varsity

plural varsities

1. attributivecountableoftenuncountableUniversity.

   […] and then to lyrically proclaim that, not only was it a way they had in the Varsity to drive dull care away, but that the same practice was also pursued in the army and navy for the attainment of a similar end.

   1853, Cuthbert Bede [pseudonym; Edward Bradley], “Mr. Verdant Green’s Morning Reflections are not so pleasant as his Evening Diversions”, in The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, London: Nathaniel Cooke, […], →OCLC, page 71

2. UScountableuncountablehobbiesThe principal sports team representing an institution (usually a high school, college, or university.)

   A small Pennsylvania university has only one varsity program: e-sports. Is this the future of college athletics?

   2019 November 13, Luke Winkie, “Why Colleges Are Betting Big on Video Games”, in The Atlantic

   1 more example

   There were sixteen of them in all, for the most part upper classmen who had failed to make the varsity the year before, with a sprinkling of sophomores and two freshmen.

   1903, Ralph Henry Barbour, C. M. Relyea, Weatherby's Inning: A Story of College Life and Baseball, New York: D. Appleton and Company