NCAA Division I independent schools are four-year institutions that compete in

college athletics College athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games. World University Games The first World University Games were held in 1923. There were originally called the ''Union Nationale des ...

at the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

level, but do not belong to an established

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Conf ...

for a particular sport. These schools may however still compete as members of an athletic conference in other sports. A school may also be fully independent, and not belong to any athletic conference for any sport at all. The reason for independent status varies among institutions, but it is frequently because the school's primary athletic conference does not sponsor a particular sport.

Full independents

Two schools are competing as full independents for the 2022–23 season. Chicago State left the WAC at the conclusion of the 2021–22 school year without announcing a new conference affiliation for the next season, and has yet to announce plans to join any conferences for any subsequent seasons. Hartford started a transition from Division I to

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

in 2021–22, and left the

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research ...

at the end of that school year. It is playing its final D-I season as a full independent for 2022–23 as it continues its transition to D-III before joining the

Commonwealth Coast Conference The Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA’s Division III. Member institutions are located in New England in the states of Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, with a Connectic ...

in July 2023. Three Chicago State teams have conference homes in the 2022–23 school year—men's soccer in the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

, and men's and women's tennis in the

Horizon League The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

. Hartford is maintaining its single-sport golf memberships in the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eig ...

(men) and

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Of its current 11 full members, 10 are located in three states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, New Jersey, and ...

(women) in 2022–23 before moving to the CCC. It will have to find a D-III conference home for its women's golf team because the CCC sponsors that sport only for men.

Current members

Bowling

Bowling, like beach volleyball, is currently a women-only sport at the NCAA level that holds a single national championship open to all NCAA members. As of the 2022–23 season, six bowling programs are expected to compete as independents.

Field hockey

As of the most recently completed 2022 season, three schools are Division I independents in field hockey, with one being a full D-I member and the other two transitional D-I members. The full D-I member, James Madison, had competed in the Colonial Athletic Association in all sports, including field hockey, but moved to the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) in July 2022. However, since the SBC does not sponsor field hockey, the Dukes will compete as an independent in that sport only. JMU is one of three SBC members to sponsor the sport, the others being Appalachian State and

Old Dominion Old Dominion most commonly refers to: *The Old Dominion, a nickname for the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia ** Colony of Virginia *Old Dominion University, a public university in Norfolk, Virginia **Old Dominion Monarchs, the athletic teams represe ...

(the latter of which joined the SBC alongside JMU). Those schools respectively play field hockey in the

and

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

. The transitional D-I independents are Lindenwood and Queens (in North Carolina; not to be confused with Queens College in New York City, which remains in D-II), both of which started their transitions from

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

in July 2022. Unlike Stonehill, the other field hockey school that started a transition from D-II at the same time, Lindenwood and Queens joined conferences that do not sponsor the sport, respectively the

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Cham ...

and ASUN Conference. (Stonehill joined the field hockey-sponsoring

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

.) Neither Lindenwood nor Queens has announced a future field hockey affiliation.

Football

Football Bowl Subdivision

As of the current 2022 college football season, seven NCAA Division I FBS schools are football independents. Three of these schools, highlighted in pink, will join FBS conferences in 2023: BYU will move to the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

, while Liberty and New Mexico State will join Conference USA. ;Notes

Ice hockey

Men

There are currently six NCAA Division I independents in men's ice hockey—the University of Alaska Fairbanks (branded athletically as simply "Alaska"), the University of Alaska Anchorage, Arizona State University, Lindenwood University, Long Island University (LIU), and Stonehill College. Alaska became a men's independent after the 2020–21 season due to the demise of its former league, the men's side of the

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

(the WCHA remains in operation as a women-only league). The seven

Midwestern The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

members of the men's WCHA left to reestablish the

Central Collegiate Hockey Association The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a college athletic conference that participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The current CCHA began play in the 2021–22 season; a previous incarnation, which the curr ...

without the WCHA's three geographic outliers—the two Alaska schools, along with Alabama–Huntsville. Of these three schools, Alaska was the only one that did not initially drop hockey. Alaska-Anchorage's hockey program was suspended in 2020 by the

University of Alaska System The University of Alaska System is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Alaska. It was created in 1917 and comprises three separately accredited universities on 19 campuses. The system serves nearly 30,000 full- and part-time stu ...

