IUB's intercollegiate athletics program has a long tradition of excellence in several key sports. From its humble beginnings with baseball in 1867, the Hoosier Indiana Hoosiers basketball tickets athletic program has grown to include over 600 male and female student-athletes on 24 varsity teams boasting one of the nation's best overall records. Sports sponsored by the university include football, men's basketball, women's Indiana Hoosiers basketball tickets basketball, cross country and track, baseball, golf, tennis, rowing, Indiana Hoosiers basketball tickets volleyball, and more. The Hoosiers became a member of the prestigious Big Ten Conference on December 1, 1899. The school's national affiliation is with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The teams won one women's and six men's national team titles (now totaling 25; 24 NCAA, 1 AIAW), topped by a record-setting six straight men's swimming & diving titles, seven men's soccer crowns and five titles in men's basketball.
Indiana student-athletes have won 133 NCAA individual titles, including 79 in men's swimming Indiana Hoosiers basketball tickets and diving and 31 in men's track and field. In addition, Indiana Hoosiers basketball tickets IU teams have won or shared 157 Big Ten Conference championships. The IU athletics endowment is $42 million, the largest in the Big Ten Conference. The Varsity Club, which is the fund-raising arm of the Athletics Department, drew a record $11.5 Indiana Hoosiers basketball tickets million in gifts and pledges in the fiscal year 2004-05. In addition, overall annual giving has increased 8.3% in the last year and 44.8 percent in the last three years. In spite of this giving, IU's athletics department has been unable to balance its budget.
Because of this the university administration has attempted, thus far unsuccessfully, to double the athletics fee which students pay with their tuition each semester. A number Indiana Hoosiers basketball tickets of students argue that the athletics department's financial woes are its own problems, and that support of athletics should be Indiana Hoosiers basketball tickets voluntary. Others, especially in the athletics department, argue that athletic programs are an integral part of the university experience, and therefore everyone should pay into it, regardless of whether they are interested in it.
