How much difference is there between D-I, D-II and D-III

[CoogansBluff]

I realize there is some overlap between teams in all classes. But how much?

How would the top five D-II teams do in D-I? What about the low-end of the top 20 in D-II?

How good are the best D-III teams? How would Tufts and Salisbury do at D-II?

How bad are the worst D-I teams?

Guess we could throw NAIA and JUCO in the discussion, as well.

And are all those teams allowed to play each other? What are the rules there?

 

[Greenmonsters]

D1 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
D2 .............XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
D3 ............................XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
JUCO....... ?????????????????????????????????????????

IMO, there is overlap of the lower half/bottom of D1 as there are a number of D1 ability players playing D3 and JUCO; however there aren't very many D3 ability players playing D1.

YE and MMV

 

[iMlearning]

Agree

The biggest difference is size of the athletes. I think many D3 would be fine at D2. Some mid-major D1s could, likewise, be middle of the road in D2.

In D3, they don't have to stay playing softball so many quit before senior year, and you get young teams. JUCOs obviously have young teams, but you also have some really bad coaching as they don't pay squat. It is like glorified HS. I have seen the Club teams from the D1s play the JUCOs. I have not seen a 'small time' school play a 'big time school' in decades.

I have a feeling Salisbury would do great, even if in a D1 mid-major division.

I agree with this. Our local JUCO said they will take any girl who wants to play in college as long as they played in our area during HS. I know a girl that got offered a scholarship to play at a D1 school but went to Salisbury to play. She hated it and then went to play at the D1 school and said it was actually easier than Salisbury. She only spent one year at each before going into nursing. DD has the pleasure of splitting time at 3rd with a girl that plays for Salisbury. Good motivation!
We noticed at the few D2/D3 schools we went to the girls seemed a lot smaller overall compared the D1 schools also.

 

[riseball]

The biggest difference is size of the athletes. I think many D3 would be fine at D2. Some mid-major D1s could, likewise, be middle of the road in D2.

In D3, they don't have to stay playing softball so many quit before senior year, and you get young teams. JUCOs obviously have young teams, but you also have some really bad coaching as they don't pay squat. It is like glorified HS. I have seen the Club teams from the D1s play the JUCOs. I have not seen a 'small time' school play a 'big time school' in decades.

I have a feeling Salisbury would do great, even if in a D1 mid-major division.

You need to get out more



In addition to 10 innings vs South Carolina this small time 2,000 student JUCO also played:

Tennessee
Georgia Tech x2
FSU
Florida x2
Plus 8 other D-I programs.

Other JUCO's also played top tier teams such as Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, etc.

The only real difference is the number of scholarships. If you exclude the teams that make it to the D-I Super's you find a good deal of parity across all classifications. There are very strong teams and teams that are awful. You need to find a school that is the right mix of academics and athletic competitiveness.

There are two types of players:

Those that go to school to get an education and play softball.

Those that got to school to play softball and get an education.

Neither is right or wrong, but what they look for in a school is very different.

If a player is highly competitive and wants to play at a high level they need to find that program that provides that experience. If softball is fun and simply a means to an end for an education they may not want the rigors of a highly competitive softball program.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

My DD played juco, during the fall we played all levels, D1 down. Lost some, won some.

During the spring season, I saw a lot of players I thought "wow, why is she only in juco"? I also saw a few I thought "wow, has she ever played softball before"?

The rule of thumb is the higher the level, the more consistent good players they have. ( team roster ) The lower levels may have a stud or two or three, but the roster drops off a cliff past them.

My opinion.

 

[iMlearning]

There is a JUCO team about 45 minutes away that I hear beats a lot of D1 teams in the fall and a lot of their girls move on to bigger schools. A girl there also said the school is probably going to turn into a 4 year institution fairly soon. I wonder if the D1 teams are not playing their best players...maybe checking out the freshman etc..,?

 

[CoogansBluff]

I just found this online. Every college team is computer-ranked based on 2014. It ranks D-III power Salisbury around #188, ahead of Maryland, for example. Maryland had a rough season. But there has to be some (not necessarily a lot) of inter-division play in order for rankings to work, so I'm not sure of the methodology. The guy who does it, Kenneth Massey, was one of the six computer rankers for the former BCS of college football.

Regardless of whether the intermixing of divisions is accurate, the rankings of teams within their own division is very good. Based on one season, of course.

Massey Ratings - CSOFT

 

[CoogansBluff]

Here is more fun.

Play around with this device -

Massey Ratings

You can enter two teams from any division, and the computer will estimate how often one team would beat the other.

For example, D-I App State would beat D-III Meredith College 84 percent of the time.

Another: Arizona would beat D-III national champion Tufts 96 percent of the time.

Massey Ratings

D-II national power North Georgia would beat Georgia Tech 37 percent of the time, but Georgia only 6 percent of the time.

Good stuff.

 

[Ajaywill]

I think the answer to this question is VERY regional, at least concerning the JUCOs.

I know that California JUCOs do not play in the NJCAA national tournaments each year and have their own tournament within California. I believe that Washington and Oregon are the same.

Here in Arizona, we have a somewhat unique situation....After Arizona, ASU, and Grand Canyon (moved to DI in 2013, WAC), we only have two NAIA 4 year schools, both of which have relatively new softball programs, then our JUCO league. In our JUCO league, there are 5 NJCAA DI schools and 8 NJCAA DII schools. The DI schools will routinely play in the fall against Arizona, ASU and GCU, as well as the NAIA schools. Our best JUCO teams would be competitive in DII or DIII, and have routinely placed very high at NJCAA Nationals over the past 15 years or so with several championships and runner up finishes.

 

[CoogansBluff]

This is some good stuff. I typed in my dd's team into the Massey Ratings and it says that they are ranked 119. I then typed in the names of D-I teams from two area D-I conferences and, to be honest, I think it was about as fair an assessment as possible. For example, dd's team would beat one of these teams by a high percentage and has done that in real games. One other D-I school that they play would be about 50-50. I agree. Although that rating system is just for fun, I had a blast using it. Thanks for posting the link!

Looks like Massey is saying your DD's team would be a very good mid-major D-I school, but would struggle to win games in the major conferences.