Duke University - Athletics

Athletics

Main article: Duke Blue Devils See also: Carolina-Duke rivalry

Duke's 26 varsity sports teams, known as the Blue Devils, are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s Division I Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Duke's teams have won twelve NCAA team national championships—the women's golf team has won five (1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, and 2007), the men's basketball team has won four (1991, 1992, 2001, and 2010), and the men's soccer (1986), women's tennis (2009), and men's lacrosse (2010) teams have won one each.

In the past ten years, Duke has finished in the top 30 in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Directors' Cup, an overall measure of an institution's athletic success. In 2011 Duke finished fifth in all of Division I and placed the best in the ACC, while the athletic program finished tenth in 2010. Duke has won 118 ACC Championships, 47 of which have come since 1999–2000 (through 2010–11), which is the second most in the ACC. Duke teams that have been ranked in the top ten nationally in the 2000s (decade) include men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's fencing, men's and women's cross country running, men's and women's lacrosse, women's field hockey, and men's and women's golf. Ten of these teams were ranked in the top ten in the country during the 2010–11 school year, while 17 were in the top 25. The men's lacrosse program has proven successful, reaching the NCAA tournament semifinals in six consecutive participating seasons from 2005 to 2011, including winning the national championship in 2010.

The Blue Devil mascot's origins are rooted in an elite French alpine fighting unit that garnered accolades and much global attention during World War I and its aftermath for its flowing blue capes and blue berets. Duke's mascot origin is considered to be military and patriotic rather than anti-religious. Historically, Duke's major rival has been the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, especially in basketball. The rivalry has led the fanbases to identify the two differing shades of blue in relation to their respective university—calling the lighter powder blue "Carolina blue" and the darker blue "Duke blue".

On the academic front, according to a 2006 evaluation conducted by the NCAA, Duke's student-athletes have the highest graduation rate of any institution in the nation. From 2005 to 2010, Duke has placed in the top three every year (and finished first in 2005 through 2007) among Division I schools in the National Collegiate Scouting Association Power Rankings—a combination of the institution's Director's Cup standing, its athletic graduation rate, and its academic rank in U.S. News & World Report. Duke led the ACC in Honor Roll inductees 23 out of the last 24 years through the 2010–2011 academic year.