In the 2024-25 season, US colleges fielded 45 NCAA women's fencing teams and 36 men's teams, with 760 women and 675 men on their rosters, according to the NCAA's own count. About a third of those teams are in Division III, where schools give no athletic scholarships. Fencing in college is a real option for a teen who trains seriously, and it is a small one: a scholarship is possible at some schools and never a given.
How many colleges have fencing teams?
The NCAA counts teams and athletes every year in its Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report. These are the fencing rows for 2024-25, the latest season in the report, which the NCAA published in September 2025.
| Division | Women: teams (fencers) | Men: teams (fencers) |
|---|---|---|
| Division I | 28 (483) | 23 (423) |
| Division II | 1 (9) | 1 (16) |
| Division III | 16 (268) | 12 (236) |
| All divisions | 45 (760) | 36 (675) |
A team averages 17 to 19 fencers. Some schools run one coed program, and the NCAA counts it once as a women's team and once as a men's team, so the two team columns should not be added together.
For scale, the same report counts 1,074 men's basketball teams in 2024-25. Among the men's championship sports in that report, only gymnastics (15 teams), rifle (21) and skiing (34) have fewer teams than fencing.
Where are the teams, and what is near Austin?
The NCAA's member directory, which we checked on October 16, 2026 for the 2026-27 year, lists 44 schools with women's fencing and 36 with men's. These are school counts for a later year, so they need not match the 2024-25 table exactly. About two in three of them are in seven states: Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Texas has one: the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, a Division I school with men's and women's teams. One of its fencers qualified for the 2026 NCAA championship in men's sabre.
Many universities without an NCAA team have a fencing club instead. USA Fencing, the national governing body of the sport, keeps a list of college club teams; its list, current as of April 15, 2025, includes clubs at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, UT Dallas, UT San Antonio and the University of North Texas. Club teams sit outside the NCAA, so the NCAA championship and NCAA scholarship rules do not apply to them, but they let a student keep fencing and competing through college.
What is the NCAA championship like?
The NCAA holds one national fencing championship each March, and fencers from Division I, II and III schools compete in it together. In 2026 it took place on March 19-22 at the University of Notre Dame, with 144 fencers from 26 schools: 24 in each of six events, women's and men's épée, foil and sabre.
So in 2026, 24 women and 24 men fenced sabre at the NCAA championship, from all NCAA schools together. A school may send at most two fencers per weapon.
Each event starts with a round robin of five-touch bouts, in which every fencer meets every other. The top four then fence 15-touch semifinals and a final for the individual title. Team points come from the round robin bouts each school's fencers win.
2026 was also the first year the NCAA gave a women's team title for all three weapons, separate from the men's. For years before that, one combined team title went to the school with the most points from its women and men together, which left women-only programs effectively unable to win it. Notre Dame won both team titles in 2026.
Athletic scholarships: what the rules say
Division III schools do not offer athletic scholarships. The NCAA says so on its Division III eligibility page, and adds that many Division III athletes receive merit-based or need-based financial aid. That covers 16 of the 45 women's teams and 12 of the 36 men's teams in the table above.
Division I changed its rules on July 1, 2025, to put in place the court-approved House v. NCAA settlement. Division I rules no longer set a scholarship limit for each sport. Schools in the conferences that were defendants in the case, and other schools that opted in, have a roster limit for each team instead, and may offer scholarships to any of the athletes on it.
Where athletic scholarships are given, the NCAA says that most athletes receive partial aid; a full ride is the exception. Scholarships are awarded by the college coaches, not by the NCAA.
The NCAA also publishes the odds of a high school athlete playing in college, sport by sport. Fencing is not on that list (we checked on October 16, 2026). If you see a percentage chance for fencing elsewhere, it did not come from that NCAA table.
Your first class is free. Call Coach Pasha to choose a class.
Call (408) 592-1244 Or leave your numberDoes fencing help with college admissions?
We found no public data that measures it, and we will not guess. The NCAA's recruiting page says that recruiting looks different in every sport and division, that college coaches start most recruiting conversations, that exposure matters, club participation included, and that academics are part of the decision. If someone quotes a number for how much fencing helps an application, ask for the source and the year.
What this means for a teen in Austin
Two items on the NCAA's recruiting list are in a family's hands: where a teen trains, and their grades.
At our club, teens aged 12 to 18 train on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 6:30 to 8:30 PM. On those evenings a beginner group and the Elite group train side by side, each at its own level. Elite trains four times a week, costs $275 a month, and is open to join for ages 7-11 and 12-18, with no invitation needed. An 18-year-old trains in the teen group. Our head coach, Coach Pasha, is an Olympian: he placed fourth in men's team sabre at the London 2012 Olympics. Which group is right for my child? has every group, day and price, and sabre, foil and épée explains the weapon we teach.
If college fencing is on your teen's mind, say so when you call, together with their age and experience, so the coach knows what they want from fencing.
How to start
The first class is free, and we lend the kit for the whole first month. You are welcome to watch that first class. There is nothing to pay for it; the only paper is the registration and waiver form, which you sign in person at the class. After it, you decide. If your teen continues, you sign the membership agreement and pay at the next class: the monthly price, plus the $500 annual membership every member pays, plus $40 a month for the kit after the first month unless you bring your own. See the prices.
Call Coach Pasha at (408) 592-1244; voicemail is fine, and he calls back within 24 hours. Or leave your number on the free class page. Before you come, read what happens at the first class.
Where these numbers come from
- Team and athlete counts, 2024-25: the NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report, published September 2025.
- Schools with fencing in 2026-27: the NCAA member directory, checked October 16, 2026.
- The 2026 championship field, format and results: NCAA.com, selection of participants (March 10, 2026) and results; USA Fencing, 2026 NCAA Championships preview (March 11, 2026).
- Division III aid: the NCAA Eligibility Center, Division III page.
- Division I rule change: NCAA.org, DI Board of Directors formally adopts changes to roster limits (June 23, 2025).
- Partial aid and who awards scholarships: NCAA.org, Scholarships and financial aid.
- Odds of playing in college: NCAA.org, Probability of competing beyond high school, 2024-25 data.
- Recruiting: the NCAA Eligibility Center, NCAA recruiting.
- College club teams: USA Fencing, Collegiate Club Fencing, list current as of April 15, 2025.
