The NCAA categorizes college sports into divisions; from there, schools are separated into conferences. UTSA is Division I when it comes to athletics and is a part of the American Athletic Conference.
In the most basic terms, a football game consists of two teams competing against each other by running or throwing an oval-shaped ball to opposite sides of the field to earn the most points in four 15-minute quarters. After the second quarter, teams will take a 15-minute break to recollect themselves; this is referred to as halftime. UTSA has more than 60 players on their roster but only 11 will be on the field during the game. The offense’s objective is to get the ball further down the field to be able to score, and the defense’s goal is to stop the opposing team’s offensive players from doing just that.
A touchdown is six points and a field goal is three points, but there can also be extra points awarded to teams depending on certain situations. There can be no ties in college football; overtime will be added until a winner is declared. College teams will compete in both regular conference and non-conference games during the season. If they do well, it earns them a spot to compete in the conference championship.
Cross country is an individual or team race on an open-air, natural terrain course for a certain distance. The runners are trying to finish in the least amount of time. The races are measured in kilometers with the most common distances being 10K, 8K and 6K. Men typically run 8K races while women run 6K.
The scoring for individuals in cross country is rewarded by finishing position, and the individual with the lowest points is on top. Team points are also awarded by finishing position, however, only the top five runners from each team are scored. The team with the lowest score wins the race. If a tie occurs, the score of the sixth and seventh finishers on each team will be used to determine the tiebreaker.
For DI cross country teams, there are nine NCAA regionals. From there, the top two teams automatically qualify for the NCAA championship and after that, 13 teams are selected by a subcommittee to fill out the 31-team field. The individuals who are competing, the top four finishers who are not a part of the automatic qualifying or an at-large team will automatically go to the championship to compete.
The objective of a soccer game is to get the ball into the goal of the opposing team on the other side of the field by kicking it. The field is often referred to as a pitch. The players, except for the goalkeeper, are not allowed to use their hands or arms to score a goal, doing so will result in a foul. A soccer match is 90 minutes in total; the match is broken up into two 45-minute halves.
There are 30 girls on UTSA’s soccer team; on the pitch, there will be 11 players from each team. The positions played are goalkeeper, midfielder, defender, center and forward. Teams are also allowed to make substitutions during the game.
The team that scores the most goals wins the game. If the ball goes out of the pitch during the game, the play will be restarted by a goal kick, corner kick, throw in or a free kick, depending on how the ball got out.
A volleyball game consists of two teams separated by a net with six players, three in the front row and three in the back. Each set within the game can last 20 to 30 minutes, which can vary by factors that occur in the game.
From there both teams will go back and forth with a ball until a fault occurs or one team misses the ball and it hits the ground on their side. A team can score by grounding the ball on their opponent’s side or by their opponent making an error, such as touching the net during a play, touching the ball on the other side of the net or committing a service fault. To win a match, a team must win three sets, if the match goes to a fifth set, a team only has to get 15 points. A team must reach 25 points with a two-point advantage to win a set. UTSA participated in their first volleyball season in 1983.
Tennis
The UTSA women’s tennis team will be competing in nine games this year and the men’s team will be competing in eight. Tennis consists of teams that will compete in doubles and singles. Either way, players will be separated by a net, with two on each side for doubles and one on each side for singles. The players use a racket to hit the ball back and forth until someone fails to hit the ball or if the ball hits the net. If the ball is hit by someone and their opponent misses, that player gets a point. In college tennis, four points win a game, six games wins a set and two to three sets win a match. College tournaments begin with three matches of doubles, then six singles matches. Each match won is one point for the team.
If a player scores zero points it’s called a “love.” If one point is scored it will appear as 15, two is 30 and three is 40. When the score is tied it is called “all,” unless it’s a score of 40-40, then it is called a “deuce.” If a deuce occurs one player will need to score two more points than their opponent to win. Top teams will then go onto play in their conference championship and if successful can go onto earn a spot in the national tournament.
Basketball
The UTSA basketball season consists of conference and non conference games, conference tournaments and postseason tournaments for both men and women.
In basketball, two teams of five players compete to score the most points by shooting a ball into a hoop that is 10 feet above the ground on the opposite side of where their team is. A team can score three points if a player scores from beyond the three-point line. If a player scores from inside the three-point line, they earn two points. Free throws earn teams one point. In the occurrence of a technical foul, a team can receive between one or three free throws.
The ball can only be moved through dribbling or passing. Players are not allowed to carry the ball or dribble the ball with two hands. After a basket is scored, the ball goes to the opposing team.
A college basketball game can last up to two hours. Men’s games go for two 20-minute halves while the women play four 10-minute quarters. Time-outs, fouls and halftime add onto the game’s duration. If there is a tie at the end of the game, five minutes are added for overtime until the tie is broken.
March Madness is an NCAA D1 single-elimination tournament that makes up the month of March. There are 68 teams that compete in seven rounds for the national championship.
Golf
UTSA men and women’s golf is played in both the fall and spring seasons. In golf, players use clubs to try to hit a ball into a hole in the fewest strokes possible. The player at the end with the lowest score wins. A par is the number of strokes a player takes to get the ball into the hole. Golfers usually use a multitude of clubs depending on the situation to try to get the best scores. Things like distance can affect a player’s choice when determining what club they should use. Courses have 18 holes with different layouts which makes things difficult. Tournaments usually are four rounds of 18 holes. After a certain number of rounds, players with higher numbers in pars than others are cut while the players with lower numbers move forward.
UTSA’s men’s team consists of eight players and the women’s consists of six. The average golf team has six to eight players. Depending on the team, the number of players that compete vary.
