VMI Keydets
| VMI Keydets | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| University | Virginia Military Institute |
| Conference | Southern Conference |
| NCAA | Division I |
| Athletic director | Dave Diles, Jr. |
| Location | Lexington, Virginia |
| Varsity teams | 16 |
| Football stadium | Alumni Memorial Field |
| Basketball arena | Cameron Hall |
| Baseball stadium | Gray–Minor Stadium |
| Soccer stadium | Patchin Field |
| Lacrosse stadium | Alumni Memorial Field |
| Mascot | Kangaroo (Moe) |
| Nickname | Keydets |
| Fight song | "The Spirit" |
| Colors | Red, Yellow, and White |
| Website | vmikeydets |
| 1891–1918 | Independent |
|---|---|
| 1918–1921 | South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association |
| 1924–2002 | Southern Conference (dropped men's swimming & diving after 1981–82 school year) |
| 1978– | Southern Conference (wrestling only) |
| 1983–2002 | USILA (lacrosse only) |
| 1990–2016 | Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference (rifle only) |
| 1990–2003 | Southern States Conference (men's swimming & diving only) |
| 2003–2014 | Big South (except wrestling, lacrosse, swimming & diving, rifle, & water polo) |
| 2003–2013 | Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (lacrosse only) |
| 2003–2007 | Northeast Conference (men's swimming & diving only 2003-05; women's swimming & diving added in 2005) |
| 2007– | Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (men's and women's swimming & diving only) |
| 2011– | Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (water polo only) |
| 2014 | Atlantic Sun Conference (lacrosse only) |
| 2014–present | Southern Conference (except rifle (ended in 2016), swimming & diving, and water polo) |
| 2016–future | Southern Conference (rifle) |
The VMI Keydets are the athletic teams that represent the Virginia Military Institute. All sports participate in the NCAA Division I, and all but four compete in the Southern Conference (the exceptions being men's and women's swimming and diving in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association, water polo in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and rifle in the Mid-Atlantic Rifle 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.
A member of the Southern Conference, VMI sponsors teams in eleven men's and seven women's NCAA sanctioned sports:
The Keydets played every sport independently 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.
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