Among its earliest students included inventor and industrialist Elmer A. Sperry of Sperry Rand Corp.[3] In 1941, by an action made by the Board of Regents, the institution became a four-year college known as the “Cortland State Teachers College,” where students could earn a bachelor’s degree.

Today, approximately 6,800 students are pursuing degrees within the college's three academic divisions—arts and sciences, education and professional studies.

The college competes in NCAA Division III in the State University of New York Athletic Conference for most sports.

SUNY Cortland has had the most regional successful men's and women's intercollegiate athletics program in New York over the past two decades.

In 1995, the Sears Directors' Cup was established to gauge and recognize the most successful intercollegiate athletics programs in the nation.

SUNY Cortland is one of only five colleges and universities in the U.S. to have finished every year among the Top 25 NCAA Division III programs.

The competition is sponsored by USA Today, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, and Learfield Sports.

The Cortland Red Dragons annually play Ithaca College Bombers for the Cortaca Jug, which was added in 1959 to an already competitive rivalry.

[14] Cortland also plays rival SUNY school Oswego each year for the "Dragon Sword" in Women's Field Hockey.

The sword was donated by Oswego alumni Kimberlee (Bennett) and Michael Champitto and began play annually in 1999.

Cortland snapped Salisbury University's 69-game win streak to capture the 2006 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Div.

The Cortland women captured seven NCAA Division III national championships in a nine-year span between 1989 and 1997 (1989, 1991–95, 1997).

III tournament and captured the first-ever U.S. National Women's Soccer Championship in 1980, defeating UCLA in the finals.