The NCAA Division I Rowing Championship is a rowing championship held by the NCAA for Division I women's heavyweight (or openweight) collegiate crews. The inaugural National Championship was held in 1997 for the top 16 crews in the country, located at Lake Natoma, Sacramento, California. In 2002, the NCAA added championships for Division II and Division III. All races are long. The NCAA does not sponsor men's rowing (both heavyweight and lightweight) and women's lightweight rowing championships.
Automatic qualifier spots
Eleven rowing conferences each get one Automatic Qualifier spot by winning their conference points championship, except for the Ivy League whose Automatic Qualifier goes to the Varsity Eight winner. There are another 11 At-Large spots. Pac-12 Big 12 Ivy League Big Ten ACC Atlantic 10 AAC Colonial Patriot League West Coast MAAC
Format
The NCAA Division I Women's Rowing Championships have three events (I Eights, II Eights, Fours), and twenty-two teams compete. Eleven teams are selected through automatic qualification based on conference results. An additional eleven at-large teams are selected by the NCAA Rowing Committee. In previous years an additional, four at-large I Eights are selected. As of 2009 all bids must be full teams.
Teams are awarded points by their final placing in each event. The NCAA Champion is determined by the team which accumulates the most points. Since 2013, the winner of the I-Eights event gets 66 points, and the team that places second gets 63 points, third gets 60, etc. For the II-Eights there are 44 points for the winner, and the points obtained go down in steps of two for each next spot in the final ranking. For the event with Fours, the winner gets 22 points, and the subsequent finishers get 21, 20, 19, etc. When teams are tied for points after the three events, the NCAA champion is determined by the team with the higher placing in the I Eight event.
At-large participants in the championships are selected by the NCAA Division I Women’s Rowing Committee. The following criteria are used in selecting teams and individual boats:
Regional championship results. Regional ranking. Late season performance. Head-to-head results. Results versus team already selected. Results versus common opponents. Results versus regionally ranked team.
Champions
Results
Team titles
Appearances by team
Key
National Champion
National Runner-up
Numbers indicate the placement of the team in that tournament beyond second
Prior Championships
The first women’s collegiate championship was held in 1980 at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. National champions were declared from the varsity eight race. California won the first collegiate championship. Below is a list of Women’s National Collegiate varsity eight champions:
1996 – Brown
1995 – Princeton
1994 – Princeton
1993 – Princeton
1992 – Boston University
1991 – Boston University
1990 – Princeton
1989 – Cornell
1988 – Washington
1987 – Washington
1986 – Wisconsin
1985 – Washington
1984 – Washington
1983 – Washington
1982 – Washington (AIAW champion) 1981 – Washington 1980 – California
(Source: Washington Crew Press Guide)
Prior to 1980, college boats entered the National Women’s Rowing Association National Championships (what is now the USRowing National Championships). Below is a list of NWRA open eights champions from 1971–79 (no eights prior to 1971). The top college finisher is in parentheses:
1979 – Burnaby BC (top college Yale) 1978 – Burnaby BC (top college Wisconsin) 1977 – Vesper Boat Club (top college Wisconsin) 1976 – College Boat Club (top college Wisconsin) 1975 – University of Wisconsin 1974 – Vesper Boat Club (top college Radcliffe) 1973 – Radcliffe College 1972 – College Boat Club (top college Washington) 1971 – Vesper Boat Club (top college Washington)