Rice University Sports

Rice University is a private research university with an undergraduate enrollment of 4,247 students, plays a total of 14 NCAA sports, 7 of them for men and 7 for women. In the 2021/2022 season, Rice University had a total of 366 NCAA athletes comprising 9% of the total student body.

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

All data compiled from Rice University athletic website.

Rice University
Division 1
	Men's	Men's	Women's	Women's	Total
	Sports	Team Size	Sports	Team Size	Team Size
1	Baseball	40	-	-	40
2	Basketball	16	Basketball	12	28
3	Cross Country	16	Cross Country	19	35
4	Football	75	-	-	75
5	Golf	10	-	-	10
6	-	-	Soccer	23	23
7	-	-	Swimming and Diving	32	32
8	Tennis	11	Tennis	8	19
9	Track and Field	48	Track and Field	39	87
10			Volleyball	17	17
Total Sports Played	7		7		14
Total Athletes		216		150	366

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