College rowing (United States)

Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States. However, rowers comprise only 2.2% of total college athletes. This may be in part because of the status of rowing as an amateur sport and lack of access of many universities to suitable bodies of water. In the 2002-03 school year there were 1,712 male and 6,690 female collegiate rowers.

Harvard men's eight at Henley, 2004

History

Timeline

• 1852 - Yale challenges Harvard to a rowing race and the first Harvard-Yale Boat Race is held. This is also the first intercollegiate event held in the United States. Since 1864 this race has been held annually and since 1878, with few exceptions, it has been raced on the Thames River in New London, Connecticut.
• 1864 - Rowing became the first organized sport at Rutgers. Six mile races were held on the Raritan River among six-oared boats.
• 1870 - The Rowing Association of American Colleges was established by Bowdoin, Brown and Harvard Universities and Massachusetts Agricultural College, now known as the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The first regatta was held on July 21, 1871, at Ingleside, Massachusetts, on the Connecticut River. This can be considered to be the very first collegiate athletic organization in the country and devised a primary rule of eligibility: that only undergraduate students should be eligible to represent their college in the regatta - a rule which remains in the NCAA to this day.
• 1870 - Rutgers held its first intercollegiate competition on the Raritan River against the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard, the then top-ranked amateur crew of the time. The distance of the course was three miles.
• 1875 - Wellesley College established the first women's rowing program.
• 1878 - Columbia wins the Visitors' Challenge Cup and becomes the first foreign crew to win at the Henley Royal Regatta.
• 1894 -The Intercollegiate Rowing Association was founded by Cornell, Columbia, and Pennsylvania: its first annual regatta was hosted on June 24, 1895. Today Navy and Syracuse are also members of the association. Cornell dominates the early regattas winning 14 of the first 23 varsity 8 races.
• 1903- The University of Washington established a men and women's rowing program, and beat the University of California in their first dual.

File:Edward Penfield, College crews, 1908.jpg

Poster from 1908 depicting rowers from 10 different colleges

• 1916 - Lightweight rowing was first introduced at the University of Pennsylvania.
• 1920 - Navy wins the gold medal at the 1920 Summer Olympics in the 8 man (8+) boat. US collegiate boats would win the gold medal in the 8+ at the next 7 Olympics.
• 1922 - The first Harvard-Yale-Princeton lightweight race is held on May 20.
• 1923 - Washington is the first team from the west coast to win the varsity 8 title at the IRA regatta. Between 1920 and 1950, California, Navy and Washington would dominate college rowing winning 21 of the 25 varsity titles at the IRA and 5 Olympic titles in the eight man boat.
• 1924 - Yale varsity men's 8 wins Olympic gold in Paris
• 1928 The University of California varsity men's 8 wins the Olympic Gold medal in Amsterdam.
• 1932 The University of California varsity men's 8 wins its 2nd Olympic Gold medal in Los Angeles.
• 1936 - Washington varsity men's 8 wins Olympic gold in Berlin, Germany at the 'Nazi games'.
• 1948 - The University of California varsity men's 8 wins its 3rd Olympic gold at Henley in London.
• 1946 - The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) is formed and the first Eastern Sprints is held for lightweights and heavyweights.
• 1956 - Yale varsity men's 8 wins Olympic gold in Melbourne Australia
• 1963 - Harry Parker becomes coach of Harvard.
• 1971 - Collegiate women begin competing in the eight oared boat (8+) at the National Women's Rowing Association (NWRA) Championship (collegiate and non-collegiate).
• 1972 - Congress passes Title IX which eventually leads to large growth in competitive rowing.
• 1973 - Radcliffe College women's rowing team wins NWRA National Championship.
• 1975 - The University of Wisconsin women's rowing team wins NWRA National Championship.
• 1976 - The Yale women's rowing team strips in front of the Yale athletic director to demand equal opportunity under Title IX. The incident makes national headlines. The documentary film, A Hero for Daisy, memorializes this event.
• 1979 - Yale women's team claims its first national championship as top college finisher at NWRA regatta.
• 1980 - The first Women's National Collegiate Rowing Championship is held at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, sponsored by the National Women's Rowing Association (NWRA).
• 1982 - The only Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) rowing championships was held
• 1983 - Boston University women's rowing team wins National Championship for a third time.
• 1986 - The National Women's Rowing Association (NWRA) dissolves and USRowing assumes responsibility as the national governing body for women’s rowing.
• 1997 - The NCAA establishes a rowing championship for women. Washington sweeps the NCAA Regatta and IRA Regatta.
• 2002 - The University of California Men's 8 wins its 4th straight IRA Gold medal (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002), the first four-peat since Cornell (1955–1958).
• 2009 - Washington Sweeps the 8+ Events at the IRA Regatta, becoming the first crew to do so since they did in 1997. They won in the Varsity 8, Second Varsity 8, Freshman 8, and open four and placed second in the Varsity 4
• 2010 - The University of California Men's 8 wins Gold at the IRAs, its 6th in 12 years and 16th overall, second only to Cornell's 22 titles.
• 2011 - Washington's men's 8 wins gold at the IRAs for the 14th time.
• 2012 - Washington's men achieve an unprecedented sweep of all five grand finals at the IRAs, setting record times in 2V8, freshmen 8, V4, and open 4, as well as its 15th V8 IRA title.

