About a year and a half ago, I was offered the opportunity to cover my first varsity game at NYU, when the women’s basketball team took on Babson College in one of the first games back in the Paulson Center after becoming national champions. Unsurprisingly, the Violets breezed to a 65-36 win, their 33rd in a row, one step closer to a second consecutive title.
What stuck with me wasn’t the score or any of the crafty plays drawn up on the court, but the energy both teams were exuding while playing at the Division III level. Despite the university’s academic reputation and large student body, the Violets had yet to hit national headlines for athletics. Back then, resounding moments, such as conference championships and NCAA Tournament bids, still remained relegated to the NYU sports community — which of course trends on the niche side.
Throughout my final year with the Sports desk, it’s become overwhelmingly clear that unwavering passion is characteristic of NYU’s teams. It doesn’t matter whether they start the season winless or have racked up 82 straight victories — the Violets are relentless with their energy, day in and day out, even when conference titles and tournament bids are far out of reach.
It goes without saying that D-III athletics receive far less national, and even local, media attention than D-I teams, whose massive facilities and high attendance at games rightfully draw hordes of fans. At a university where student-athletes are students first, sports quickly become an afterthought for the student body. The eight member institutions of the UAA, NYU’s athletic conference, are known primarily as top research and business institutions rather than athletic powerhouses.
That’s not to say that NYU has been unsuccessful. In the 2025-26 season, the Violets took home two team titles — women’s cross country and women’s swimming and diving, both program firsts — and two more top-four finishes in the NCAA Championships.
But the very fact that these athletes know they aren’t playing for national recognition, even when they win championships, isn’t a hindrance — D-III athletes, largely out of the limelight, learn to play for themselves, and in doing so, give some of the best performances college sports have to offer.
NYU currently stands at No. 1 in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, which ranks all D-III schools based on athletic performance across sports, and has moved under the global public eye — in large part due to the women’s basketball team’s 91-game run. But it’s unfortunate that it took that team to break the second-highest streak in all of college basketball to put NYU, or any school at this level, in the headlines.
To say that D-III athletics are inferior to D-I misrepresents the difference between divisions. The allotted time dedicated to athletics differs by just five hours per week between the highest and lowest NCAA levels. Several of NYU’s athletes fielded D-I offers during their recruitment, and the university’s teams have frequently accepted transfers from D-I and D-II programs. Earlier this year, the D-III University of Scranton, runner-up at this year’s women’s basketball championship, took down the D-I University of Pittsburgh in a 69-63 exhibition game.
When it comes to the reporting, the differences between divisions are negligible. The teams are playing the same game, recording the same stats and giving the same material for journalists to work with. With looser restrictions than D-I when it comes to media access, D-III serves as the perfect learning ground for student reporters. The athletes, unburdened by the ego that comes with million-dollar NIL contracts, are often far more approachable and open in interviews.
NYU’s teams, lacking field space of their own because of the university’s integration into the city, often borrow facilities from neighboring schools like Fordham University in the Bronx and the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. Even worse, the players who travel the farthest often play for the smallest crowds. If there’s one thing reporting on these teams has taught me, it’s that the Violets will put everything on the line, whether they’re playing for a crowd of 30 fans or bleachers packed by thousands. On Senior Day, I watched the men’s soccer team rally to a tie against Brandeis University at the tail end of a disappointing season, playing for just 116 fans.
There won’t be championship titles every year. The Violets frequently go through lulls without tournament bids and make it into the bracket only to have their season cut short before a title. That’s the nature of athletics at almost any university, in any division — and by no means reason to dismiss the newsworthiness of D-III teams and their journeys. And NYU’s athletes have proven that they can succeed, driven purely by the love of the game.
And even during slow news cycles, student publications at D-III schools don’t need to rely on local and professional sports to fill the gaps. Stories like a wrestling captain battling brain cancer and a Bangladeshi climber reaching new heights don’t just disappear because a school is D-III. There are wins to share at every level, and it takes dedicated journalists to dig up these gems, week after week.
It also takes dedicated fans to keep the athletic culture alive. In a university as siloed as NYU, its teams have carved out a corner of the campus that has united the community. And win or loss, that spirit needs to be upheld by the student body.
Contact Kiran Komanduri at [email protected].