Athletics
RIT has 24 men's and women's varsity teams including Men's Intercollegiate Baseball, Basketball, Crew, Cross Country, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Soccer, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field and Wrestling along with Women's Intercollegiate Basketball, Cheerleading, Crew, Cross Country, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field, and Volleyball.
RIT was a long-time member of the Empire 8, an NCAA Division III athletic conference, but moved to the Liberty League beginning with the 2011–2012 academic year. All of RIT's teams compete at the Division III level, with the exception of the men's and women's ice hockey programs, which play at the Division I level. In 2010, the men's ice hockey team was the first ever from the Atlantic Hockey conference to reach the NCAA tournament semi-finals: The Frozen Four.
On March 17, 2012, the Women's ice hockey team, after finishing the regular season with a record of 28-1-1, won its first NCAA Division III national championship, defeating the defending champion Norwich University 4-1. The women's team had carried a record of 54-3-3 over their past 2 regular seasons leading up to that point. Three days later, RIT successfully applied for the women's hockey team to move from Division III to Division I. Starting in the 2012-2013 season, the women's team will be part of the College Hockey America conference, and will be eligible for conference postseason play, but not NCAA postseason play. The moratorium on the NCAA postseason will be lifted beginning with the 2014-2015 season.
Additionally, RIT has a wide variety of club, intramural, and pick-up sports and teams to provide a less-competitive recreational option to students.
Tom Coughlin, coach of the NFL's 2008 and 2012 Super Bowl champion New York Giants, taught physical education and coached the RIT Men's Varsity Football team in the 1970s.
Currently, RIT plays its varsity ice hockey games in the Frank Ritter Memorial Arena, but in 2010, the school launched the "Power Play" campaign, in which they hope to raise 15 of the 30 million dollars it would cost to build a new arena. On November 11, 2011 it was announced that B. Thomas Golisano and the Polisseni Foundation were donating 4.5 million to the new arena, which will be named the Gene Polisseni Center.
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