D-I vs. D-II

If you want to play baseball at the next level, don't put all of your eggs in one D-I basket. If a D-I school doesn't come calling, don't give up...D-II baseball is a great way to continue with the game you love, get a great education and experience a similar college lifestyle. Here are a few pointers to go by.

Quality of Baseball...It depends on where you play. There are some California, Texas, Georgia and Florida D-II's that would be very competitive with small conference D-I's in the Midwest and Northeast. UC San Diego comes to mind. While D-I is better overall from a talent standpoint, there is some great ball being played at D-II.

Quality of Coaching...Again, there have been and are some very good D-II coaches that can flat out coach. Andy Lopez at Arizona coached at Cal State Dominguez Hills, Dan O'Brien at Santa Clara had great success at UC San Diego are just a few examples. There may be more quality coaches at the D-I level, but D-II coaching has recently been a great stepping stone to the next level.

Quality of Scouts...No Doubt, more scouts hang out where the talent is more abundant, but if a player can play, they will be found. A case in point, SF Giants Ryan Vogelsong played at a D-II...and here locally, Sonoma State has had quite of few players drafted in recent years...more than a few California D-I's.

Quality of Education...In my state of California, I can argue that Cal Poly Pomona, UC San Diego, Cal Baptist, Azuza Pacific and I am sure a whole lot more in other states that are better than most D-I's academically. There is a lot of parity academically between Fresno State, San Jose St, Sacramento State, Long Beach, Fullerton and Northridge and their D-II Cal State counterparts. Education is why you are going to college in the first place right? You may be surprised at how much better a D-II education can be.

Quality of Facilities...Here in California, there are a few D-I's that don't measure up from a facilities standpoint...For example, there aren't many facilities worse than USF and UCSB...regardless of the Division.

Northridge, Bakersfield and San Jose States Blethen Field (part time with Muni...which is a great stadium) are very mediocre and there are many D-II's that are at least equal or better. But, for the most part, D-I's have the better facilities because football money brings in the revenue. But again, no school is going to 100% perfect...Measure all the positives before making a decision.