The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and Lady Toppers are the athletic teams that represent Western Kentucky University. The men's teams uses the name Hilltoppers; however, the women's teams use the name Lady Toppers. The university's athletic program fields 17 varsity teams in 11 different sports. WKU participates in the Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and competes as a member of Conference USA. On March 12, 2010, Ross Bjork, who was the senior associate athletic director for Development and External Relations for the UCLA Bruins, replaced Dr. Wood Selig, as WKU's athletic director. But in March 2012, Bjork accepted the job as athletic director at Ole Miss. Todd Stewart, who had served as Senior Associate Athletic Director since 2010, was named interim athletic director until May when he was officially named athletic director. On April 1, 2013, it was announced Western Kentucky would depart the Sun Belt Conference for Conference USA, effective July 1, 2014.
Sports sponsored
A member of Conference USA, Western Kentucky sponsors teams in seven men's and nine women's NCAA sanctioned sports. On April 14, 2015, WKU announced that it would suspend its men's and women's swimming and diving teams for at least 5 years, effective immediately. This followed a police investigation into claims of assault and hazing by a former men's team member which in turn found multiple violations of university policies on harassment and sexual misconduct.
is currently a member of Conference USA. Previously, the school was a member of the Gateway Conference through the 2006 football season and then began its 2-year transition into becoming a full Division I FBS member. As a member of Division I-AA, now Division I FCS, the Hilltoppers won a Division 1-AA Football Championship in 2002. In 2008, the Hilltoppers were among the Division I-A Independents, along with the Army Black Knights, Navy Midshipmen and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In 2009, the Hilltoppers completed the transition and joined the Sun Belt Conference. In 2015, the Hilltoppers clinched the Conference USA championship, won the Miami Beach Bowl and finished ranked 24th in the final Associated Press college football poll. Following Jeff Brohm's departure to Purdue after back to back Conference USA Titles in 2015 & 2016, Mike Sanford Jr. was hired as his replacement. In his first season, Sanford posted a 6-7 record. His second season saw Western Kentucky finish 3–9, its worst finish since 2010. Shortly following the end of the season, Sanford was relieved of his duties as head coach. The current head coach is Tyson Helton who came to Western Kentucky after serving one season as the offensive coordinator under Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt
Baseball
WKU baseball competes at Nick Denes Field. The team won the Sun Belt Conference championship in 2009, their first Sun Belt title. First Year: 1910 All-Time Record:1736–1448–17 Conference Championships: 3 Tournament Championships: 2 NCAA Tournaments:4 Postseason Record:6–8 Best Record : 47–13–1 Best in NCAA’s :.3–2 Players Drafted:54
Men's golf
The men's golf team has won 10 conference championships:
