[2] The Knights previously competed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) of the NCAA Division II ranks from 1978–79 to 2019–20.
On June 18, 2019, it was officially announced that the Knights would join the ASUN beginning in the 2020–21 school year, starting a four-year transition to NCAA Division I.
[4] Men's and women's swimming and diving joined the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA), a league with which the ASUN is a partner.
The Bellarmine aquatics program is now housed in the ASUN, which effectively absorbed the swimming & diving side of the CCSA in 2023–24.
Bellarmine competes in 25 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, sprint football, swimming, tennis, track & field[a 1] and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field,[a 1] volleyball.
[12] Tragedy struck the Knights Lacrosse program in October 2010 when coach McGetrick died after a long battle with cancer.
Bellarmine was joined in the revived ASUN league by five new single-sport members—Air Force, which also moved from SoCon lacrosse; Detroit Mercy, previously a single-sport member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference; and three of the four 2021 independents in Cleveland State, Robert Morris, and Utah.
[19] That same year student Ted Wade became the first black player on an integrated college basketball team in Kentucky.
Valvano is an ESPN personality and was a member of Mensa, an international organization for only the brightest two percent of people on Earth.
[21][22] On March 26, 2011, the Knights won its first NCAA Division II National Championship, led by guards Jeremy Kendle and Braydon Hobbs.
Headed by Coach Chase Broughton Bellarmine announced in June 2021 that it would add sprint football as a varsity sport effective in 2022–23.
[26] The Knights play home games at Brother Thomas More Page Stadium[27] on the nearby campus of Saint Xavier High School.