College rowing in the United States
Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States.[1] The first intercollegiate race was a contest between Yale and Harvard in 1852.[1] In the 2018–19 school year, there were 2,340 male and 7,294 female collegiate rowers (on 57 and 148 teams, respectively) in Divisions I, II and III, according to the NCAA.[2] 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 (on 48 and 43 teams, respectively) in the three divisions.[2] Some concern has been raised that some recent female numbers are inflated by non-competing novices.[3]
Men's rowing has organized collegiate championships in various forms since 1871. The Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) has been the de facto national championship for men since 1895.[4] Women's rowing initially competed in its intercollegiate championships as part of the National Women's Rowing Association Championship in 1971.[5] From 1980 through 1996, the women's national championships races were conducted at the National Collegiate Rowing Championships in Cincinnati. In the 1996–97 season, most women's intercollegiate rowing programs elected to join the NCAA as a "Championship" sport.[6] Men's rowing declined to join the NCAA, but virtually all colleges abide by NCAA regulations. Other governing bodies of college rowing in the United States include the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA).[7]
Categories[edit]
Men's rowing[edit]
Men's rowing is not affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The de facto national championship of Division I men's rowing is the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championships. The National Champion in each category is the winner of its respective Varsity 8+ race. The Dad Vail Regatta is considered the national championship for second-tier schools. These include top club teams such as Virginia and Michigan as well as lower level varsity programs such as Hobart and St. Joseph's University. Other club programs and all programs outside the NCAA/IRA structure compete at the ACRA National Championship Regatta.
In collegiate men's rowing, the First Varsity 8 is meant to be the fastest boat. Oarsmen not selected for the First Varsity 8 are usually placed in the Second Varsity 8 followed by the Third Varsity. Rowers outside of the top two eights are sometimes, depending on the race, put into fours of various categories. This is the case at the IRA championship, for example, but not at the Eastern Sprints or Pac-10 championship. Freshman separately competed in the Freshman 8, the Second Freshman 8, a Freshman 4, etc., until 2012 when the IRA permitted freshman eligibility to row in a varsity boat; most leagues followed suit.[10] The IRA eliminated freshman races after 2015.[11]
Women's rowing[edit]
NCAA women's rowing is divided into three divisions with an official NCAA championship:
National championships[edit]
Men's[edit]
The Intercollegiate Rowing Association, known as the IRA, was founded by Cornell, Columbia, and Penn in 1894 and its first annual regatta was hosted on June 24, 1895. Today Navy and Syracuse are also members of the association. Each year these five schools choose whom to invite to the regatta and are responsible for its organization along with the ECAC. The IRA is the oldest college rowing championship in the United States.
Since the 1920s, when the West Coast crews, notably California and University of Washington began to attend and regularly win, most crews considered the Intercollegiate Rowing Association's championship to be a de facto national championship. Two important crews, Harvard and Yale, however, did not participate in the heavyweight divisions of the event. After losing to Cornell in 1897, Harvard and Yale chose to avoid the IRA, so as not to diminish the Harvard-Yale race. It soon became part of each school's tradition not to go. Beginning in 1973, Washington decided to skip the IRA because a change in schedule conflicted with its finals.
Even though rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport, the men have always chosen not to join the NCAA. If they did, the NCAA would sponsor a championship, but it would also force the sport to abide by NCAA rules and mandates. Notwithstanding, collegiate crews generally abide by NCAA rules, and they also have to abide by athletic conference rules, which mirror the NCAA rules.
In 1982, a Harvard alumnus decided to remedy this perceived problem by establishing a heavyweight varsity National Collegiate Rowing Championship race in Cincinnati, Ohio. It paid for the winners of the Pac-10 Championship, the Eastern Sprints, the IRA and the Harvard-Yale race to attend. It was a finals only event and other crews could attend if they paid their own way and there was room in the field. The winner received an expense paid trip to the Henley Royal Regatta as a prize. After 1996, however, the race was discontinued.
Given Washington's return to the IRA in 1995 and the demise of the National Collegiate Rowing Championship, the IRA again was considered to be the national championship. In 2003, Harvard and Yale, after an absence of over one hundred years, decided to participate.
For men's rowing the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia is considered the national championship for smaller college teams unable to compete at the IRA standard (similar to Division III or I-AA in other sports). It is the largest collegiate race in the nation.
Starting in 2008, club crews (non-Varsity programs) were no longer allowed to participate in the IRA Regatta, and the ACRA National Championship Regatta is considered the National Championship for collegiate club programs and all programs outside the NCAA/IRA structure. Unlike most collegiate sports, club-level crews regularly compete against Varsity programs and are often competitive.
NCAA Conferences (women's teams)[edit]
American Athletic Conference[edit]
The American Athletic Conference is the legal successor of the original Big East Conference, founded in 1979, and retains the charter of the original Big East. The original conference split along football lines in 2013, with the seven non-FBS schools purchasing the "Big East" name and joining with three other schools to form a new Big East. This new conference did not have enough rowing schools to sponsor that sport; one of those schools, Villanova, became a rowing-only affiliate of The American. Villanova rowing would eventually join the CAA, already home to the school's football team, starting with the 2015–16 season.
Two of the schools that reorganized as The American, Louisville and Rutgers, spent only the 2013–14 school year in that conference; they respectively joined the ACC and Big Ten in July 2014. Tulsa joined from Conference USA at the same time. The American announced in March 2014 that California State University, Sacramento (more commonly called Sacramento State) and San Diego State University would join as associate members for women's rowing only, beginning in the 2014–15 season.[20] Another associate was added for the 2018–19 school year in Old Dominion University, previously a rowing-only member of the Big 12 Conference.[21]
The University of South Florida announced in 2016 that the NCAA had approved its request to start a Division I women's rowing team which it hopes to be ready for the 2018–19 school year. The rowing team was to be based at the USF Sarasota-Manatee Campus and compete in the American Athletic Conference. USF is an all-sports member of The American. However, USF ultimately never added the sport at the varsity level.
A more recent change to The American's rowing roster came in July 2020 when UConn left to rejoin many of its former conference rivals in the current Big East. With the Big East not sponsoring rowing, UConn moved that sport to the Colonial Athletic Association. A year later, San Diego State dropped women's rowing, citing financial impacts from COVID-19.
Other conferences[edit]
Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges[edit]
The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) was formed in 1946. It is a men's rowing conference composed of the Ivy League schools plus other select universities. Each year the EARC schools race at the Eastern Sprints regatta on Lake Quinsigamond in Massachusetts, which, for the men, is generally considered the most important race of the year aside from the IRA.
The EARC men's lightweight team which attains the highest points for the Freshman 8+, Second Varsity 8+ (JV), and First Varsity 8+ are awarded the Jope Cup.
On the women's side, the conference is called the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC). The Women's Eastern Sprints, held on the Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey, are highly competitive, on a similar level of competitiveness as the Aramark Central Region Championships and Pac-12 Championships.
The Eastern Sprints also serve as the Ivy League Championship, with the best-placed boat from an Ivy League school being crowned Ivy League Champion.