Olympic medals won by U.S. collegiate boats

Up until the 1968 Summer Olympics, the United States had a trial system to pick the boats that would represent the United States in the Olympics. The top boats in the country, both collegiate and club, would participate in the Olympic Trials after the end of the collegiate calendar.

With the exception of 1964, a college boat won every Olympics Trials in the eight oared boat (8+) from 1920 through 1968. And in an amazing streak, all of the boats from 1920 through 1956 won gold medals. College boats also have had some success in the four man events (4+) and (4-) and the pair (2-).

Beginning in 1972, the United States has chosen its eight from a national selection camp. Numerous college athletes have made Olympic boats, but they were not specifically representing their University either at the camp, or at the Olympic trials for some of the smaller boats.

Below is a list of college boats that represented the United States at the Olympics:

Coxed eight (8+)

Olympic gold medals

• 1920 Summer Olympics Brussels—United States Naval Academy
• 1924 Summer Olympics Paris—Yale University
• 1928 Summer Olympics Amsterdam—University of California
• 1932 Summer Olympics Los Angeles—University of California
• 1936 Summer Olympics Berlin—University of Washington
• 1948 Summer Olympics London—University of California
• 1952 Summer Olympics Helsinki—United States Naval Academy
• 1956 Summer Olympics Melbourne—Yale University

Other Olympic eight-man boats

• 1960 Summer Olympics Rome—United States Naval Academy (5th Place)
• 1968 Summer Olympics Mexico City—Harvard University (6th Place)

Coxed fours (4+)

• 1928 Summer Olympics Amsterdam—Harvard University (eliminated)
• 1948 Summer Olympics London, Gold Medal - University of Washington
• 1952 Summer Olympics Helsinki, Bronze Medal - University of Washington
• 1964 Summer Olympics Tokyo—Harvard University (eliminated)
• 1968 Summer Olympics Mexico City—University of Pennsylvania (5th Place)

Coxless fours (4-)

• 1948 Summer Olympics London, Bronze Medal - Yale University
• 1952 Summer Olympics Helsinki, United States Naval Academy (eliminated)

Coxless pairs (2-)

• 1948 Summer Olympics London - Yale University (eliminated)
• 1952 Summer Olympics Helsinki, Gold Medal - Rutgers University

Categories

Men's rowing

Collegiate men's rowing consists of two squads, a varsity and a freshman team. The varsity squad typically fields a Varsity Eight (8+), a Second Varsity or Junior Varsity Eight (8+) and a '"Freshman" (8+), but can also field additional Varsity or Frosh boats. The varsity eight is the most prestigious boat, and teams try to make it the fastest boat possible. Oarsmen who don't make the varsity eight are usually placed in the Second Varsity eight followed by the Third Varsity eight. The term 'Junior Varsity' as used in rowing is a historical misnomer. It is not a separate team or squad like a typical junior varsity team, but the substitutes for the varsity boat. Coaches often trade rowers between boats during the season trying to make the fastest Varsity 8 possible. Most major regattas use the term second varsity when referring to the second boat fielded by a college. Unlike most other sports freshmen are still considered to be their own squad on most competitive teams and work in a similar fashion to varsity with the Freshman 8+ being the priority boat for first years.

