The Big Ten Conference is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States, based in suburban Chicago, Illinois. Despite its name, the conference consists of 14 members. They compete in the NCAA Division I; its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport. The conference includes the flagship public university in each of 11 states stretching from New Jersey to Nebraska, as well as two additional public land grant schools and a private university.
Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their student-athletes.
The Midwest Division was a division in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The division was created at the start of the 1970–71 season, when the league expanded from 14 to 17 teams with the addition of the Buffalo Braves, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Portland Trail Blazers. The league realigned itself into two conferences, the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference, with two divisions each in each conference. The Midwest Division began with four inaugural members, the Chicago Bulls, the Detroit Pistons, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns. The Bulls and the Suns joined from the Western Division, while the Pistons and the Bucks joined from the Eastern Division.
Sports in Minnesota include professional teams in all major sports, Olympic Games contenders and medalists, especially in the Winter Olympics, collegiate teams in major and small-school conferences and associations and active amateur teams and individual sports. The State of Minnesota has a team in all five major professional leagues. Along with professional sports, there are numerous collegiate teams including the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers in the NCAA Division I, Minnesota State Mavericks in NCAA Division I and NCAA Division II and many others across the Minnesota public and private colleges and universities.
The Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) is a national organization of non-NCAA men's college lacrosse programs. The MCLA oversees game play and conducts national championships for over 200 teams in ten conferences throughout the United States and Canada. The MCLA provides a governing structure much like the NCAA, with eligibility rules, All-Americans and a national tournament to decide national champions in both Divisions I and II.
College lacrosse is played by student-athletes at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In both countries, men's field lacrosse and women's lacrosse are played at both the varsity and club levels. College lacrosse in Canada is sponsored by the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) and Maritime University Field Lacrosse League (MUFLL), while in the United States, varsity men's and women's lacrosse is governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and National Association of Intercolliegiate Athletics (NAIA). There are also university lacrosse programs in the United Kingdom sponsored by British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and programs in Japan.
The Upper Midwest Lacrosse Conference (UMLC) is a conference in the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA). The UMLC incorporates teams in Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota, divided into two divisions, Division I and Division II. As of 2019 the Upper Midwest Lacrosse Conference (UMLC) consists of 11 Division I teams, representing Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, MIchigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and Ohio. Division II is made up of Minnesota State Mankato, University of Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota State, St. Cloud State, Saint John's, and St. Thomas. It usually has several teams ranked nationally in the top ten.
The Vail Lacrosse Shootout is a lacrosse tournament held annually in Vail, Colorado, composed of six age brackets for men- Chumash (Youth), High School (U-19), Elite (19+), Masters (33+), Supermasters (40+) and Grandmasters (50+), and three for women- Chumash, High School and Elite. Play typically runs from the end of June into the beginning of July. Games take place in Vail, Avon and Edwards, however most games are in Vail at Ford Field, Donovan Park and Athletic Field.
The Great Lakes Lacrosse League (GLLL) is a regional organization of non-varsity men's club field lacrosse programs in the Midwestern United States. The GLLL was founded in 2004 to provide a competitive league for teams in the Midwest who want to play in a well-organized league outside of NCAA restrictions and without the expense of being a "virtual varsity."
The Davenport Panthers are the athletic teams of Davenport University located in Caledonia Township, Michigan. DU is a member of the NAIA and the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference for most sports. In addition to NAIA sports, DU also offers additional sports that the NAIA does not currently sponsor championships for. Men's lacrosse is a member of the MCLA Division I in the Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association; women's lacrosse is a member of the National Women's Lacrosse League (NWLL). Men's rugby competes at the Division I level of USA Rugby's Midwest Rugby Union, as well as a JV team at the DII level. Men's ice hockey competes in the ACHA Division I in the Great Lakes Collegiate Hockey League (GLCHL), as well as a JV team at the ACHA DIII level.
The Michigan Wolverines men's lacrosse team is the intercollegiate men's lacrosse program representing the University of Michigan. The school competes in the Big Ten Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Prior to joining the NCAA, Michigan competed as a club-varsity program at the Division I level of the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) in the Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association (CCLA), where the Wolverines secured three MCLA national championships and won 11 consecutive conference titles. The team is coached by Kevin Conry.
Sports in Atlanta has a rich history, including the oldest on-campus NCAA Division I football stadium, Bobby Dodd Stadium, built in 1913 by the students of Georgia Tech. Atlanta also played host to the second intercollegiate football game in the South, played between the A&M College of Alabama and the University of Georgia in Piedmont Park in 1892; this game is now called the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. The city hosts college football's annual Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the Peachtree Road Race, the world’s largest 10 km race. Atlanta was the host city for the Centennial 1996 Summer Olympics, and Downtown Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park was built for and commemorates the games.
The Bellarmine Knights are the athletic teams that represent Bellarmine University, located in Louisville, Kentucky, in NCAA intercollegiate sporting competitions.
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in all sports except football, which is not sponsored. The conference has been officially recognized as a Division I multi-sport conference, effective on August 1, 2013. The conference was originally founded by Dave Gavitt on May 31, 1979.
The United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) is an American ice hockey league. Founded in 2012, the USPHL has grown to over 60 organizations from across the United States fielding teams in the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC), Premier, Elite, EHF, 18U, 16U, 15U, and High Performance youth divisions.
The Box Lacrosse League (BLL) was a senior men's semi-professional box lacrosse league in the United States. The league consists of five teams with a geographical footprint centered on the Midwest region of the United States and Ontario.
The Minnesota Lakers Lacrosse Club was formed in 1976, originally known as Twin Cities Lacrosse Club. A member of the Midwest Cities Lacrosse Conference (MCLC), the Lakers are one of 13 clubs who compete in the Senior/post-collegiate lacrosse league. Minnesota Lakers compete in the Western Division of MCLC with: Chicago Lacrosse Club, Chitown Lacrosse Club, Lincoln Park Lacrosse Club, Minneapolis Lacrosse Club, Minnesota Premium Lacrosse Club and Sr. Gophers Lacrosse Club.
The United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) is a full season, American adult professional soccer league that was founded in Santa Ana in Southern California, with teams in regionalized conferences throughout the United States. The league was founded in 2011 by Santa Ana Winds FC club owner Leonel López as a regional league for teams in Greater Los Angeles, but expanded to include teams from 32 states as of the 2019 UPSL season.
The Premier League of America (PLA) was an American soccer league consisting of teams in cities in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The league was a part of the United States Adult Soccer Association. It began its first season of play in 2015 as the Great Lakes Premier League, and at the end of the 2017 season its member clubs moved to become the Midwest Division of the United Premier Soccer League.
