The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions across 24 states and is divided into 3 divisions.

The idea for the NJCAA was conceived in 1937, in Fresno, California. A handful of junior college representatives met to organize an association that would promote and supervise a national program of junior college sports and activities consistent with the educational objectives of junior colleges.

A constitution was presented and adopted at the charter meeting in Fresno on May 14, 1938.

In 1949, the NJCAA was reorganized by dividing the nation into sixteen regions. The officers of the association were the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, public relations director, and the sixteen regional vice presidents. Although the NJCAA was founded in California, it no longer operates there, having been supplanted by the unaffiliated California Community College Athletic Association.

The NJCAA only allowed male competitors until 1975, when it established a women's division following the enactment of Title IX.

Based out of Hutchinson, Kansas since 1968, the national office relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1985. Headquarters moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2018.