Nick CamachoIf everything goes according to plan, UC Davis will soon join Cal Poly and others in the Big West Conference by summer of this year.
The move into Division I means the Aggies will have to make plenty of changes to all 26 of their intercollegiate sports programs. UC Davis athletics director Greg Warzecka said the school made a wise decision.
“I feel very good about the progress we made and the decision we made to move to Division I,” Warzecka said. “It was the right decision.”
Warzecka explained how the rules of Division I would be different from Division II, from which UC Davis is currently transitioning.
“I’ve stated publicly many times it’s a big, big jump, especially in this day and age,” Warzecka said. “The rules and regulations are much different from Division II to Division I.”
Warzecka noted that changes have to be made to meet Division I requirements. These include bringing staff to higher levels, establishing a strong eligibility and compliance office and upgrading sports facilities to meet new standards.
However, there is excitement within the UC Davis community because of the move. Assistant athletics director for media relations Mike Robles said the change would bring benefits.
“You become much more familiar with the other schools,” Robles said. “We started to develop rivalries with the schools and competitive relationships as well as working relationships. You feel much more like a part of it.”
The Big West is currently comprised of Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge and Pacific.
Robles thought it was a “defining moment” for UC Davis to be considered for Division I.
However, Warzecka said that compliance with the new rules has a high price, especially when it comes to maintaining certain sports programs.
“Schools have called on occasion and wondered what the cost would be to start a football program and maintain it,” Warzecka said. “It’s clearly a five to 10 million dollar venture.”
Cal Poly and UC Davis will be the only Big West schools with football programs – both competing in the patchwork, football-only Great West Football Conference.
Reaching the Division I level also introduced compliance issues with Title IX, which means that there has to be teams established for both men and women in an equitable manner. Under those rules, colleges with a football program have to provide something in return for women.
Cal Poly, for example, has no intercollegiate men’s volleyball program.
“Usually a school that’s thinking about adding football would also consider adding two or three sports for women,” Warzecka said. “It has to (be) balanced out in terms of a gender-equity perspective.”
Warzecka explained how the process of changing divisions worked within the NCAA.
“We still have some more paperwork to do,” Warzecka said. “It’s a very complicated and bureaucratic process with the NCAA.”
Warzecka said that the process of changing sports divisions takes about four years to complete. He said the campus has to file its last report by June 1, and the NCAA will make its final decision on the change sometime this summer.
“They did not tell us when the official letter was going to come,” Warzecka said. “The assumption is that everything will go smooth.”
Warzecka said that acceptance into Division I will bring higher visibility to the intercollegiate sports programs at UC Davis. But Robles noted that athletics was the “front door of the university.”
“Seeing your score across the bottom of the crawl on ESPN on a Saturday afternoon is a big deal,” Robles said. “It would bring in more attention than maybe what you have gotten otherwise.”