If a regatta has a point system for determining the overall champion, it is based on the showing of the Varsity 8, the Second Varsity 8, and the Freshman 8 plus other boats. The de facto national championship of Division I men's rowing is the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championships, which between 1995 and 2008 was located on the Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey, around the end of May or beginning of June. Beginning with the 2009 regatta in Sacramento, the IRA Championships will be held on the West Coast every four years.

Women's rowing

Women rowers compete at the NCAA Rowing Championships in a Varsity 8, a Second Varsity 8, and a Varsity Four. Most teams also field one or more Novice Eights for novice rowers who have never competed at the collegiate level. Points are awarded for the overall championship based on the performance of those boats. Although NCAA National Championships only provide races for the aforementioned varsity boats, head races and regattas such as Head of the Charles, Pac-12 Championships and others allow a wide variety of competition for less-prominent boat classifications such as pair, sculls, and lightweight racing.

There has been spectacular growth in women's rowing over the past 25 years. In 1985 the FISA and Olympic course distance for women was increased from the previous 1000 meters to 2000 meters (the same distance raced by men), marking significant progress in public perception of women's strength, endurance and competitive drive. Universities that have never had a men's team have added women's rowing to the athletic department and are providing funding and athletic scholarships for the expensive and demanding sport, contributing to a noticeable increase in the success and competitiveness of many collegiate women's rowing teams. This, in part, is to comply with Title IX; many of the football powers use women's rowing to help balance out the large number of scholarships awarded to male football players.

Lightweight rowing

In rowing, taller, heavier individuals have a significant advantage. It is based on the same physical principle that causes boats with more rowers to go faster. To allow average-sized rowers to best compete against their peers, the rowing governing boards have set up a category for lightweight rowing. For men, the maximum weight is 160 lbs. For women, the weight limit is 130 lbs.

There are races for both men's and women's lightweight rowing. However, many of the smaller colleges have limited sized programs and simply field open weight boats, which include rowers who would qualify as lightweights. At many of the larger universities, where the competition to make a boat is intense, lightweight programs often don't exist, and if they do, they are typically underfunded club sports. This has not always been the case, however, as many lightweight programs have deteriorated or disappeared over time. This is especially apparent in the west, where California Lightweight Crew remains the sole program for men's lightweight rowing.

However, on the east coast, most Ivy League and EARC schools have excellent, well-funded men's lightweight teams; the lightweight men's events at Eastern Sprints and the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship (IRAs) are fiercely contested. Since the NCAA Rowing Championships does not have a lightweight event for women, a select number of these teams (e.g., University of Wisconsin) are eligible to compete at IRAs with the top men's programs.

Lightweight events have recently been added to the Olympics and it is possible that this might increase funding for these teams.

Freshman/novice rowing

Since rowing is such a technical sport, there is a separate category for novices (rowers with less than one year of experience). This is usually combined with freshman rowers, who may have rowed before in high school, but are in their first year in collegiate rowing. The Freshman squad is sometimes open only to college freshmen. However, people who start rowing after their freshman year normally join the novice team as well. The novice squad usually fields a freshman eight oared boat (8+), and if the team is big enough, a second eight, and/or a 4 oared boat (4+). In some collegiate conferences excluding the EARC and Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA), collegiate freshmen/novice can also compete as part of the varsity squad. At the 2012 IRA Steward's annual meeting it was voted to repeal the ban on freshmen competing as part of their varsity squad. In the league the term 'First Year Collegiate Rower' will now be used to describe Freshmen/Novice rowing.

Annual calendar

Rowing is one of the few collegiate sports where athletes practice year round and compete during both spring and fall. In addition many athletes train at various rowing clubs around the country during the summer.

Fall

In the fall, most schools focus on building technical proficiency and improving physical strength and endurance. This is typically accomplished through long steady practice pieces, with occasional shorter interval pieces. In the United States fall is also the season of head races which are typically between three and six kilometers. These longer races are part of the foundation for the spring season, building the rower's endurance and mental toughness. The largest fall race is the Head of the Charles Regatta held in Boston each October. This race includes rowers of all ages, abilities, and affiliations and features the best college crews in competition with Olympic-level athletes from the United States and other countries. The largest collegiate-only regatta in the fall is the Princeton Chase, typically in early November on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, New Jersey, and hosted by Princeton University. Also held in late fall, Rutgers hosts the Rutgers Fall Classic for collegiate first-year and novice crews on the Raritan River in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Winter