due to a reduction in state funding, along with the skiing and gymnastics programs. The 2020-21 season was set to be its last, but due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, they did not end up playing that season either. The Alaska Board of Regents told the hockey program they would be reinstated if they were able to collect 3 million dollars in donations and fundraising, so the team was on hiatus for both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 season while its future was uncertain. Ultimately, the money was raised, and the Seawolves were reinstated for the 2022-23 season, but due to the WCHAs aforementioned disbanding, they resumed play as an independent alongside the Nanooks. Arizona State moved up from club hockey in the ACHA to full varsity status. The Sun Devils began playing a full Division I schedule in 2016–17, and expected to be in a hockey conference for 2017–18, but no conference move has yet materialized. With the 2020–21 season dramatically impacted by

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

, ASU entered into a scheduling agreement with the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

for that season, with the Sun Devils playing a road-only schedule of four games against each of the seven Big Ten hockey members. LIU announced in late April 2020 that it would launch varsity men's hockey for the 2020–21 season. The Sharks have yet to announce a conference home, but played their first season as a scheduling partner of

Atlantic Hockey The Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) is an NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey conference which operates primarily in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as an ice hockey-only conference. Unlike several other ...

. In 2021–22, Lindenwood fielded two separate men's club teams, each playing at a different level of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA), which governs the sport at club level. On March 23, 2022, Lindenwood announced that it would launch a Division I men's varsity program starting in the 2022–23 season, while maintaining its ACHA program. This announcement came shortly after the school announced it was starting a transition from Division II to Division I in July 2022, joining the non-hockey

. On April 5, 2022, Stonehill, then a member of the D-II

Northeast-10 Conference The Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states o ...

(NE-10), announced it was joining the

(which also does not sponsor ice hockey) that July, starting its own transition to D-I. Before this announcement, Stonehill had been one of seven NE-10 members that played men's ice hockey under Division II regulations, despite the NCAA not sponsoring a championship event at that level. (All other D-II schools with varsity men's ice hockey play under D-I regulations.) Neither Lindenwood nor Stonehill has announced a conference home for its men's hockey program.

Lacrosse

Women's

In the 2023 season (2022–23 school year), four schools will compete as independents—full independent Hartford, plus

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, and Xavier. San Diego State and UC Davis became independents after the 2021 season when their former women's lacrosse home of the

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it now has members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I ...

shut down its league due to a lack of sponsoring members. Both will join the Pac-12 Conference for women's lacrosse after the 2023 season. Xavier starts varsity play in 2023, and will begin full conference play in its full-time home of the

in 2024.

Soccer

Men

In addition to full independent Hartford, one school was independent in the most recently completed 2022 men's soccer season: the

University of the Incarnate Word The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) is a private, Catholic university with its main campus in San Antonio and Alamo Heights, Texas. Founded in 1881 by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, the university's main campus is located o ...

(UIW). It had initially announced its departure from the

Southland Conference The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it ...

(SLC) for the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

(WAC), where it had previously housed men's soccer. However, days before its move to the WAC would have taken effect, UIW opted to remain in the SLC. The WAC removed UIW from its men's soccer schedule, although it never formally announced that move. This rendered the Cardinals independent for the immediate future.

Potential future independents

Two other schools may be men's soccer independents in the next 2023 season. Full independent Chicago State played the 2022 season as a single-sport

member. After the season, the MAC shut down its men's soccer league. All four full MAC members with men's soccer teams found homes for that sport, with three joining the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

and the other moving to the

, but Chicago State has yet to announce a men's soccer home. Liberty will leave the ASUN Conference for the non-sponsoring Conference USA at the end of the 2022–23 school year, and has yet to announce a new men's soccer home.

Women

In addition to full independent Hartford, two schools were independents in the most recent 2022 women's soccer season. The most recent departure from the independent ranks was Hampton University, which joined the Big South Conference, which sponsors women's soccer, in 2018. Hampton has since moved its athletic program to the Colonial Athletic Association. Delaware State will join the

as an affiliate in women's soccer in 2023–24.

Volleyball

Men's (indoor)

Men's volleyball has a truncated divisional structure in which members of both Division I and Division II compete under identical scholarship limits for a single national championship. As of the next NCAA men's volleyball season in 2023, 11 men's volleyball programs are expected to compete as independents. All are D-II members except Queens (NC), which started a transition from D-II to D-I in July 2022. The 2023 season will be Queens' last as an independent, as it will join the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. Four schools left the independent ranks after the 2022 season. Full D-II member Daemen, transitional D-II member D'Youville (currently reclassifying from Division III), Fairleigh Dickinson, and LIU will start competition in the Northeast Conference, full-time home to Fairleigh Dickinson and LIU, in the 2023 season. Full D-II member Missouri S&T starts men's volleyball play in the 2023 season; it has yet to announce an affiliation in that sport.

