| | Cal Baptist moving to NCAA Division I RIVERSIDE - California Baptist University announced Friday that it will begin the process of moving to NCAA Division I, college athletics highest level.
The school accepted an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference, which is the first step in a multi-year transition from CBU’s current status as an NCAA Division II member, and will put the small Riverside school in the same competitive pool as UCLA, USC, and cross-town neighbor UC Riverside. “We’re making this decision based on where we think CBU is and what we think is best for us going forward,” CBU president Ronald Ellis said. CBU will continue to compete in the NCAA Division II PacWest Conference next season before joining the WAC beginning with the 2018-2019 season. A four-year transition period is required before the Lancers are official members of Division I and eligible to compete in Division I postseason events. The school will be eligible for the postseason in the 2022-2023 season. Ellis said the timing was right for the move. Division I is the top echelon of collegiate sports and the building blocks have been set at CBU, both on the field and internally. Division I offers more exposure to the school and the athletes, and is also a branding opportunity, he said.
The announcement comes just five years after CBU made the leap from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, typically a level for smaller, less funded programs, and transitioned to the NCAA and the PacWest Conference. Since then, the Lancer programs have thrived, winning 24 conference titles and placing fourth in the nation among Division II schools in last season’s Learfield Directors’ Cup, which ranks schools’ overall athletic success. Cal Baptist is also building a $73 million on-campus arena which is set to open this spring. Ellis noted the new arena was part of series of building blocks set in place to eventually make the move.“One thing about our university, it’s been my experience, that you are given a directive on where you’re going and then you’re given the resources and encouraged to make that happen,” said athletic director Micah Parker, who was tasked with spearheading the move. “There are expectations.” Parker said the move probably won’t be a surprise to anyone who followed the program. Even as an NAIA member, Cal Baptist dominated the competition and competed at a high level, with baseball and softball facilities comparable to bigger schools and even some Division I programs.
Ellis, who came to CBU in 1994 when there were about 800 students, said he envisioned the whole campus growing rapidly, and that included athletics. The first goal was to get a successful NAIA program ready to move to the NCAA. Planning for that move took several years, he said, but when CBU filed its application to join the NCAA in July of 2010, the pieces were in place. He also noted the campus now has more than 9,000 students and is projected to grow to 12,000 by 2025. The move went smoothly and the Lancers became a force in the PacWest in nearly every sport. The program has won four PacWest Commissioner’s Cups in its five years and won nine conference championships last season.“We thought we’d be successful in Division II but we didn’t know for sure,” Parker said. All the while, CBU was looking at the bigger picture, Parker said. The preparation, experience and success of making the leap to Division II helped in planning for the ultimate move to Division I. “When we went to DII we felt very strongly that we fit,” Ellis said. “It wasn’t like we were going to go and then get there.” When UC Riverside moved from Division II to Division I in 2000, the program struggled financially after its budget was cut prior to joining the Big West. UCR’s initiation into Division I was painful because the department never seemed to have enough resources or school backing to fully thrive.
Parker won’t compare CBU’s move to UCR, even as a cautionary tale. But, as a private institution, CBU doesn’t have the same budgetary constraints as a state or UC school.“Every school has their issues that they have to deal with,” Parker said. One issue CBU hasn’t had a problem with is funding. Parker said all CBU teams are currently fully funded to Division II scholarship levels. There will be more scholarships available at the Division I level and the plan is to keep the teams at the maximum allowed. “We’ll have to do more fundraising,” Parker said. “We’ve done well for DII, but we’ll have to step it up … our intention and plan to fund so we can be successful.” Parker said when he hired men’s basketball coach Rick Croy and women’s basketball coach Jarrod Olson, he told them about the possibility of a new arena and a potential move to Division I. “I told them don’t be unhappy if we don’t have an arena, but I believe we’re going to have an arena,” Parker said. “There’s a possibility that we would be moving up, but don’t come here if that’s the thing that makes you happy … I told them everything I was told when I was hired that was possible to happen, has happened. I think they can say the same thing.” Croy, who was an assistant at UCR when the Highlanders made the move in 2000, has built his program into a PacWest favorite. CBU is ranked No. 5 in the country. Olson’s women’s team is No. 8 in the nation in this week’s WBCA Coaches poll and has already guided the program to an NCAA Division II championship game two years ago.
“I always sensed that the university’s constantly trying to move things forward and be better than they were yesterday,” Croy said. “I think the mindset here and direction of the leadership is to strive for improvement and I think this move reflects that. There’s a lot of energy behind it.” Both coaches said they don’t expect their recruiting process to change much as the Division I era approaches. “Some players are going to find themselves on a team they were not recruited toward, as far as a level,” Olson said, referring to freshmen and sophomores that will be playing a Division I schedule in two years. “There’s going to be some growing pains with that. On both of our teams, the type of competitors we have, they’ll embrace that.” The move does not require the school to add any teams, but upgrades to the soccer field and baseball and softball stadiums and possibly aquatics are being discussed. The men’s and women’s water polo teams will remain in their leagues, the men in the Western Water Polo Association and the women in the Golden Coast Conference. The wrestling team, which currently competes in the DII Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, will have to find a new Division I affiliation. After years of planning, Parker said things are just getting started at CBU. “We’re not going to change who we are,” he said. “We’re going to be changing who we’re competing against.” BY ALLAN STEELE / STAFF WRITER |
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