ETSU's teams include men and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and track and field; women's-only softball and volleyball; and men's-only baseball and football.

The Buccaneers compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon).

Led by Ezell, the Bucs made it to the Southern Conference Tournament Championship game falling to No.1 seed Chattanooga in overtime, 61–56.

ETSU appeared in the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) for the third time in school history falling short to NC State, 73–59.

[9] ETSU fielded a team every year until the 2004 season when the decision was made to disband the program based on the recommendations of a 1999 Athletic Task Force and then university president Paul Stanton.

Notable football alumni include Donnie Abraham, Earl Ferrell, Thane Gash, Gerald Sensabaugh and Mike Smith.

A couple of the more memorable highlights of ETSU football history include the 1969 team that went undefeated and beat Louisiana Tech, led by Terry Bradshaw, in the Grantland Rice Bowl in Baton Rouge, LA and the 1996 team that went 10-3 and advanced to the Division I-AA quarterfinals after defeating Villanova, 35–29, in a first-round playoff game in Memorial Center.

[13] Notable ETSU golfers include Eric Axley, Rhys Davies, David Eger, Larry Hinson, Mike Hulbert, Keith Nolan, J. C. Snead, Bobby Wadkins, Garrett Willis and Adrian Meronk.

ETSU accepted the invitation and joined Mercer and VMI in the conference, replacing Appalachian State, Davidson, Elon and Georgia Southern beginning in the league's 2014 season.

Johnson City, home of ETSU, is located among the mountains of Eastern Tennessee and is a great distance from the ocean, but geologists and archaeologists teamed up and discovered an underground river near the university.