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

[riseball]

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
Mark Twain

 

[marriard]

Here you go:

D-I Alcorn State would LOSE to D-III Tufts 94% of the time. And I think that is generous towards Alcorn State. Having seen both teams play last year I see no way Alcorn State beats Tufts even if everything went right for them.

My experience has always been that the top 1/4-1/3 of DII & DIII would be competitive as a mid-DI team but would struggle in a top conference. And that the bottom 1/4 of DI would remain at the bottom of DII or DIII

 

[riseball]

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.

My DD's JUCO team was beating GT 4-2 until they made a pitching change.

 

[Rocketech1]

You need to get out more

View attachment 7067

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.

But isn't it safe to say that college fall ball is the "silly season" where big D1's will play smaller schools in basically scrimmages to evaluate all the talent on their roster and rotate their line-ups liberally and frequently. For example, last month I watched Texas play a small, local catholic college and Texas used 5 pitchers in the game and in certain innings they placed runners on the bases so teams could work on certain defensive assignments and offensive game situations. The bottom-line is that unless both teams are playing full strength it is very difficult to compare the competitiveness of these teams.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

We hear it here all the time in DFP : "my D1 potential DD is planning on going to the local itty-bitty-college down the street" -or- "my D1 potential DD is going to go to D2/D3/Juco because of this family/scholastic/etc reason"

Point being I think D1 level capable SB players scatter all over the place. Give a juco team a Monica Abbott and they have a great chance to win allot of multi-level games....

SB players are fickle. I understand now that the best player that I know of that came out of my little area (Horizon League freshman POTY just up and stopped SB after her first year! - I don't get it.... fickle.....)

 

[SoCal_Dad]

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

IMO, there is more overlap between the different levels and the real difference is the distribution of teams across the range. To demonstrate, here is the representation for a mythical distribution of teams (%) across 10 levels of play.

D1 10.15.40.12.10.06.04.02.01.00

D2 00.03.20.35.18.10.07.04.02.01

D3 00.01.05.20.30.20.10.07.04.03

etc.

 

[riseball]

But isn't it safe to say that college fall ball is the "silly season" where big D1's will play smaller schools in basically scrimmages to evaluate all the talent on their roster and rotate their line-ups liberally and frequently. For example, last month I watched Texas play a small, local catholic college and Texas used 5 pitchers in the game and in certain innings they placed runners on the bases so teams could work on certain defensive assignments and offensive game situations. The bottom-line is that unless both teams are playing full strength it is very difficult to compare the competitiveness of these teams.

Some play down, some don't. I think it depends on who they are playing. The last thing they want to do is lose to a JUCO or some other team that they should easily handle. When my DD's team faced Tennessee, SC, and Florida they all started their #1 pitchers. However, they did not see Waldrop when they played FSU (fine by me). To your point most teams seem to play it straight up for at least 3 - 4 innings, then switch it up. SC started their #1 Senior Julie Saratt and then went to NCAA save leader Nikki Blue after about 5 innings to keep Chipola at bay until SC scored in the bottom of the 10th. Florida started Lauren Hager in the first game and rode her for about 5 innings, then changed when they had a comfortable lead. In game #2 the Gators had a Freshman mop up the last couple of innings.

 

[CoogansBluff]

OK, Cannonball. Check this out and tell me why your dd's school wouldn't CRUSH Florida ...

Massey Ratings

 

[CoogansBluff]

Here you go:

D-I Alcorn State would LOSE to D-III Tufts 94% of the time. And I think that is generous towards Alcorn State. Having seen both teams play last year I see no way Alcorn State beats Tufts even if everything went right for them.

My experience has always been that the top 1/4-1/3 of DII & DIII would be competitive as a mid-DI team but would struggle in a top conference. And that the bottom 1/4 of DI would remain at the bottom of DII or DIII

Notice this ...

Alcorn State beat UL-Monroe 3-2 in a game in February
UL-Monroe beat Ole Miss 6-3
Ole Miss beat Florida 2-0

Not suggesting Alcorn would ever beat Florida, but these are the results and comparisons that would lead the computer to believe that Alcorn would beat Tufts once in a blue moon.