VCU athletics by the numbers

By Elinor Frisa

Numbers are everywhere in the world of sports. Batting averages, tennis scores, track and field times, minutes left on the clock and even - fingers crossed - the Final Four. These are just some of the numbers you'll come across if you're a Rams fan.

Virginia Commonwealth University has a proud athletics history, with today's student-athletes competing at the Division I level of the NCAA. And while the Rams may be most known for basketball, they've won numerous A-10 Championships on the tennis court, the baseball field and more.

The numbers below help tell the story of athletics at VCU (with a few words mixed in for the assist).

17 … sports

VCU currently has 17 sports. For men, they are baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field. For women, they are basketball, cross country, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, and volleyball. The newest of the sports is women's lacrosse, which was added to the athletics program in 2015.

350+ … student-athletes

The number of student-athletes fluctuates with roster management throughout the year, but at the time of this article, there were 356. Women's track and field is currently VCU's largest team, with 50 student-athletes. The smallest are golf, men's tennis and women's tennis, each with eight student-athletes.

55 … A-10 championships

VCU joined the Atlantic 10 Conference in the summer of 2012. Since then, the Rams have collected 55 championships, with six coming in the recent 2023-24 year. Men's and women's tennis have won eight championships each during that span, while the women's track program has captured 11 (seven indoor, four outdoor).

0 … football games lost

Since its founding, VCU has never lost a football game - not one. It's also never played a football game, but why get hung up on the details? In all seriousness, "Why doesn't VCU have a football team?" is a fairly common question. The answer? "Adding a football program would mean an investment of more than $200 million with facilities (including a stadium), coaching staff, scholarships and operations, and some of that burden would end up on our students," said Ed McLaughlin, vice president and director of athletics. "We cannot put that investment on the backs of students, and we've chosen instead to put our financial support toward our current student-athletes and our new Athletic Village project."

1 … alum who made the NFL roster

Just because VCU doesn't have a football team doesn't mean we don't have any skin in the game. After graduating in 2017, standout basketball player Mo Alie-Cox joined the Indianapolis Colts as a tight end, where he continues to play. He was a part of VCU's first-ever A-10 basketball championship and ranks third in program history in field goal percentage.

19 … consecutive semesters student-athletes have earned a combined 3.0 GPA or higher

Juggling academics and college life with sports is no easy task, but VCU's student-athletes do an exceptional job. The Student-Athlete Support Services team provides holistic support that includes academic advising and coaching but also career, professional and personal development. SASS staff make sure student-athletes have the opportunity to participate in programming like résumé workshops, mock interviews, graduate school preparation, financial literacy training, career fairs and more.

31 … days the men's basketball team will spend on the road this year (excluding postseason)

During both the fall and spring semesters, the team travels around the country, mostly by plane but sometimes by bus. This season they're going as far west as Las Vegas and also hitting cities like Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Charleston. With help from the SASS team (see above), all that jet-setting doesn't stop them from keeping up with their studies.

25 … countries represented by international student-athletes

This year VCU has 63 student-athletes hailing from outside the U.S. They come from all over the world, from places such as Japan, Senegal, Australia, Chile, Serbia and Canada. Argentina is home to the most international student-athletes this year.

10-12 … average number of shoes a tennis student-athlete goes through in a year

While all of VCU's student-athletes go through multiple pairs of shoes a year, the tennis teams need to refresh theirs most frequently - the all-important tread on the bottom of the shoes wears out quickly.

42 … acres in the new Athletic Village

The project, which promises to be transformational for VCU and the Richmond community, broke ground on Nov. 1, 2024, and will include two stadiums, a tennis center, practice fields and a multipurpose facility with an indoor track. Located off Hermitage Road, it will be built alongside Richmond's planned Diamond District development that will feature a new baseball stadium. Phase I, consisting of an outdoor track stadium and two practice fields, is scheduled to be completed by spring 2026.

250 … average loads of laundry done for the men's soccer team per year

With 20 games per year and countless days of practice, the men's soccer team creates a lot of grass-stained laundry. The Siegel Center has a large laundry room where Equipment Room staff handles getting all those uniforms as spotless as possible. All the teams have two to three sets of uniforms, so the laundry room at the Stu and a smaller one at the Basketball Development Center get a lot of use.

7,637 … seats in the Siegel Center

Students, alumni and Ram fans of all ages stream into those seats for men's and women's basketball games as well as women's volleyball games. The nearly 200,000-square-foot Siegel Center opened in 1999 and has hosted numerous nonsporting events - everything from a visit from President Barack Obama and a James Taylor concert to a naturalization ceremony for nearly 600 new U.S. citizens and VCU's annual fall commencement.

$0 … cost for home game tickets for VCU students

Joining the throngs of Rowdy Rams in the student section at the Stu for a men's basketball game is a hallmark of the VCU experience. And students can go for free. While some sports don't require tickets and are free to all (e.g., field hockey and tennis), full-time students can still go to any ticketed home game for free. Men's basketball tickets must be claimed in advance on the student ticket portal. For all other home sporting events, students can show their VCU ID at the entrance.

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