The Florida Tech Panthers are the athletic teams that represent the

Florida Institute of Technology The Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech or FIT) is a private research university in Melbourne, Florida. The university comprises four academic colleges: Engineering & Science, Aeronautics, Psychology & Liberal Arts, and Business. Appr ...

, located in

Melbourne, Florida Melbourne is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is located southeast of Orlando. As of th2020 Decennial Census there was a population of 84,678. The municipality is the second-largest in the county by both size and population. ...

, in intercollegiate athletics at the Division II level of

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA), competing in the

Sunshine State Conference The Sunshine State Conference is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. All of its member institutions are located in the state of Florida, which is popularly kn ...

. Sports currently offered by the program include baseball, softball, women's volleyball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming. Due to financial difficulties, the women's golf as well as both the men's and women's tennis programs were canceled in the spring of 2019. The men's football program was also canceled in the spring of 2020. Other sports formerly offered by the program include men's golf, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's rowing, and men's and women's track field (both indoor and outdoor).

Varsity sports

Baseball

Florida Tech has had 9

Major League Baseball Draft The first-year player draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lo ...

selections since the draft began in 1965.

Basketball

Florida Tech's basketball teams competes in the

. They compete in a very competitive NCAA DII Conference with schools like

Florida Southern Florida Southern College (Florida Southern, Southern or FSC) is a private college in Lakeland, Florida. In 2019, the student population at FSC consisted of 3,073 students along with 130 full-time faculty members. The college offers 50 undergradu ...

that have won National Championships. Due to this Florida Tech occasionally plays higher caliber Florida D1 Schools such as

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

, Florida Gulf Coast, and

Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Florida, Dania Beach, Davie, Florida, Davie, Fort Lauderd ...

. In 2011–12 the Men's team would win the SSC Regular Season Championship with a record of 21–5 (12–4 SSC) and reach the

NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Tournament The NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament (officially styled by the NCAA as a "Championship" instead of a "Tournament") is an annual championship tournament for colleges and universities that are members of NCAA Division II, a grouping of ...

, where they would advance to the second round of the South Regional . That year they would play two DI schools

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a Public university#United States, public List of research universities in the United States, research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established i ...

and

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

, losing to both. The Panther women's team has been playing since the 1986–87 season and have been coached by John Reynolds since 1987–88. The Panther women have reached the

NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament The NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament (officially styled as "Championship" instead of "Tournament") is an annual tournament to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division II, Division II women's colleg ...

nine times, won six regular season Sunshine State Conference Championships, four SSC Tournament Championships, one NCAA Division II South Region title and appeared in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in 2002. Entering the 2018–19 season, Reynolds' 559 wins ranks him at No. 8 among active D-II women's coaches and 20th all- time.

Football

The Florida Tech Football program was the intercollegiate

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team for

located in the U.S. state of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. The team competed in the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

and were members of the

Gulf South Conference The Gulf South Conference (GSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the Southeastern United States. History Originally known as the Mid ...

. Florida Tech's first football team was fielded in 2013. They played at the

Florida Tech Panther Stadium Florida Tech Panther Stadium is an American football stadium located in Melbourne, Florida. The facility served as the home field for the NCAA Division II Florida Tech Panthers football team representing the Florida Institute of Technology, and is ...

National championships

Team

References

External links

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