Rice Owls
| Rice Owls | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| University | Rice University |
| Conference | Conference USA |
| NCAA | Division I |
| Athletic director | Joe Karlgaard |
| Location | Houston, Texas |
| Varsity teams | 16 |
| Football stadium | Rice Stadium |
| Basketball arena | Tudor Fieldhouse |
| Baseball stadium | Reckling Park |
| Mascot | Sammy the Owl |
| Nickname | Owls |
| Fight song | Rice Fight |
| Colors | Blue and Gray |
| Website | riceowls |
The Rice University athletic teams are known as the Rice Owls. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates in NCAA Division I athletics and is part of Conference USA. Rice was a member of the Southwest Conference until its breakup in 1996. Rice then joined the Western Athletic Conference before joining C-USA on July 1, 2005. Rice is the fifth-smallest school competing in NCAA Division I FBS football measured by undergraduate enrollment, just above the University of Tulsa's 2,756 and the three FBS United States service academies's approximate 4,500. Rice's sports rivalry include cross-town University of Houston, and Tulane University.
A member of Conference USA, Rice sponsors teams in eight men's and eight women's NCAA sanctioned sports:
Men's Intercollegiate Sports
Women's Intercollegiate Sports
The Rice baseball team is the school's top athletic program and one of the NCAA's top baseball programs, having won its conference the 15 of the last 16 consecutive seasons stretching back to the final Southwest Conference championship in 1996. The Owls won the College World Series in 2003 and finished third in both the 2006 and 2007 College World Series tournaments. Rice now has made seven appearances in Omaha for the CWS. The team has played at on-campus Reckling Park since the 2000 season.
The Owls play at an on-campus football facility, Rice Stadium, which was the site of Super Bowl VIII and a speech by John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1962 in which he challenged the nation to send a man to the moon by the end of the decade. Rice Stadium opened in 1950 with a capacity of 70,000 seats. After improvements in 2006, the stadium is currently configured to seat 47,000 for football but can be readily reconfigured to its original capacity of 70,000, more than the total number of Rice alumni, living and deceased.
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