Duke University, a private research university with an undergraduate enrollment of 6,789 students, plays a total of 25 NCAA sports, 12 of them for men and 13 of them for women. In the 2021/2022 season, Duke University had a total of 716 NCAA athletes comprising 11% of the total student body.

Duke University 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 Duke 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 Duke University and the number of athletes in each sports team.

All data compiled from Duke University athletic website.