Rice Owls
University	Rice University
Conference	The American
NCAA	Division I (FBS)
Athletic director	Tommy McClelland
Location	Houston,Texas
Varsity teams	16 (17 in 2026)
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[1]
Website	riceowls.com

TheRice Owls are the sports teams representing Houston'sRice University in college sports. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates inNCAA Division I athletics. A member of theAmerican Athletic Conference, Rice sponsors teams in eight men's and eight women's NCAA-sanctioned sports. Rice was a member of theSouthwest Conference until its breakup in 1996. Rice then joined theWestern Athletic Conference andConference USA, until joining theAmerican Athletic Conference on July 1, 2023.^[2][3] The women's swimming team moved to The American in 2022 after CUSA dropped women's swimming & diving.^[4] Rice is the fifth-smallest school competing inNCAA Division I FBS football measured by undergraduate enrollment, just above theUniversity of Tulsa's 2,756 and the three FBSUnited States service academies's approximate 4,500. Rice's rivals include the cross-townHouston Cougars.

NCAA

• Southwest Conference (1915–1996)
• Western Athletic Conference (1996–2005)
• Conference USA (2005–2023)
• American Athletic Conference (2023–present)

The Rice baseball team is the school's top athletic program and one of the NCAA's top baseball programs, having won 20 straight conference championships dating back to 1996.^[5] The Owls won theCollege World Series in 2003 and finished third in both the 2006 and 2007 College World Series tournaments.^[6] Rice made 23 straight NCAA tournament appearances from 1995 through 2017. The team has played at on-campusReckling Park since the 2000 season.^[7]

The Owls play at an on-campus football facility,Rice Stadium, which was the site ofSuper Bowl VIII anda speech byJohn F. Kennedy on September 12, 1962 in which he challenged the nation tosend 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,^[8] more than the total number of Rice alumni, living and deceased.^[9]

The Owls began playing football in 1914 as a member of the Southwest Conference. Until 1950, when Rice Stadium was completed, they played atRice Field, the site of which is nowRice Track/Soccer Stadium. During its first 40 years, Rice's football program was a regional and national powerhouse. By the early 1960s, the program found it difficult to compete against schools that were ten times its size or more—and in some cases, had more freshmen than Rice had undergraduates. In 2006, the football team played in theNew Orleans Bowl, the first time the team had gone to a bowl game since 1961, ending the second-longest bowl drought in the country at the time.

The Rice Owls play in theAmerican Athletic Conference, having moved fromConference USA (CUSA) in July 2023.

The Rice Owls finished the 2008 Regular season with a 9–3 overall record (7–1 C-USA)—the first time they won more than seven games in over 40 years—and accepted a bid to play againstWestern Michigan University in theTexas Bowl on December 30 where they came away with a 38–14 victory for their first bowl victory since 1954.

At the end of the 2008 season wide receiverJarett Dillard was named a 2nd Team All-American by theFootball Writers Association, the first Rice Owl selected in 50 years. He has also been named an All-American bySports Illustrated, CBSSports.com (where he was joined by fellow owls Chase Clement and James Casey), and Walter Camp.

In 2013, Rice finally won its first outright football conference championship since 1957, when it defeatedMarshall in theConference USAchampionship game.

Rice's men's basketball teams won 10 conference titles in the former Southwest Conference (1918, 1935*, 1940, 1942*, 1943*, 1944*, 1945, 1949*, 1954*, 1970; * denotes shared title). Most recently, guardMorris Almond was selected in the2007 NBA draft by theUtah Jazz.

The Rice women's basketball team has achieved great success in recent years, having most recently won the2021Women's National Invitation Tournament after having won the Conference USA regular-season title inthat season. The Owls' most recent NCAA tournament appearance was in 2019, when they won theConference USA Tournament.

Rice has been more successful in its women's sports. In 2004–05, Rice sent its women's volleyball, soccer, and basketball teams to their respective NCAA tournaments. In 2005–06, the women's soccer, basketball, and tennis teams advanced to NCAA tournaments, and five individuals competed at the national championships in outdoor track and field. In 2006–07, the Rice women's basketball team made the NCAA tournament, while four Rice women's outdoor track and field athletes received individual NCAA berths, two of them earning All-America honors. In 2008–09, the Rice women's volleyball team went to NCAA playoffs again, where they played Wichita State in 08 and TCU 09.

Rice began women's swimming & diving competition in 1975 as a member ofAIAW Division II. The program continued into the NCAA era through 1990–91, when changes in NCAA specifications for pool facilities led Rice to drop diving from its aquatics program.^[10]

In 2013, 2014, 2015 the Owls sent multiple swimmers to theNCAA Women's Division I Swimming and Diving Championships hosted in Indianapolis.

Rice frequently outscored its opponents in the swimming portion of conference championships, including its first American Conference season in 2023–24, but could not win a conference title due to its lack of divers. In January 2024, Rice announced the reinstatement of women's diving effective in 2024–25.^[10]

Sam Match won the NCAA doubles championship with Rice University along with his doubles partner Bob Curtis in 1947.^[11]

The Owls were team runner-ups in the 1968 and 1970 NCAA men's tennis championship.^[12]

Rice will add women's golf in the 2026–27 school year, following a $5 million startup donation from energy industry executive and former Owls women's basketball playerLynn Elsenhans.^[13]

Founded in 1968, theRice Rugby Football Club playscollege rugby in Division I-AA in the Southwest Conference (SWC) against its traditional rivals such as the University of Houston. Rice have been led since 2007 by Head Coach Mario Botha, who formerly played professional rugby in South Africa.^[14] Rice won the Southwest Conference with a 6–0 conference record in 2013, advancing to the Division I-AA national playoffs.^[15] Previously, Rice finished second in the Southwest Conference in 2012, losing 36–26 to the University of Texas in the conference championship.^[14]

Rice Rugby had a successful period during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, winning multiple Texas championships and producing players such as Mike Glass ('87) and Brannan Smoot ('89) who went on to play for theU.S. national rugby team.^[16] Rice rugby has been supported since 1996 by the Rice Rugby Alumni Association, which established an endowment fund in 1999 and since then has provided financial support to the team.^[16] Rice Rugby advanced to the national playoffs in the spring of 1997 and again in the spring of 2000.^[16]

Rice has men's and women'sultimate teams. The women's team, named Torque, won consecutive national championships in Division III in 2014 and 2015.^[17]

In addition to football, Rice Stadium also serves as the performance venue for the university'sMarching Owl Band, or "MOB." Despite its name, the MOB is a scatter band which focuses on performing humorous skits and routines rather than traditional formation marching. Prior to the dissolution of the Southwest Conference, the MOB had a lesser rivalry with the "Fightin' Texas Aggie Band" fromTexas A&M.

Rice's mascot is Sammy the Owl. In previous decades, the university kept several live owls on campus in front ofLovett College, but this practice has been discontinued. Rice University is one of three schools in theAmerican Athletic Conference to use the owl as a mascot, alongsideTemple University andFlorida Atlantic University.

Rice also has a fourteen-member coedcheerleading squad and a co-ed dance team, both of which perform at football and basketball games throughout the year.

• Bayou Bucket Classic

Wikimedia Commons has media related toRice University athletics.

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• Rice Owls

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