This is an intense building period for the spring racing season. The training regimen consists primarily of long interval training, which gradually becomes shorter and more intense as the race season approaches. This is done on the water for schools below the snowline. And for some of the northern colleges that practice on lakes and rivers which are frozen during winter, these pieces are done using ergometers and, if the college is lucky enough to have them, rowperfect rowing simulators and indoor rowing tanks. Additionally, most schools, regardless of whether they have water to row on, do ergometer testing (all out maximum performance test), weights, stadium stairs and long runs. A few colleges and universities send their fastest rowers to the CRASH-B Sprints in Boston. This 2,000 meter race is held on ergometers and features separate events for collegiate athletes. Many northeastern colleges have a winter training trip to a warmer state such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas during either winter break or spring break to give students extra time on the water while the local rivers and lakes are frozen.

Spring

Spring is the primary season for college rowing, and the majority of the schedule is composed of dual races. These 2,000-meter races take place between two, or sometimes three, schools. The winner of these races usually receive shirts from the losing teams.

There are also several large regattas, such as the Dad Vail Regatta, Eastern Sprints, Knecht Cup, and the San Diego Crew Classic which may be on the schedule. In this case, the teams compete in either flights, in which the winner is final, or a series of heats and semifinals before the winners move on to the finals. Sprint races begin with all teams lined up and started simultaneously, as opposed to the time trials in the fall.

Performing well in these races is the most important selection criteria for the various post season invitation rowing championships. If the crew is in a league, the dual race and regatta results will also typically be used in determining the team's seeding for the league championship. The Dad Vail Regatta is the largest and most prestigious for smaller schools and is held every May in Philadelphia.

The lightweight division becomes more prominent during the spring. Many head races lack separate categories for heavyweight/lightweight, but many spring races have a separate weight category for lighter rowers.

National championships

Men's

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. Unlike most collegiate sports, club-level crews regularly compete against Varsity programs and are often competitive.

Women's

Between 1971 and 1980, women's collegiate boats entered the National Women’s Rowing Association National Championships (what is now the USRowing National Championships). The college boats raced against club boats, including boats from outside the United States. The best finishing US collegiate boat was deemed to be the National Champion.

The first women’s collegiate championship was held in 1980 at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This race was open solely to collegiate rowing teams.

Since 1997, the NCAA has hosted an invitational rowing championship for women. Unlike the former women's collegiate championship, the NCAA does not have a championship race for women's lightweight rowing. In response, the IRA hosts a women's lightweight event.

The NCAA currently hosts championships for Division I, Division II and Division III colleges, with Divisions II and III having been added in 2002.

NCAA Division I requires colleges to enter two eight-oared shells and one four-oared shell in the team championship. The championship is restricted to eleven conference champions (American, ACC, A10, Big Ten, Big 12, CAA, Ivy, MAAC, Pac-12, Patriot, and WCC) as automatic qualifiers and eleven at-large schools for a total of twenty-two teams. The at-large teams are selected by the NCAA Division I Women's Rowing Committee. The NCAA Division II championship consists of an eight-oared shells and four-oared shell competition . The Division III championship involved both varsity and second varsity eights competing in the same event until 2012. Beginning in 2013, the V-1 and V-2 boats compete in separate events.

American Collegiate Rowing Association

File:UO on Dexter Lake.jpg

Rowing practice

Established in 2008 by Gregg Hartsuff under the General Not for Profit Association Act of 1986, the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) is made up of collegiate rowing teams that are not sponsored by the NCAA. Considered the Club National Championship, the ACRA regatta is split into six regions: the Mid-Atlantic region, the Great Lakes region, the Plains region, the Northeast region, the South region, and the West Coast region.

