Chapman Baseball Moving to NCAA Division I in 1992

The Chapman College baseball program is planning to leave the NCAA’s Division II in 1992 and compete in Division I, Chapman President Allen Koenig announced Wednesday.

Chapman, ranked 18th in Division II, has won five of eight games against Division I teams this year, but Panther Coach Mike Weathers said scheduling Division I opponents had been difficult. He said Division I teams are reluctant to schedule games against lower-division teams because national rankings are based in part on the quality of opponents.

“There would be no reason for them not to schedule us, where in the past they did have a legitimate reason not to play,” Weathers said.

Moving to Division I will also bolster the school’s recruiting, Weathers said.

“(It) was becoming a problem trying to deal with the student who wanted to play at the Division I level,” he said. “We always fought the identity of being Division II.”

Before shaking that identity, the Panthers will have another season in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. Chapman, which plans to formally notify the CCAA of its plans in May or June, must wait a year for NCAA approval.

Weathers said he is involved in trying to form a new Division I baseball conference, which might include such teams as Grand Canyon College in Arizona, U.S. International in San Diego and Cal State Sacramento.

The move to Division I will not mean much to the baseball team’s budget, Weathers said, and there are no plans to increase the number of scholarships, which currently is eight.

The move will not effect the college’s other nine varsity sports, said Koenig.

“Unlike basketball, (where) if we went Division I we would have to push everything else up, we are not faced with that decision here,” Koenig said.