Athletics
UCSD offers student participation in a wide range of sports including swimming, water polo, soccer, volleyball, crew, track and field athletics, fencing, basketball, golf, cross country, softball, baseball, and tennis. UCSD participates at the NCAA's Division II (DII) level in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, although water polo, fencing, men's crew and men's volleyball compete at the Division I level. Before joining DII in 2000, the school participated at the Division III level and won numerous national championships.
UCSD does not have an NCAA football team.
Until the 2007-2008 school year, UCSD was the only DII school that did not offer athletic scholarships. In 2005, the NCAA created a rule that made it mandatory for DII programs to award athletic grants; a measure was proposed to begin offering $500 "grants-in-aid" to all 600 intercollegiate athletes in order to meet this requirement. In February 2007, a student referendum was passed with the largest vote in UCSD history, authorizing a $329 annual student fee to fund a raise in coaches' salaries, hire more trainers and provide all athletes with a $500 scholarship.
In 2006-2007, UCSD's best season since moving to DII, 19 of 23 athletic programs qualified for post-season competition, including 17 to the NCAA Championships. Eight of those teams finished in the top-5 in the nation.
UCSD fields a number of club sports teams. The UCSD surfing team has won the national title six times and is consistently rated one of the best surfing programs in the nation. The UCSD triathlon team is continually one of the top triathlon teams in the nation. In 2008, the women's triathlon team won the US collegiate national championship and UCSD athlete Amanda Felder was the Overall Nation Champion. UCSD also has sport clubs in badminton, cycling, dancesport, dance team, equestrian, ice hockey, lacrosse, roller hockey, rugby union, sailing, soccer, snow skiing, table tennis, ultimate, volleyball, water polo, and waterskiing.
The National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) 2008 Collegiate Power Rankings rate colleges and universities comprehensively based on student-athlete graduation rates, academic strength and athletic prowess of the university. The institutions posted in the 2007 Power Rankings represent less than 6% of colleges and universities across the nation. UCSD placed 4th on the overall ranking list, trailing behind Williams College, Amherst College, and Duke University, and first on the Division II list.
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