ACRA Schools

Mid-Atlantic Region	Great Lakes Region	Plains Region	Northeast Region	South Region	West Coast Region
Delaware	Northwestern	Arkansas	Connecticut	Auburn	Arizona State
Johns Hopkins	Chicago	Colorado State	Bowdoin College	Alabama	Academy of Art University
St. Mary's College of Maryland	Illinois	Colorado	Boston College	Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University	Claremont
Maryland	Wheaton College	Iowa State	Brandeis	Florida State	Evergreen State College
The College of New Jersey	Butler University	Iowa	Massachusetts	University of Central Florida	Humboldt State
Rutgers	IUPUI	Kansas State	New Hampshire	Florida	Long Beach State
Rutgers–Camden	Purdue	Kansas	Canisius College	Miami	Portland State
Stockton University	Notre Dame	Wichita State	Hofstra College	Augusta State	Sacramento State
Bucknell	Wabash College	St. Cloud	Manhattan College	Emory	San Diego State
Carnegie Mellon	Calvin College	College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University	New York University	Georgia State	Seattle
Duquesne	Grand Valley State	Minnesota	RPI	Georgia Tech	Sonoma State
Haverford College	Michigan State	University of St. Thomas	SUNY Albany	Savannah College of Art and Design	Saint Mary's College of California
Lafayette	Michigan Tech	Winona State	SUNY Binghamton	Georgia	UC Berkeley
Lehigh	Northern Michigan	St. Louis	SUNY Geneseo	Murray State	UC Davis
Penn State	Michigan	Missouri	SUNY Oswego	Louisiana State	UC Santa Barbara
Robert Morris College	Western Michigan	Washington	SUNY Stony Brook	Northwestern State	UCLA
Susquehanna	Bowling Green	Creighton	Buffalo	Tulane	Southern California
Pittsburgh	Case Western	Nebraska	Rochester	Davidson College	University of the Pacific
George Mason	Cleveland State	North Dakota	United States Military Academy	Duke	Portland
Old Dominion University	Denison	Oklahoma City	Rhode Island	North Carolina State	Oregon
Virginia	John Caroll	Oklahoma State	Middlebury College	North Carolina	Willamette
Virginia Tech	Miami	Oklahoma	Vermont	Wake Forest	Puget Sound
Virginia Commonwealth	Ohio State	Baylor	Fordham	Clemson	Washington State
Charleston	Ohio	Rice	Vassar College	College of Charleston	Western Washington
West Virginia	Cincinnati	Southern Methodist	-	South Carolina	-
American University	Dayton	St. Edwards	-	Rhodes College	-
Catholic University	Wittenberg	Texas A&M	-	University of Tennessee at Chattanooga	-
College of William and Mary	Xavier College	Texas A&M University at Galveston	-	Vanderbilt	-
-	Beloit College	Texas	-	-	-
-	Lawrence	-	-	-	-
-	Marquette	-	-	-	-
-	DePaul University	-	-	-	-

Conferences (partial list)

American Athletic Conference

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.

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.

The American Schools

Women (Open Weight)
Connecticut
Sacramento State
San Diego State
SMU
Temple
Tulsa
UCF
Villanova

Atlantic Coast Conference

The Atlantic Coast Conference first held a rowing championship in 2000 with Clemson, Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia participating. The 2005 conference realignment cycle brought two rowing schools into the ACC, with Miami and Boston College respectively joining for the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Further realignment in the early 2010s brought three more rowing schools into the conference. Notre Dame and Syracuse joined the ACC in 2013, with Louisville joining the following year.

ACC Schools

Women (Open Weight)
Boston College
Clemson
Duke
Louisville
Miami (FL)
North Carolina
Notre Dame
Syracuse
Virginia

Atlantic 10 Conference

The Atlantic 10 Conference (A10) first held a rowing championship in 1996 with 10 schools participating. Today, nine schools participate.

A10 Schools

Women (Open Weight)
Dayton
Duquesne
Fordham
George Mason
George Washington
La Salle
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Saint Joseph's

Big Ten Conference

The Big Ten Conference hosted its first Big Ten Women's Rowing Championship in 1997. Currently 7 schools compete in both the Championship Regatta and annual "Double Duals" races consisting of contests between 2-3 Big Ten competitors. The Big Ten is one of the dominant conferences in women's collegiate rowing, with at least one school being selected to compete at the NCAA Rowing Championships every year since its inception.

The Big Ten rowing league expanded to eight members in 2014 when Rutgers joined the conference.

Big Ten Schools

Women (Open Weight)
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Ohio State
Rutgers
Wisconsin

Big 12 Conference

The history of Big 12 Conference women's rowing is intertwined with the rowing history of Conference USA (C-USA).

The Big 12 contested its first rowing championship in 2008 (2007–08 school year), initially with Kansas, Kansas State, and Texas. Oklahoma joined the following year. In July 2012, West Virginia joined the conference for all sports, bringing the number of rowing schools to five.

