{"id":63573,"date":"2026-03-10T18:07:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63573"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:08:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:08:02","slug":"florida-polytechnic-university-officially-announced-today-march-10-2026-that-it-is-launching-a-new-athletics-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/10\/florida-polytechnic-university-officially-announced-today-march-10-2026-that-it-is-launching-a-new-athletics-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Polytechnic University officially announced today, March 10, 2026, that it is launching a new athletics program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

That is a huge move for the Phoenix! Florida Polytechnic University officially announced today, March 10, 2026<\/strong>, that it is launching a new varsity athletics program and is in active discussions to join the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)<\/strong> and the Sun Conference<\/strong>.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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Florida Polytechnic University, the state\u2019s only university exclusively dedicated to STEM education, is launching Florida Poly Athletics, a new collegiate athletics program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This marks a major transition from their existing club-level sports to a fully-fledged collegiate athletics department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Inaugural Varsity Lineup<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Starting in Fall 2026<\/strong>, Florida Poly will field teams in eight varsity sports.<\/sup> The university is specifically looking for “STEM athletes” who want to balance high-level academics with competitive play.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sport<\/strong><\/td>Teams<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Soccer<\/strong><\/td>Men\u2019s & Women\u2019s<\/td><\/tr>
Cross Country<\/strong><\/td>Men\u2019s & Women\u2019s<\/td><\/tr>
Basketball<\/strong><\/td>Men\u2019s & Women\u2019s<\/td><\/tr>
Baseball<\/strong><\/td>Men\u2019s<\/td><\/tr>
Softball<\/strong><\/td>Women\u2019s<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Key Milestones & Launch Details<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • First Matches:<\/strong> The program kicks off very soon! The men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer teams are scheduled to play their first matches against the New College of Florida<\/strong> in Sarasota on August 20 and 29, 2026<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Hiring Phase:<\/strong> The university is beginning its search for foundational coaches, starting specifically with softball and cross-country<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Student Impact:<\/strong> The program expects to bring about 150 student-athletes<\/strong> to the Lakeland campus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Esports Integration:<\/strong> While separate from the NAIA move, this follows the recent February 2026 opening of the university’s state-of-the-art Esports Arena<\/strong>, showing a massive push for a more traditional “campus life” experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    This shift is a clever way to deepen ties with the Lakeland and Polk County communities. It\u2019s definitely going to change the vibe on campus from “exclusively heads-down coding” to a more high-energy, “game day” environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    That is a huge move for the Phoenix! Florida Polytechnic University officially announced today, March 10, 2026, that it is launching a new varsity athletics program and is in active… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL0Zsb3JpZGFfUG9seXRlY2huaWNfVW5pdmVyc2l0eV9GbG9yaWRhX1BvbHlfQXRobGV0aWNzLndlYnA_Zml0PTQwMCUyQzI2NyZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkZsb3JpZGEgUG9seXRlY2huaWMgVW5pdmVyc2l0eSBvZmZpY2lhbGx5IGFubm91bmNlZCB0b2RheSwgTWFyY2ggMTAsIDIwMjYsIHRoYXQgaXQgaXMgbGF1bmNoaW5nIGEgbmV3IGF0aGxldGljcyBwcm9ncmFtIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.CCrhtGGfWibD49mN5c26Xm8fKwxV3gFs3voxWigeq2UMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13094,14007,14008,14009],"class_list":["post-63573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-13094","tag-florida-polytechnic-university-officially-announced-today","tag-march-10","tag-that-it-is-launching-a-new-athletics-program"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63575,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63573\/revisions\/63575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}