The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference, comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term Ivy League is typically used outside sports to refer to the eight schools as a group of elite colleges with connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism. Its members are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. The conference headquarters are in Princeton, New Jersey.
The Harvard Crimson is the nickname of the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at any other NCAA Division I college in the country. Like the other Ivy League colleges, Harvard does not offer athletic scholarships.
ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relationship ended in 2004; however, the ECAC abbreviation was retained in the name of the hockey conference. ECAC Hockey is the only ice hockey conference with identical memberships in both its women's and men's divisions. Cornell has won the most ECAC men's hockey championships with 12, followed by Harvard at 11. Quinnipiac, which joined the league in 2005, already has 7 regular season championships. ECAC Hockey teams have won 10 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championships, most recently in 2023.
Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States. The first intercollegiate race was a contest between Yale and Harvard in 1852. In the 2018–19 school year, there were 2,340 male and 7,294 female collegiate rowers in Divisions I, II and III, according to the NCAA. The sport has grown since the first NCAA statistics were compiled for the 1981–82 school year, which reflected 2,053 male and 1,187 female collegiate rowers in the three divisions. Some concern has been raised that some recent female numbers are inflated by non-competing novices.
The Dartmouth College Big Green are the varsity and club athletic teams representing Dartmouth College, an American university located in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth's teams compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Ivy League conference, as well as in the ECAC Hockey conference. The college offers 34 varsity teams, 17 club sports, and 24 intramural teams. Sports teams are heavily ingrained in the culture of the college and serve as a social outlet, with 75% of the student body participating in some form of athletics.
The Yale Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The school sponsors 35 varsity sports. The school has won two NCAA national championships in women's fencing, four in men's swimming and diving, 21 in men's golf, one in men's hockey, one in men's lacrosse, and 16 in sailing.
The Columbia University Lions are the collective athletic teams and their members from Columbia University, an Ivy League institution in New York City, United States. The current director of athletics is Peter Pilling.
The Harvard Rugby Football Club is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I rugby union program that represents Harvard University in the Ivy Rugby Conference. Having been established in December 1872, Harvard has the oldest rugby college program in the United States.
The Brown Bears are the sports teams that represent Brown University, an American university located in Providence, Rhode Island. The Bears are part of the Ivy League conference. Brown's mascot is Bruno. Both the men's and women's teams share the name, competing in 34 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I sports. In football, the Bears, along with all other the Ivy League teams, compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
The Harvard Crimson football program represents Harvard University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. Harvard's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competing in the sport in 1873. The Crimson has a legacy that includes 13 national championships and 20 College Football Hall of Fame inductees, including the first African-American college football player William H. Lewis, Huntington "Tack" Hardwick, Barry Wood, Percy Haughton, and Eddie Mahan. Harvard is the tenth winningest team in NCAA Division I football history.
The Dartmouth Big Green football team represents Dartmouth College in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) college football competition as a member of the Ivy League. The team possesses a storied tradition that includes a national championship, and holds a record 21 Ivy League Football Championships with 11 College Football Hall of Fame inductees.
The first tier of intercollegiate sports in the United States includes sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies. The major sanctioning organization is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Before mid-1981, women's top-tier intercollegiate sports were solely governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). Smaller colleges are governed by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Two-year colleges are governed by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) in most of the country, except for the unaffiliated California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) and Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC).
The Princeton University Rugby Football Club is the college rugby team of Princeton University. The team currently competes in the Ivy Rugby Conference, an annual rugby union competition played among the eight member schools of the Ivy League.
The Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League was an athletic conference for men's college basketball, beginning with the 1901–02 season and ending with the 1954–55 season. Its membership ranged from four to eight members; all of these teams now compete in the Ivy League, which began play in 1955–56. The Ivy League's men's basketball league claims the EIBL's history as its own. Through the EIBL, the Ivy League is the oldest basketball conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association; the next oldest, the Big Ten Conference, began play in 1905–06.
The Yale Bulldogs men's soccer program represents Yale University in all NCAA Division I men's college soccer competitions. Founded in 1908, the Bulldogs compete in the Ivy League.
The Harvard Crimson men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of Harvard University. The team is a member of the Ivy League of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The Dartmouth Rugby Football Club is the men's college rugby team of Dartmouth College.
The Dartmouth–Harvard football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Dartmouth Big Green and Harvard Crimson. The series began in 1882 and is considered one of the fifteen oldest rivalries in College football. Since the formation of the Ivy League in 1954, the annual game has been a key decider in the crowning of the league's champion. Dartmouth has captured a league-record 19 Ivy League championships, while the Crimson have obtained 17 titles, tied for third-most. Furthermore, since the start of round-robin play, Harvard and Dartmouth have posted the first- and second-best league winning percentages at 0.628 and 0.606 respectively.
The National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) is a governing body of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) collegiate women's rugby programs in the United States founded in 2015.
College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the auspices of the NCAA and are instead governed by National Collegiate Rugby and USA Rugby, two nationwide governing bodies. 27 women's programs participate in the NCAA.