In the meantime, C-USA held its first rowing championship in 2010 (2009–10 school year). The Big 12 and C-USA agreed that the four Big 12 schools that then sponsored the sport would also participate in the C-USA championship. These schools were joined by the three full C-USA members that sponsored the sport (SMU, Tulsa, and UCF) and two Southeastern Conference members (Alabama and Tennessee). Alabama did not participate in the 2011 C-USA tournament because of the massive tornado that hit its home city of Tuscaloosa. West Virginia joined the Big 12 in 2012, also joining C-USA women's rowing at that time. Also in 2012, Old Dominion moved five of its sports, including women's rowing, from the CAA to C-USA in advance of that school's 2013 entry into full C-USA membership.

As a result of the 2013 split of the original Big East Conference, SMU and UCF both left C-USA for that league's football-sponsoring offshoot, the American Athletic Conference, in 2013, and Tulsa made the same move a year later. C-USA added two new rowing affiliates for the 2013–14 season in Sacramento State and San Diego State, but both left after that season for The American. The rapid turnover in rowing membership presumably led the Big 12 to take over the C-USA women's rowing league, with the three remaining C-USA rowing schools (Alabama, Old Dominion, Tennessee) becoming Big 12 affiliates.

Big 12 Schools

Women (Open Weight)
Alabama
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma
Old Dominion
Tennessee
Texas
West Virginia

Colonial Athletic Association

The Colonial Athletic Association began official sponsorship of women’s rowing as the conference’s 23rd sport in March 2009. Previously, the conference championships were held unofficially as the Kerr Cup, hosted by Drexel University. The first CAA women’s rowing championship was conducted on April 18, 2009 in Philadelphia with races in the Varsity 4+, Second Varsity 8+, and Varsity 8+. The event was conducted in conjunction with the Kerr Cup on the Schuylkill River along historic Boathouse Row. In 2010 and 2011 George Mason University hosted the CAA Rowing Championships at Sandy Run Regional Park on the Occoquan Reservoir and will serve as host again in 2012. Three full CAA members currently sponsor women’s rowing at the intercollegiate level — the University of Delaware, Drexel University, and Northeastern University; they are joined by two associate members, the University at Buffalo and Eastern Michigan University .

CAA Schools

Women (Open Weight)
Buffalo
Delaware
Drexel
Eastern Michigan
Northeastern

Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges

The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) was formed in 1946. It is 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.

EARC/EAWRC Schools

Lightweight Men	Heavyweight Men	Openweight Women	Lightweight Women
--	--	Boston College	--
--	Boston University	Boston University	Boston University
--	Brown	Brown	--
Columbia	Columbia	Columbia	--
Cornell	Cornell	Cornell	--
Dartmouth	Dartmouth	Dartmouth	--
Delaware	--	--	--
Georgetown	Georgetown	Georgetown	Georgetown
--	George Washington	George Washington	--
Harvard	Harvard	Radcliffe	Radcliffe
--	Holy Cross	--	--
MIT	MIT	MIT	MIT
Navy	Navy	Navy	--
--	Northeastern	Northeastern	--
Penn	Penn	Penn	--
Princeton	Princeton	Princeton	Princeton
Rutgers	Rutgers	Rutgers	--
--	Syracuse	Syracuse	--
--	Wisconsin	--	Wisconsin
Yale	Yale	Yale	--

Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference/Metro League

The ECAC/Metro League is a women's rowing conference.

The participating schools are: Buffalo, Colgate, Delaware, Fordham, UMass, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Villanova, and West Virginia. Most of these schools have dual conference memberships in rowing.

Liberty League

The Liberty League is a small athletic conference composed of small to medium size private colleges and universities in upstate New York. The Liberty League Rowing Championships is the conference championship and is held every April. It is usually either hosted by Skidmore College at Fish Creek, NY or by St. Lawrence University at the St. Lawrence River in Waddington, NY.

Liberty League Schools

Men	Women
	Rochester
Hamilton	Hamilton
Union	Union
St. Lawrence	St. Lawrence
Hobart	William Smith
Skidmore	Skidmore
Vassar	Vassar
RIT	RIT

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is a college athletic conference which operates in the northeastern United States. MAAC teams compete in the NCAA's Division I. The conference championships are held during the end of April at Lake Mercer in West Windsor New Jersey.

