Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in college athletics in the United States. The first intercollegiate race was a contest between Yale and Harvard in 1852. 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. 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. Some concern has been raised that some recent female numbers are inflated by non-competing novices.
Men's rowing has organized collegiate championships in various forms since 1871 but is not an NCAA sponsored sport. There are two national championships for men's rowing: the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) and the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA). The IRA, founded in 1891, served as the unified national championship until 2008. In 2007, the IRA stewards voted to require all participating teams to have varsity status within their athletic departments. The ACRA, formed in 2008 by non-varsity and club teams, does not allow varsity teams to participate. As of 2026, there are 32 teams competing in Division I, 5 teams in Division II, and 26 teams in Division III. There are 143 registered men's club teams competing across all levels. While the IRA and ACRA each crown a men's national champion, both regattas are co-ed. The IRA sponsors lightweight women's rowing and the ACRA features both women's open and lightweight races. Men's rowing, like many Olympic Sports, has been impacted by the advent of NIL and the NCAA House Settlement.
Women's rowing initially competed in its intercollegiate championships as part of the National Women's Rowing Association Championship in 1971. From 1980 through 1996, the women's national championships races were conducted at the National Collegiate Rowing Championships in Cincinnati. In the 1996–98 season, many women's club rowing programs were elevated to compete in the newly NCAA sponsored "Championship" sport. Like the IRA, the NCAA requires all participating teams to have varsity status. Several women's club teams, like Vanderbilt and Purdue, compete successfully against varsity-sponsored teams during the regular season and race in the ACRA National Championship each May. Women's collegiate rowing has experienced enormous growth since 1997 which has helped grow the sport at the junior level and the speed of the Olympic level. As of 2026, there are 89 women's teams competing in Division I, 15 in Division II, and 34 in Division III. Many NCAA rosters and budgets have been impacted by the 2025 House Settlement.
History Timeline
1843 – Yale starts the first collegiate rowing club in the United States. 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.Peter Mallory. The Sport of Rowing: Two Centuries of Competition. Four volumes. Henley-on-Thames, England: River Rowing Museum. 2011. Selections published online in advance as row2k.com Exclusive Features. 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. 1872 – Princeton's first intercollegiate race, at the National Amateur Regatta, Philadelphia.Willis Rivinus. Rowing at Princeton. One volume. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Rowing Association. 2002. 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. 1891 – 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's and women's rowing program, and beat the University of California in their first dual.
1908 – Princeton completes the construction of Lake Carnegie, the gift of Andrew Carnegie, as its rowing venue. 1916 – Lightweight rowing was first introduced at the University of Pennsylvania. 1920 – Navy wins the gold medal at the 1920 Summer Olympics in the eight-man (8+) boat. US collegiate boats would win the gold medal in the 8+ at the next seven 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 five 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 second Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles. 1936 – Washington varsity men's 8 wins gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany at the 'Nazi games'. Their story is later recounted in The Boys in the Boat. 1946 – The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) is formed and the first Eastern Sprints is held for lightweights and heavyweights. 1948 – The University of California varsity men's 8 wins its third Olympic gold at Henley in London. 1948 – Princeton becomes the first American lightweight crew to win a championship at Henley (the Thames Cup). 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 women's rowing. 1973 – Radcliffe College women's rowing team wins NWRA National Championship. 1973 – Princeton women's eight wins New England Intercollegiate Regatta championship (forerunner to EAWRC Women's Eastern Sprints). 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. 1976 – First EAWRC Varsity Women's Lightweight 8 championship, won by Boston University, 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. 1986 – The National Women's Rowing Association (NWRA) dissolves and USRowing assumes responsibility as the national governing body for women's rowing. 1988 – Northeastern University Men's 8+ capture school's first IRA Championship at Lake Onondaga, NY. 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 fourth straight IRA gold medal (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002), the first four-peat since Cornell (1955–1958). 2007 – The American Collegiate Rowing Association is formed after club-level collegiate teams are excluded from the IRAs. 2009 – Washington Sweeps the 8+ Events at the IRA Regatta, becoming the first crew to do so since they did in 1997. 2010 – The University of California Men's 8 wins gold at the IRAs, its sixth in 12 years and 16th overall, second only to Cornell's 22 titles. 2012 – Washington's men win 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. 2023 – The University of California men sweep all five grand finals at the IRAs for the first time in the program's history, winning the overall team points trophy. The V8 wins for the second year in a row for its 19th V8 IRA title. 2024 – Washington's men sweep all five grand finals at the IRAs. 2025 – Washington's men win the V4, 2V8, and V8 for the second year in a row, with their 21st V8 IRA title. Harvard lightweight men win back-to-back in the LTWT 2V8 and LTWT V8, and the V8 goes on to win the Temple Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta.
Categories Men's rowing Men's rowing is not affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. 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. The IRA eliminated freshman races after 2015. The ACRA National Championship still features a 1st Novice 8+, 2nd Novice 8+ and Novice 4+ events. They also elect a Freshmen All-American team each year.
Women's rowing NCAA women's rowing is divided into three divisions with an official NCAA championship: NCAA Division I Rowing Championship NCAA Division II Rowing Championship NCAA Division III Rowing Championship
Women rowers compete at the NCAA Division I Rowing Championship in a Varsity 8, a Second Varsity 8, and a Varsity Four. Points are awarded for the overall championship based on the performance of those boats. Other head races and regattas such as Head of the Charles or the Pac-12 Championships allow a wide variety of competition in less-prominent boat classifications such as pair, sculls, and lightweight racing.