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New Jersey currently has four teams from major professional sports leagues playing in the state, although the Major League Soccer team and two National Football League teams identify themselves as being from New York.
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Professional sports
The National Hockey League's New Jersey Devils, based in Newark at the Prudential Center, is the only major league franchise to bear the state's name.
The Metropolitan Area's two National Football League teams, the New York Giants and the New York Jets, both play in the Meadowlands Sports Complex at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. At completion, with a construction cost of approximately $1.6 billion, the venue is the most expensive stadium ever built. On February 2, 2014, MetLife Stadium was the host for Super Bowl XLVIII.
The New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer play in Red Bull Arena, a soccer-specific stadium located in Harrison outside of downtown Newark.
From 1977 to 2012, New Jersey had a National Basketball Association team, the New Jersey Nets. Also, WNBA's New York Liberty played at New Jersey from 2011 to 2013.
The sports complex is also home to the Meadowlands Racetrack, one of three major harness racing tracks in the state. The Meadowlands Racetrack along with Freehold Raceway in Freehold are two of the major harness racing tracks in North America. Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport is also a popular spot for thoroughbred racing in New Jersey and the northeast. It hosted the Breeders' Cup in 2007, and its turf course was renovated in preparation.
Major schools
New Jerseyans' collegiate allegiances are predominantly split among the three major NCAA Division I programs in the state – the Rutgers University (New Jersey's largest state university) Scarlet Knights, members of the Big Ten Conference; the Pirates of Seton Hall University (which is the state's largest Catholic university) Pirates, members of the Big East Conference;, and the Princeton University (the state's Ivy League university) Tigers.
Rutgers and Princeton likewise have an intense rivalry – stemming from the first intercollegiate football game in 1869 – though the two schools have not met on the football field since 1980. They continue to play each other annually in all other sports offered by the two universities.
Rutgers, which fields 24 teams in various sports, is nationally known for its excellent football and women's basketball programs. The university is planning a large expansion to the on-campus Rutgers Stadium – to accommodate the rising number of fans – and the teams play in Piscataway, which is adjacent to the New Brunswick campus. The university also fields rising basketball and baseball programs. Rutgers' fan base is mostly derived from the western parts of the state and Middlesex County, not to mention its alumni base, which is the largest in the state.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, also has campuses in Camden and Newark (in addition to its main campus in New Brunswick). The Rutgers–Camden athletic teams are called the Scarlet Raptors. The Rutgers–Newark athletic teams are called the Scarlet Raiders. The Scarlet Raiders and the Scarlet Raptors both compete within NCAA Division III.
Seton Hall, unlike Rutgers, does not field a football team. Its basketball team, however, has been one of the most storied programs in the Big East, and it plays its home games at the state-of-the-art Prudential Center, located in downtown Newark. The Pirates, while lacking as large an alumni base as the state university, have a large well of support in the predominantly Roman Catholic areas of the northern part of the state and the Jersey Shore.
Other schools
The state's other Division I schools include the Monmouth University Hawks (West Long Branch), the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Highlanders (Newark), the Rider University Broncs (Lawrenceville), and the Saint Peter's College Peacocks and Peahens (Jersey City).
Fairleigh Dickinson University competes in both Division I and Division III. It has two campuses, each with its own sports teams. The teams at the Metropolitan Campus are known as the FDU Knights, and compete in the Northeast Conference and NCAA Division I. The College at Florham (FDU-Florham) teams are known as the FDU-Florham Devils and compete in the Middle Atlantic Conferences' Freedom Conference and NCAA Division III.
Among the various Division III schools in the state, the Stevens Institute of Technology Ducks have fielded the longest continuously running collegiate men's lacrosse program in the country. 2009 marked the 125th season.
High school sports
New Jersey high schools are divided into divisions under the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.(NJSIAA) ' Founded in 1918, the NJSIAA currently represents 22,000 schools, 330,000 coaches, and almost 4.5 million athletes. Sports are divided between 3 seasons (fall, winter, and spring).
Academies and Clubs
New Jersey also features a collection of sports leagues, clubs, and academies for athletic training. Like many suburban communities, most New Jersey towns have individual leagues for America's most popular sports - baseball, softball, football, cheerleading, basketball, soccer, etc.