NCAA Division I independent schools

Full independents

There are no schools competing as a full independent for the 2025-26 season. The most recent full independent, Chicago State, joined the Northeast Conference (NEC) after the conclusion of the 2023-24 season.

Recent independents

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Baseball

One school is competing as an independent in baseball for the 2026 spring season (2025-26 academic year). Oregon State announced that it would be competing as a baseball independent after its home conference, the Pac-12, collapsed following the 2023-24 season.

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 2025-26 season, seven bowling programs compete as independents.

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Field hockey

One school will be a Division I independent in the upcoming 2025 field hockey season. Queens University of Charlotte began a transition from NCAA Division II to Division I in July 2022, joining the Atlantic Sun Conference. The ASUN does not sponsor field hockey, and Queens has yet to announce a future field hockey affiliation for its program.

Football

Football Bowl Subdivision

As of the current 2025 college football season, two NCAA Division I FBS schools are football independents. The ranks of FBS independents dropped by one when UMass became a full member of the Mid-American Conference in 2025.

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Football Championship Subdivision

As of the 2025 season, two schools, Merrimack and Sacred Heart, are playing as FCS independents. Both left the football-sponsoring Northeast Conference for the non-football Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference at the end of the 2023-24 school year. Sacred Heart will become a member of CAA Football beginning in 2026.

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, 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 WCHA remains in operation as a women-only league). The seven Midwestern members of the men's WCHA left to reestablish the Central Collegiate Hockey Association 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 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, 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 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.

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.

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 Ohio Valley Conference.

On April 5, 2022, Stonehill, then a member of the D-II Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10), announced it was joining the Northeast Conference (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.

Soccer

Men

One school is expected to be independent in the next 2025 men's soccer season. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was previously an affiliate member of the Western Athletic Conference for men's soccer; however, their affiliate membership was not renewed for the 2025 season. UTRGV will join the Ohio Valley Conference as a men's soccer affiliate beginning with the 2026 season.

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Women

The most recent departure from the independent ranks was Delaware State, who joined the Northeast Conference as an affiliate in women's soccer in 2023.

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. Eight men's volleyball programs play as independents; all but one are D-II members.

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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. The following programs will compete as independents in the 2025 spring season (2024-25 school year).

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Wrestling

As of the current 2024-25 season, one school is a Division I independent in wrestling. Mercyhurst University began a transition from NCAA Division II to Division I in July 2024, joining the Northeast Conference. However, the NEC does not sponsor men's wrestling, and Mercyhurst has yet to announce a future affiliation for its program.

One program previously competed as an independent in the most recent 2023-24 season. Morgan State University added a wrestling team for the 2023-24 season, becoming the only HBCU to field the sport at the Division I level. However, their primary conference, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, does not sponsor the sport, so they competed as an independent in that sport only. In September 2024, however, it was announced that Morgan State would join the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, a wrestling-only conference based in the Northeastern United States.

Sports with no independents other than full independents

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, Sacred Heart, Saint Anselm, and Saint Michael's - competed as independents, all participating in the nascent New England Women's Hockey Alliance (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 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.

Men's lacrosse

No schools are competing as independents in the 2025 season. The most recent men's lacrosse independent, Le Moyne, moved its program to the Northeast Conference following the 2024 season.

Women's lacrosse

In the 2025 season (2024-25 school year), no schools compete as independents.

Men's swimming & diving

No men's swimming & diving programs are independents in the 2024-25 season.

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 2024-25.

References

References

1. (December 5, 2023). "Chicago State University To Join Northeast Conference". Chicago State University.
2. (September 11, 2021). "CSU Graduate Enrollment Increases 5%". Chicago State University.
3. Freeman, Joe. (January 26, 2024). "Oregon State baseball to play independent schedule in 2025, giving Beavers chance to 'create our own identity'". OregonLive/The Oregonian.
4. (May 10, 2022). "ASUN Conference Welcomes Queens University of Charlotte as Its Newest Member". ASUN Conference.
5. (September 13, 2012). "Notre Dame Goes To ACC: Bowl Security, Football Scheduling Flexibility Key To Move". Street and Smith's Sports Group.
6. Christensen, Joe. (July 2, 2021). "WCHA's men's hockey era officially ends after 70 years". Star Tribune.
7. (October 15, 2020). "Men's Hockey Announced as Atlantic Hockey Scheduling Partner". [[LIU Sharks]].
8. (March 23, 2022). "Lindenwood Adds NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey". Lindenwood Lions.
9. (April 5, 2022). "Stonehill College Accepts Invitation to Join Northeast Conference". Northeast Conference.
10. (April 30, 2020). "LIU Announces Addition of Men's Ice Hockey". LIU Sharks.
11. (July 25, 2025). "Men's Soccer to Open 2025 Season on August 27 at Central Florida". University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Athletics.
12. (April 30, 2025). "UTRGV to Join OVC as Affiliate for Men's Soccer". University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Athletics.
13. (September 27, 2022). "Delaware State To Extend NEC Associate Membership Partnership to Women's Soccer & Women's Lacrosse". Northeast Conference.
14. (April 4, 2024). "Welcome To The Lake Show: Mercyhurst University Accepts Northeast Conference Membership Invite". Northeast Conference.
15. (October 21, 2021). "Largest Donation in Morgan State University Athletics History Paves Way for Return of Division I Collegiate Wrestling, Following 24-Year Hiatus". Morgan State Athletics.
16. (September 19, 2024). "Morgan State joins the EIWA". Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association.
17. (September 26, 2018). "NEWHA announces intent to be recognized as NCAA national collegiate women's hockey conference".
18. (September 4, 2019). "New England Women's Hockey Alliance approved for NCAA Division I status, effective with '19-20 season".