall of Fame career by joining the Utah Stars of the ABA (now merged with the NBA) straight out of high school in 1974. The college game has seen a remarkable change in the past 30 years. The best international players routinely skip college entirely. Many American stars skip college (Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and LeBron James) or only play one year (Carmelo Anthony). Among the 60 players selected in the annual NBA Draft, there are only a dozen or so college graduates now.