Collegiate Cycling - FAQ

Please don't hesitate to contact us if there is something you are still unsure about.
 

Membership

The first thing you need to have is a USA Cycling Collegiate license. You can buy a One-Day License at the race, for $10, or an Annual Collegiate License, which is $30. You must also be a full-time student and your school must have a team. If your institution doesn’t have a cycling team, you can always start one. The normal fee of $50 is waived for the first year.

First, create a USA Cycling account. When creating your account you will be asked to purchase a license. If you only plan on racing collegiately, you can buy a collegiate license by itself ($30). Just make an account, find your school, and sign up. You can also select to get your collegiate license as an add-on to your regular USA Cycling license at no additional cost ($60, the regular license fee).

For a collegiate license only, the cost is $30. For a regular USA Cycling license with a collegiate add-on, it is $60. One day licenses are $10.

No, your collegiate license is valid for collegiate races only. If you want to compete in other USA Cycling events, you must purchase a regular license as well.

Your money funds the program manager and membership; insurance; the national collegiate budget; information technology; the conferences; national events; other departments; governance; and fulfillment. If you want to see exactly how much goes where, check out the handy document entitled "Where Does My $30 Go?" at the link above.

Whether you have a collegiate license only or a regular USA Cycling license as well, your license is good until December 31 of the same calendar year you bought it.

You must race for the school you attend. If your school does not have a club, it is very easy to start your own. Once you have registered your club, you can simply race in a blank kit if you don't want to order school kits.

How do I sign up for the collegiate newsletter?

When you log on to your USA Cycling account you will see a tab at the top left under your Account Information that reads "Email Opt-In." Click  this link and you will be able to change all of your email preferences. This includes your contact information, as well as what type of news you would like to receive from USA Cycling via email.

Categories

Your category is a reflection of your racing experience and ability. If you have never raced before, you should start out in the lowest available category and work your way up. If you do have previous racing experience, but this is just your first time racing collegiately, then your collegiate category correlates to your USAC category. If you are a Category 3 on the road, for instance, then you can race in either the A or B fields in collegiate. Check out the full Category Conversion Chart for full details.

Upgrade requests should be submitted through your USA Cycling account. Under your "License Info" you can click to request an upgrade. You must then list all the races and results for which you think you earned upgrade points, as well the total number of points you have. The qualifying races and number of points necessary is different for each discipline and from category to category, so consult the document on categories and upgrade points for complete details.
 

Teams

Using the "Advanced Search" function on the USA Cycling Clubs page, select "Collegiate" in the "Affiliation" drop-down. You can then enter your school's name in the "Club Name" field and search for its team. You can also leave this filed blank and search an entire state, for instance, to see what schools have teams.

The annual membership fee for a collegiate team is $50. New clubs may register for free for the first year. All you need to do is fill out the USA Cycling Club Application Form and Collegiate Club Eligibility Form and send them in to USA Cycling (contact information can be found on the form itself). Please submit your application at least 45 days prior to club participation in an event. The same goes for renewing a club, which you can also do online through your club account.

Are composite teams allowed?

No, when starting a club your team and its members may only be affiliated with a single school. If your school has no club, you can always start your own, as there is no minimum requirement for members. During conference races, though, you can compete with members of other clubs as a composite team for team time trials. Any results you earn, though, will not count toward the season's points, and this applies to the conference season only. No composite teams are allowed at USA Cycling Collegiate Nationals.

The conferences are organized by region, largely, though not always, divided along state lines. There are 11 in all, and they are meant to make traveling to competitions more convenient for you. Check out the map for the break-down of all the conferences.

Collegiate cycling is split into Division I and Division II based on school size, with the threshold for Division I at 15,000 students. Smaller schools can, however, choose to compete at the Division I level if they choose. Here is a complete list of collegiate clubs, and click "Details" to see what division your school competes in.

What’s the difference between a club and varsity team?

Varsity teams are distinguished largely by the amount of funding they get from both their school and outside sponsors. Additionally, they must have a USA Cycling licensed coach. In order to be recognized as a varsity program by USA Cycling, teams have to meet three of the four following criteria:

1.      Does your school recognize you as a varsity program?
2.      Does your team give out at least $10,000 in athlete scholarships per year?
3.      Does your team pay entry for most collegiate races during the year?
4.      Did your team attend 2 USAC Collegiate National Championship events the previous year?
 

You can purchase jerseys from any clothing company you like. Wherever you are, chances are that there is a local clothing company that you can work with if you so choose. It is a good idea, though, to consider a number of manufacturers and compare their prices and minimum order numbers. Consult the "Starting a Club Guide" and "Team Leaders' Guide" for more help, and make sure to check with your school about licensing the school logo before you buy clothes for the first time.

