What Is Division I Baseball?

Division I, or D-1, baseball is major college baseball. There are 31 Division I baseball conferences in the National Collegiate Athletic Association and 300 schools competing at that level. The championship tournament includes 64 teams and culminates in the eight-team College World Series each year in Omaha, Nebraska.

College Baseball Levels

There are many levels of college baseball. While NCAA Division I baseball generally features the highest level of collegiate competition, baseball is also played at the NCAA Division II and Division III levels. National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics schools also compete in baseball, as do schools in the National Junior College Athletic Association and the California Community College Athletic Association.

Division I Conferences

The D-1 conferences are the America East, Atlantic 10, Atlantic Coast, Atlantic Sun, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Conference USA, Great West, Horizon, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Pacific 10, Patriot, Southeastern, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast and Western Athletic.

Competitive Levels Within Division I

All Division I schools may offer the equivalent of 11.7 athletic scholarships to players each season. But as the website High School Baseball Web notes, "This does not suggest that each college program offers the full amount of possible scholarships for each sport. That decision is governed by each school's sports budget and other factors." Disparities exist within Division I. Of the 64 teams in the 2011 Division I national tourney, for instance, 30 came from four conferences: the ACC, SEC, Big 12 and Pac-10.

The Warm Weather Advantage

Division I schools in warm weather states tend to fare much better than schools in the North and Northeast. "The State Journal-Register" out of Springfield, Illinois noted that more than 90 percent of the teams that reached the College World Series from 1985 to 2009 came from 14 West Coast or Sun Belt states. "Basically, Division I baseball is in control by 20 percent of the schools in the West Coast and the south," Ohio State coach Bob Todd told the newspaper. "The NCAA doesn't offer any other sport that's so one-sided." Schools like Wisconsin, Iowa State, Northern Iowa, Colorado and Vermont decided to drop baseball in recent years. "There's no way to create an even playing field, unless there's global warming," Rice coach Wayne Graham told the newspaper. "The only way to make a level playing field is if every school in the north wanted to build a plastic dome."

College Baseball: Springboard to the Pros

Big League teams drafted 10 Division I college players in the first 13 picks of the 2008 amateur draft. This was indicative of a bigger trend in the sport. "Clubs are drafting more college players, because they are more advanced and mature," Frank Marcos, director of Major League Baseball's Scouting Bureau, told MLB.com. "Clubs today are less willing to have patience with the younger players. Clubs are more willing to draft the college players and take their chances with them. Also, the later-round high school players are deciding to go to college more."