Varsity ===
The university sponsors 20 sports, nine for men and eleven for women. The athletics teams, nicknamed the Barons, compete in NCAA Division III as members of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) after completing a transition from the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference in July 2020.
The Barons started their PAC transition by joining for men's and women's lacrosse in 2018–19. For 2019–20, Franciscan added women's golf, plus indoor and outdoor track & field for both men and women, to its PAC membership. Finally, the school became a full PAC member in 2020–21.
The mascot of the university's sports teams is Baron von Steuben, modeled after Prussian military officer Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben.
The men's rugby team is a member of the National Collegiate Rugby and competes in the Allegheny Rugby Union Conference. In 2001 Franciscan became the second college in the nation, of any division, to have a varsity rugby club. In July 2011, Franciscan signed a three-year sponsorship agreement with …
