The VMI Keydets are the athletic teams that represent the Virginia Military Institute. All sports participate in the NCAA Division I, and all but three compete in the Southern Conference (the exceptions being men's and women's swimming and diving in the America East Conference, and women's water polo in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. VMI fields teams in sixteen different sports, ten for men and six for women.
Notably, VMI is one of only two Division I schools that do not sponsor women's basketball. The other is fellow Southern Conference member and senior military college: The Citadel.
Conference affiliations
The Keydets played every sport independently until 1900, when they helped found the Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Association. They remained members of the Association until 1906, when they, along with Washington and Lee University, left the organization, citing internal discord. The Keydets remained independent until 1918, when they joined the short-lived South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1918 for all sports. With the demise of the conference in 1921, VMI stayed an independent until joining the Southern Conference (SoCon) in 1924, and a massive one at the time.
The next change to be made would not come until 1982, when VMI dropped swimming and diving. The following year, VMI formed a lacrosse program that would play in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association.
VMI's next changes came in the 1990s, reinstating men's swimming and diving in the Southern States Conference in 1990 and also joining the Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference (MAC). MAC records are incomplete; the earliest record of VMI participation in that conference is in the 1991 championships (during the 1990–91 school year), when the Keydets only competed in air rifle. The first records of VMI participation in MAC smallbore competition date to 1995 (1994–95 school year). While VMI would later move its swimming and diving program to two other leagues, it has yet to move its rifle program.
In 2003, after 79 years in the SoCon, VMI departed for a then fledgling Big South Conference in all sports but lacrosse, rifle, swimming and diving, and wrestling. Wrestling stayed in the SoCon and rifle in the MAC, while the lacrosse program moved to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). Men's swimming and diving moved to the Northeast Conference (NEC); when women's swimming and diving was added in 2005, that program also joined the NEC. Both swimming and diving teams left the NEC in 2007 to become charter members of the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA; now known as the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association). Before the 2017–2018 season, the Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Program changed conferences to the America East Conference. When water polo became the newest sport at the Institute in 2009, they accepted their invitation also to the MAAC in 2011.
VMI announced two changes in conference affiliation in 2013. On February 11, the Atlantic Sun Conference (A-Sun) announced that VMI would move its men's lacrosse program to that league effective with the 2014 season (2013–14 school year). On May 30 of that year, the SoCon extended an invitation to the Keydets to rejoin the conference. VMI accepted, along with East Tennessee State and Mercer, and became a member on July 1, 2014, replacing Davidson, Appalachian State, Elon, and Georgia Southern.
When first announced, the return to the SoCon did not include the lacrosse team. However, on January 9, 2014, the A-Sun and SoCon announced a lacrosse partnership which divided sponsorship of the sport between the two leagues effective in 2014–15. Men's lacrosse sponsorship switched to the SoCon, while women's lacrosse sponsorship remained with the A-Sun. Accordingly, the men's lacrosse team also joined the SoCon on July 1, 2014. The rifle teams will join the SoCon when it adds the sport in the 2016–17 school year.
Sports sponsored
A member of the Southern Conference, VMI sponsors teams in eleven men's and seven women's NCAA sanctioned sports with the swimming and diving programs competing in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association and water polo in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.