Northwestern University Sports

Northwestern University is a private research university with an undergraduate enrollment of 8,494 students, plays a total of 19 NCAA sports, 8 of them for men and 11 for women. In the 2021/2022 season, Northwestern University had a total of 469 NCAA athletes comprising merely 6% of the total student body.

Northwestern is likely to have recruited many of the athletes on its NCAA sports teams through the Division 1 athlete recruitment process, enabling these recruited athletes to leapfrog the normal admissions process. It is our best estimate based on team profiles that about 50% to 75% of their teams comprise of recruited athletes while the remaining athletes are “walk-on” athletes who were admitted to Northwestern University on merits unrelated to sports.

How Top Colleges in Division 1 Select their Athlete Recruits

The table below lists the NCAA and varsity sports played at Northwestern University and the number of athletes in each sports team.

All data compiled from Northwestern University athletic website.

Northwestern University
Division 1
	Men's	Men's	Women's	Women's	Total
	Sports	Team Size	Sports	Team Size	Team Size
1	Baseball	30	-	-	30
2	Basketball	13	Basketball	15	28
3	-	-	Cross Country	24	24
4	-	-	Fencing	33	33
5	-	-	Field Hockey	28	28
6	Football	77	-	-	77
7	Golf	10	Golf	9	19
8	-	-	Lacrosse	36	36
9	Soccer	28	Soccer	19	47
10	-	-	Softball	21	21
11	Swimming and Diving	31	Swimming and Diving	31	62
12	Tennis	11	Tennis	11	22
13	-	-	Volleyball	17	17
14	Water Polo	25			25
Total Sports Played	8		11		19
Total Athletes		225		244	469

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