When purchasing your license, if you find that your team is not listed but you know that your school does have one, then contact your club president to get this issue resolved. It is likely that the club membership is simply expired or that some paperwork is missing. For more details, check out this useful article.

How do I renew my collegiate club?

If renewing a club, you have two options.

A) You can renew by filling out the Club Application Form and mailing or faxing it in. You can then pay by check or money order.

B) You can also renew online and pay by credit card as well. If you are already one of the club administrators, you will see a link on your USA Cycling account homepage that says “Manage USA Cycling Clubs.” Clicking on this link will take you to your team’s account page, where you will see all your team’s information. If the club membership is expired, you will see a link that says so and that will allow you to renew and pay right then and there. You will, however, still need to fill out and send in the Collegiate Club Team Eligibility Form.

If you are a current team officer and do not see this link on your account either ask one of the previous team officers to add you as a club administrator or contact us and we can do it for you.

How do I edit the officers and contact info for my collegiate club?

If you are already listed in the USAC database as a contact for your club, you will see a link that says "Manage USA Cycling Clubs" on your account page. (If that link does not appear, someone who is listed as a conctact can log in to their account and add you.) Follow this link to your club's account page and scroll down to "Club Contacts." From here, you can add a contact or edit/delete the current club contacts. If you can't get in contact with anyone that is currently listed as a contact, you can also get in touch with USA Cycling membership and ask them to edit this information for you.

What are the colleges that offer scholarships for cycling?

There are a number of schools that offer full and partial scholarships for cycling. Each does things a little differently, so it is best to speak with someone from those schools to find out how you can qualify for a scholarship and what that means. Visit the Varisty Teams page for a list of schools.

We do have a complete list of collegiate clubs on the Clubs/Teams page. Just click the "Details" link to the right of the school's name for complete club details, including contact information.

How do we get to host a national championship?

National championships work on a two year rotation, remaining in a location for two years at a time. Every other year, we accept bids for new host locations. If you are interested in submitting a host bid, you can find more details, including what events are looking for a host city and all the necessary paperwork, here. You can also find general information on hosting a race in our Hosting a Race guide.
 

Racing

Just go to the Events Search page and select "Collegiate" in the "Race Type" field. You can get more specific from there by specifying your state or city, the date, or even the event name.

Start by talking to your Conference Director to find out what dates are available and what needs to be done to put on the event. If there is one thing we cannot emphasize enough, though, it is that you need to plan ahead! It is never too early to start. If your school has put on a race before, get in touch with whomever was in charge last time. He or she will likely have a lot of useful information that will give you a huge head start. For a rundown of what it takes to put on a race, check out our Hosting a Race guide.

In short, yes. Just have your registrar fill out the eligibility form proving that you are enrolled as a full-time student for the coming semester. Even if you haven't earned any credits yet, if you are enrolled as a full-time student for the coming fall, you are good to go.

To compete in any USA Cycling Collegiate National Championship event, you must be a full-time student during the semester of championship eligbility, which is listed on the Eligbility Verification Form. You must also meet any other eligbility requirements, like race participation, as well as any qualification standards, which are different for every discipline and sometimes vary by conference.

Do I need to participate in my conference season to go to USA Cycling Collegiate Track or Cyclocross National Championships?

The rules for Nationals qualification vary by conference. In some conferences, you must have competed in one conference race if your conference held a track or cyclocross season and if participation in that season is required in your conference (ask your conference director). Participation is not requisite in all conferences, though, so just because your conference held a season does not mean you had to have competed in it in order to qualify. Always make sure to check the specific rules for your conference.

The fields are separted according to collegiate categories. So, there is an A race, a B race, a C race, and so on. Your USAC category does correlate to a collegiate category, though, and some of the collegiate categories encompass more than one USAC category. On the road, for example, A's are Category 1, 2, and 3 riders, while the B's are Category 3 and 4 riders. So a Category 3 rider may choose which collegiate category to compete in.

Collegiate cycling has a sesaon for every discipline. Track runs from summer to September; mountain bike goes from August to October; cyclocross is held from Novermber to January; and road spans from February through May.

Where can I find collegiate results and rankings?

The location of results and rankings will vary by conference. Many conferences post their race results to their conference websites. Some will also post those results here at the USA Cycling website, and you can search for a specific event by simply typing that event's name into the "Search USA Cycling" box. Finally, we keep an archive of all USA Cycling Collegiate Nationals results and an archive of current and past national rankings.
 

Rules

What are the rules on aero equipment?

As of the 2010 road seson, collegiate cycling has a strict no aero equipment policy. This means that, if it's not mass-start legal, you can't use it. So while most helmets are kosher, that disc wheels, tri-spokes, and aero bars won't fly. For more details and a list of what is allowed and what is not, head over to the Rules page.
 

Can I use aero equipment for track races?

Yes, you can use aero equipment at collegiate track races. That means aero bars, disc wheels, etc. are all good to go.