Since we love both dogs and cats here at Dog O’Day, we’re looking at the NCAA feline mascots as part of an effort to catalog all the animals of the college sports landscape.
The is the main governing body of college sports in the US, with more than 1,200 colleges and universities across three divisions, organizing championship events for baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, diving, football, golf, gymnastics, fencing, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field (indoor and outdoor), volleyball (indoor and beach), water polo and wrestling, though not all schools compete in all available sports.
There are a lot of NCAA feline mascots out there, with more variety than on the canine side.
The NCAA feline mascots make a formidable array.
So let’s dig into the NCAA feline mascots.
Wildcats rule at Abilene Christian, Arizona, Bay Path, Bethune-Cookman, Cal State-Chico, Cazenovia, Central Washington, Daemen, Davidson, Fort Valley State, Kansas State, Kentucky, Johnson and Wales, Linfield, Louisiana College, SUNY-Tech, New Hampshire, Northwestern, Northern Michigan, Penn Tech, Randolph, St Catherine, Villanova, Wayne State College and Wilmington. That’s 25 schools in all across all three divisions.
Tigers are traditionally thought of as the “king of the jungle,” so it’s no surprise that they’re plentiful at Auburn, Benedict, Clemson, Colorado College, DePauw, East Central (OK), East Texas Baptist, Fort Hays State, Grambling, Hampden-Sydney, Holy Family, Iowa Wesleyan, Jackson State, LSU, Memphis, Missouri, Occidental, Ouachita Baptist, Pacific, Princeton, Rochester Tech, Salem, Savannah State, Sewanee, Tennessee State, Texas Southern, Towson, Trinity, Trinity Washington, West Alabama and Wittenberg.
That makes 31 schools, and there are also the Idaho State Bengals, Lincoln (MO) Blue Tigers, Morehouse Maroon Tigers and Tuskegee Golden Tigers.
Albright, Arkansas-Fort Smith, Bryn Athyn, Columbia, College of New Jersey, Eastern Nazarene, Emerson, Emmanuel, Finlandia, Georgian Court, Lincoln (PA), Lindenwood, Loyola Marymount, Mars Hill, Missouri Southern, Malloy, Mount St Joseph, North Alabama, Paine, Penn State-Altoona, Penn State-Erie, Penn State-Harrisburg, St Leo, Southeastern Louisiana, Texas A&M-Commerce are all the Lions , for a total of 25 schools in all.
Penn State, Penn State-Abington and Penn State-Berks are all the Nittany Lions as the main Peny State campus lies in the Nittany Valley, and there also the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions and the Mount Holyoke Lyons
19 schools use Cougars as a mascot – these are Averett, Azusa Pacific, BYU, Cal State-San Marcos, Caldwell, Chatham, Chicago State, Clark, College of Charleston, Colorado Christian, Columbus State, Houston, Kean, Medgar Evers, Minnesota-Morris, Misencordia, SIU-Edwardsville, Sioux Falls and Washington State.
Additionally, there are Cougar synonyms at Colorado-Colorado Springs, Concord Mountain and Young-Harris all are Mountain Lions, while Vermont and Western Carolina are the Catamounts and Pitt-Johnstown is the Mountain Cats.
Adelphi, Birmingham-Southern, Chapman, Claflin, Clark Atlanta, Davenport, Drury, Eastern Illinois, Florida International, Florida Tech, Ferrum, Georgia State, Greenville, Hanover, High Point, Kentucky Wesleyan, LaGrange, Middlebury, SUNY-Old Westbury, SUNY-Purchase, Northern Iowa, Ohio Dominican, Pitt, Pitt-Bradford, Plymouth State, Prairie View A&M, Principia, Virginia Union and Wisconsin-Milwaukee are all Panthers, for a total of 29 schools.
Augusta, IUPUI, Southern and South Alabama all go by the Jaguars
Bates, Georgia College, Lees-McRae, Montana State, Pitt-Greensburg, Quinnipiac, Texas State and West Virginia Wesleyan are all the Bobcats, eight schools in all.
A trio of Leopards lurk in La Verne, Lafayette and Wentworth Tech, and there are also the unique single-use schools like the Anna Maria Amcats, Maranatha Baptist Sabercats, Rogers State Hillcats and Theil Tomcats.
This concludes our look at the NCAA feline mascots; for more general news, opinions and analysis of college football and college basketball within the FanSided Network, see our sister sites Saturday Blitz and Busting Brackets for more details.