National Titles on the Line as NCEA Championship Opens in Ocala

The best collegiate equestrian teams in the country will have to navigate three days of competition from April 18-20 to come away as champions.

The best collegiate equestrian teams from across the country are headed to the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla., as the National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) crowns its 2024 champions. The action starts April 18, wrapping up with the championship finals on April 20. The competition will be streamed live on HorseAndCountry.tv, and scoring updates will be available at CollegeEquestrian.com. 

Here’s a rundown of the biggest storylines to keep an eye on as the action unfolds. 

What To Expect

The NCEA Championship features two brackets – the dual discipline bracket (eight teams) and the single discipline bracket (four teams). Teams taking part in the dual discipline bracket compete in both jumping seat (fences and flat) and western (reining and horsemanship) events, while single discipline teams only compete in jumping seat. 

The action starts early on Thursday with the first round of competition in the dual bracket. The four teams in Session 1 will compete at 8:30 a.m., followed by the other four teams in Session 2 at 2:30 p.m.

The four teams who advance from Thursday in the dual bracket will compete in the semifinals on Friday starting at 9 a.m. In the afternoon, the single discipline bracket competition opens at 2 p.m. 

On Saturday, the action concludes with the singles bracket finals starting at 9 a.m., followed by the dual championship at 10 a.m.

Pictured are the dual (top) and single (bottom) discipline brackets for the NCEA Championship.

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The Texas Three-Step

Horses and Texas remain a winning combination – at least according to the final NCEA rankings of the regular season. 

The top three schools in the poll for much of the 2023-24 season have all hailed from the Lone Star State. 

Since taking down SMU (the defending national champ) in Week 1, TCU (12-2) has sat atop the list all season. Meanwhile, the Mustangs (9-4) spent much of the year ranked third before closing the regular season with a win over the Horned Frogs to jump into the No. 2 spot. 

Texas A&M (9-4) has been in the top three all year, but slipped to No. 3 in the final poll. 

I’ll Have Another

Last season, SMU secured its first national championship in program history. Repeating, however, will be anything but easy. 

The last NCEA program to win consecutive dual discipline national championships was Auburn back in 2018-19. In fact, only Georgia (2003-04 and 2008-10) and Auburn have ever finished with back-to-back championships in league history. 

Meanwhile, in the single discipline bracket, Lynchburg is looking to solidify its position as a dynasty. The top-seeded Hornets (7-2) are going for a third straight single discipline title. Since the single discipline championship was established in 2021, Lynchburg has made the finals each year, losing to Sweet Briar College in its first appearance before securing back-to-back crowns.

League Leaders Under the Radar

The SEC as an underdog? According to the dual discipline bracket seeding, yes. 

TCU lost in the Big 12 Conference meet to Oklahoma State, while SMU competes as an unaffiliated school. Those programs earned the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, in the bracket. 

That puts SEC champion Auburn in at No. 3 overall. The Tigers got to roll Toomer's Corner after winning the league title for the sixth-straight season. The middle of the eight-team bracket is SEC-centric with Texas A&M, Georgia and South Carolina holding spots four, five and seven, respectively. 

After a fourth-straight Big 12 title, Oklahoma State earned the No. 6 seed, while UC Davis captured the No. 8 slot with a .500 record. The Aggies (6-6) won the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference title for a second-straight year but have upset potential. They posted close outcomes with SMU (11-9 loss) and Oklahoma State (10-10 loss on raw score) during the regular season. 

Welcome to the Party

For the first time in program history, Dartmouth is headed to the NCEA Championship. The team went 4-3 overall this season, earning the No. 3 seed in the single discipline bracket.

It's a big jump for the Big Green who joined the NCEA during the 2021-22 season and finished last season with a 1-7 record.