Women's (beach)

Beach volleyball, currently a women-only sport at the NCAA level, holds a single national championship open to members of all three NCAA divisions. As of the 2023 season (2022–23 school year), the following programs are expected to compete as independents.

Sports with no independents other than full independents

Full independents Hartford and Chicago State are the only schools that are independents in the following sports: baseball (Hartford only), men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf (Chicago State only), men's lacrosse (Hartford only), softball (Hartford only), and women's (indoor) volleyball.

Football Championship Subdivision

As of the 2022 season, no school plays as an FCS independent.

Women's Ice Hockey

No women's ice hockey teams have played as independents at the National Collegiate level, the de facto equivalent to Division I in that sport, since the 2018–19 season. In that season, five schools— Franklin Pierce,

Post Post or POST commonly refers to: *Mail, the postal system, especially in Commonwealth of Nations countries **An Post, the Irish national postal service **Canada Post, Canadian postal service **Deutsche Post, German postal service **Iraqi Post, Ira ...

, Sacred Heart, Saint Anselm, and Saint Michael's—competed as independents, all participating in the nascent

New England Women's Hockey Alliance The New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) is a women's college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. As of the current 2022–23 season, the conference is made up o ...

(NEWHA), which had originally been established in 2017 as a scheduling alliance among all of the then-current National Collegiate independents. The NEWHA initially included six schools, but Holy Cross left after the inaugural 2017–18 NEWHA season to join

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

. The NEWHA officially organized as a conference in advance of the 2018–19 season, but was not officially recognized by the NCAA as a Division I league until the 2019–20 season, by which time the newly launched LIU program had joined to return the conference membership to six. The most recent school to add women's ice hockey, as well as the next two to do so, have confirmed conference homes. Stonehill started varsity play in the 2022–23 season as the newest playing member of the NEWHA.

Assumption Assumption, in Christianity, refers to the Assumption of Mary, a belief in the taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Assumption may also refer to: Places * Assumption, Alberta, Canada * Assumption, Illinois, United States ** Assumption Tow ...

joined the NEWHA for administrative purposes alongside Stonehill, but will not start NEWHA play until it launches its new team in 2023–24. Robert Morris, which had dropped the sport after the 2020–21 season due to

impacts, will resume play in 2023–24, returning to its previous conference of

College Hockey America College Hockey America (CHA) is a college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The conference is made up of five women’s teams, with two in Pennsylvania; two in New ...

Men's Swimming & Diving

No men's swimming & diving programs are independents in the 2022–23 season. The

University of Illinois Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois sy ...

(UIC), which left the

for the non-sponsoring

(MVC), joined all of the other MVC men's swimming & diving programs in the

Queens University of Charlotte The Queens University of Charlotte is a private university in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has approximately 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students through the College of Arts and Sciences, the McColl School of Business, the Wayland H. Cato, ...

moved from

to the ASUN Conference, which also does not sponsor that sport. However, the ASUN is a member of the partnership that created the

Coastal Collegiate Sports Association The Coastal Collegiate Sports Association is an NCAA Division I college athletic conference. Established in 2008, the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) was originally developed by four regional Division I conferences — the A ...

, a league originally established solely for swimming & diving whose scope later expanded to include beach volleyball. Queens accordingly joined that conference. The two full independents,

Chicago State University Chicago State University (CSU) is a predominantly black public university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1867 as the Cook County Normal School, it was an innovative teachers college. Eventually the Chicago Public Schools assumed control of t ...

and the

University of Hartford The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. The university attracts students from 48 states and 43 countries. The university and it ...

, do not sponsor swimming & diving for either sex.

Women's Swimming & Diving

As in the case of men's swimming & diving, no women's programs in that sport are competing as independents in 2022–23. Three programs left conferences that sponsored women's swimming & diving for the non-sponsoring Sun Belt Conference (SBC) in July 2022, but all found conference homes for 2022–23. Before leaving the Colonial Athletic Association for the SBC,

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

was also a member of the

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location fr ...

for that sport; its ECAC team title in 2021–22 was its fifth straight. With the ECAC being a separate legal entity from the CAA (or any other NCAA conference), it can be presumed that JMU will remain an ECAC member for 2022–23.

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: ...

, which left Conference USA (C-USA), joined the

as an associate member for the 2022–23 season.

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia w ...

joined the

, already home to its men's swimming & diving program. All three of the above programs will move that sport to the SBC once that conference adds women's swimming & diving in 2023–24.

References

{{Reflist *

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...