In the summer of 2002 the Marist men's varsity eight boat advanced to the semifinals of the Temple Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta.

MAAC Schools

Men	Women
Fairfield	Fairfield
Iona	Iona
Manhattan	Manhattan
Marist	Marist
--	Canisius
--	Drake
Jacksonville	Jacksonville
--	Robert Morris
--	Sacred Heart
--	Stetson

Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference

Prior to the formation of the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference, the nine charter member schools — Bryn Mawr College, Franklin & Marshall College, Johns Hopkins University, Marietta College, the University of Mary Washington, North Park University, Richard Stockton College, Rutgers University–Camden, and Washington College — enjoyed an affiliation due to their annual competition at the Mid-Atlantic Division III Rowing Championships, formerly the Atlantic Collegiate League Sprints Championships. In late 2008, the rowing programs at the nine schools expressed a common desire to formalize their association in order to enhance the student-athlete experience for their rowers. From that desire, the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference was born in January 2009 and the Mid-Atlantic Division III Rowing Championships became the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference Championships. Later in 2009, Johns Hopkins announced it would end its varsity rowing programs after the 2008-09 academic year.

Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference Schools

Men	Women
--	Bryn Mawr
Franklin & Marshall	Franklin & Marshall
--	Marietta
Mary Washington	Mary Washington
North Park	North Park
Richard Stockton	Richard Stockton
Rutgers–Camden	Rutgers–Camden
Washington College (MD)	Washington College (MD)

New England Rowing Conference

NERC Schools

Men	Women
Amherst	Amherst
Bates	Bates
Brandeis	Brandeis
Boston College	--
Bowdoin	Bowdoin
Clark	Clark
Colby	Colby
Connecticut College	Connecticut College
Franklin Pierce University	Franklin Pierce University
	Holy Cross
Mass Maritime Academy	--
Middlebury	Middlebury
--	Mount Holyoke
--	Simmons
--	Smith
Trinity	Trinity
Tufts	Tufts
Coast Guard	Coast Guard
UMass Amherst	--
UMass Lowell	UMass Lowell
New Hampshire	New Hampshire
Rhode Island	--
Vermont	Vermont
	Wellesley
Wesleyan	Wesleyan
Williams	Williams
WPI	WPI

Northwest Collegiate Rowing Conference

The Northwest Collegiate Rowing Conference consists of seven NCAA Division II and III member schools in USRowing's Northwest region. The Conference hosts two major regattas each year. The NCRC Invite takes place during late-March on Vancouver Lake, Washington and has welcomed non-conference members from California, Oregon, and Washington. Conference championships are annually held the third weekend of April at the Cascade Sprints Regatta on Lake Stevens, Washington.

NCRC Schools

Men	Women
Humboldt State	Humboldt State
Lewis & Clark	Lewis & Clark
Pacific Lutheran	Pacific Lutheran
Puget Sound	Puget Sound
Seattle Pacific	Seattle Pacific
Western Washington	Western Washington
Willamette	Willamette

Pac-12 Conference

Pac-12 Schools

Men (Open Weight)	Women (Open Weight)
California	California
Colorado	Colorado
Oregon State	Oregon State
Stanford	Stanford
UCLA	UCLA
USC	USC
Washington	Washington
Washington State	Washington State

Patriot League

Patriot League Schools

Women (Open Weight)
Boston University
Bucknell
Colgate
Holy Cross
Lehigh
Loyola (MD)
MIT
Navy

West Coast Conference

The West Coast Conference first held a women's rowing championship in 1997 with five of the league's eight members at that time participating—Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary's, San Diego, and Santa Clara. Creighton became a WCC associate member starting with the 2011 championship, and longtime WCC member Portland added a varsity rowing team the following season.

WCC Schools

Women (Open Weight)
Creighton
Gonzaga
Loyola Marymount
Portland
Saint Mary's
San Diego
Santa Clara

Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association

The Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) is an American collegiate conference that sponsors men's and women's rowing.

See also

• University rowing (UK)
• College athletics
• College rivalries
• AIAW Champions
• Intercollegiate rowing team champions
• NCAA Rowing Championship

External links

• College Rowing Database
• 2003-04 high school sports participation summary
• NCAA Championship Handbooks
• RowingHistory.net
• 100 year history of the University of Washington Men's Crew
• Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference