IPFW Mastodons women's basketball
| Fort Wayne Mastodons | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| University | Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne |
| Conference | Summit League |
| NCAA | Division I |
| Athletic director | Kelley Hartley Hutton |
| Location | Fort Wayne, Indiana |
| Varsity teams | 14 |
| Basketball arena | Hilliard Gates Sports Center |
| Baseball stadium | Mastodon Field |
| Soccer stadium | Hefner Soccer Complex |
| Mascot | Don the Mastodon |
| Nickname | Mastodons |
| Fight song | Go 'Dons! |
| Colors | Royal Blue and White |
| Website | gomastodons |
The Fort Wayne Mastodons, formerly known as the IPFW Mastodons, are the athletic teams of Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne. The Mastodons compete as a NCAA Division I school in the Summit League for most sports and in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association for men's volleyball. The university participates in 14 men’s and women’s sports. Before joining NCAA Division I athletics, IPFW competed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in the NCAA Division II.
Indiana University and Purdue University in Fort Wayne will officially separate on July 1, 2018, with IU taking responsibility for IPFW's degree programs in health sciences and Purdue retaining all other academic programs. Thereafter, the Mastodons will represent Purdue University Fort Wayne. With the name change, the school's colors will change from Royal Blue and White to the Old Gold and Black used by the other three Purdue University campuses. Because NCAA rules bar players from two different schools from competing on the same team, future IU Fort Wayne students will not be eligible for Mastodons athletics. At the time the separation was announced, five of the roughly 240 Fort Wayne varsity athletes were in academic majors that would become part of the new IU Fort Wayne campus, with three possibly requiring NCAA waivers to remain athletically eligible.
On August 8, 2016, shortly before the start of the 2016–17 school year, IPFW athletic director Kelley Hartley Hutton announced that effective immediately, "Fort Wayne" would be the university's exclusive athletic brand. The school's "IPFW" academic branding was not affected. The Summit League has called the athletic program "Fort Wayne" since 2012, in line with a conference initiative to use geographic names to describe metropolitan campuses such as IPFW. When the school announced the athletic brand change, it noted,
Some Mastodon teams have already been using Fort Wayne on uniforms since this recommendation, but the use has been limited and resulted in some confusion. Outside of northeast Indiana, there is also considerable confusion about the "IPFW" acronym, with misnomers being common—even among those involved in Division I athletics.
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