Athletics
UCI's sports teams are known as the Anteaters and the student body is known as Antourage, decided in 2010–2011. They participate in the NCAA's Division I, as members of the Big West Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Their traditional rivals are Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, and UC Santa Barbara.
UCI fields nationally-competitive teams in cross country, track and field, basketball, baseball, volleyball, water polo, and soccer. UCI's renowned baseball program recently returned to UCI, after a period of state funding crises led to its temporary retirement.
UCI has won 27 national team championships in nine different sports since 1969 and has had 63 individual national champions. The most recent NCAA Division I national title was won by the men's volleyball team on May 5, 2012 against USC (3–0) at Los Angeles. Other national titles include three Division I men's water polo titles, two baseball Division II titles, three men's swimming titles (Div. II), and six men's tennis titles (Div. II). The 2007 men's baseball team impressed the nation, the Anteaters being one of the Final Four teams left in the College World Series, just six years after the baseball program had been formally re-instated after a ten-year absence. The week of April 20, 2009 was a historical milestone for the UCI athletics program, as both school’s Men’s Volleyball and Baseball squads were simultaneously ranked No. 1 nationally in NCAA Division I polls. This marked the first time ever that UCI possessed two teams ranked No. 1 in the nation, as Baseball garnered the ranking based on Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls, while Men’s Volleyball earned the top spot on the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll.
More than 400 UCI student-athletes have earned All-America distinction, and Anteater teams have captured 66 conference championships. Since 1983, 3,266 UCI student-athletes have earned conference scholar-athlete awards.
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