History
Rowing is an NCAA championship sport for women only. The first championship meet was held in 1997 at Rancho Cordova, California. Division II and Division II championships were added in 2002.
In Division I, schools have to enter two eight-oared shells and one four-oared shell to compete for the team championship, which is limited to 12 entries. Another four schools that don't compete for the team championship are selected to enter eight-oared shells.
In the first year of the Division II championship, there were two races for eight-oared shells. One of them replaced by four-oared shell competition in 2003.
The Division III championship has only eight-oared competition, so the school that wins automatically wins the team championship.