The University of California, Davis, will join the Big West Athletic Conference, moving from Division II to Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

"After much thought and discussion, I have decided that UC Davis will accept the invitation to join the Big West Conference, a conference that includes our sister campuses of UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara," UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef announced today (March 11, 2003).

"This step is necessary to preserve and improve the program we have. We are seeking, in an evolving landscape, firm ground upon which to continue and to enhance a program that is centered around the student-athlete and the teacher-coach."

Vanderhoef said that the Division I Big West Conference offers a better academic, philosophical and competitive "fit" than does Division II, where schools average 4,000 students compared to UC Davis' 22,000 undergrads and where former D-II competitors are dropping sports or moving to Division I. Eligibility rules are also more stringent at the Division I level than at Division II and are expected to become even stronger in the next few years.

Because the campus's current conference -- the Division II California Collegiate Athletic Conference -- offers competition for just 13 of the campus's 25 sports, UC Davis must compete in two divisions and six conferences. Two teams -- wrestling and women's gymnastics -- already compete at the Division I level.

The Big West conference would permit competition in 17 sports, but not football. UC Davis' football team would continue to compete as an independent but at the Division I-AA level.

Big West schools include the UC Irvine, Riverside and Santa Barbara campuses, as well as Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, University of the Pacific, University of Idaho, Utah State and the California State University Fullerton, Northridge and Long Beach campuses.

"Our formula for academic and athletic success at UC Davis can work within the Big West Conference and Division I athletics," said UC Davis Director of Athletics Greg Warzecka. "We will not change our model, but we might very well be able to play a leadership role in Division I in such a way that other institutions will look at how we organize, administer and fund our 25-sport intercollegiate athletics program."

Funding

With the move to Division I, the athletics department's budget would grow from approximately $7.8 million to about $12.9 million, with the majority of the increase to provide grants for student-athletes.

Approximately 85 percent of the department's budget, as well as funding for certain sports and recreation facility additions and improvements, would be financed through student fees, primarily increases approved by undergraduate students in four ballot initiatives over the past 10 years (one of the four continued and raised an earlier initiative's fee increases that were due to sunset). Most recently, students last November approved a ballot initiative to raise fees by $15 per quarter beginning in 2003-04 and increasing to $61 per quarter beginning in 2006-07.

While campus-based fees are higher for UC Davis' undergraduates than for other UC undergrads, the total cost of attending UC Davis ranks near the bottom. UC Davis this year ranks No. 7 among UC's eight general campuses when total expenses are calculated for those living on campus and No. 8 for those living off campus.

An Academic Senate committee that studied the budget implications of a transition to Division I concluded that the student fee funding model "is thought to provide the best opportunity for maintaining or perhaps enhancing the current 'student scholar-athlete' culture of the current program because it is student-funded and the financial success of the programs will not be dependent on the win-loss record of the teams and the majority of the program will not be dependent on the vagaries of the campus budget situation."

Academic values

Vanderhoef said that specific recommendations from another Academic Senate committee and from the Academic Federation, as well as "seven inviolate principles" enumerated on the student-initiative ballot, would lead to policies that "will preserve the academic values that have guided our athletic program for decades."

In reaching his decision, Vanderhoef said he weighed "the many opinions, reports and facts that relate to this issue, including input from the Academic Senate, the Academic Federation, a vote by our undergraduate students, individual conversations, many written communications, and the various data sets that speak simply to where we are now and where we would be in the Big West Conference."

Groups formally voting on the issue included undergraduates, who approved the fee initiative 4,638 to 3,929; the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, voting 38 to 1 in favor; the Academic Senate, voting 556 to 271 in opposition; the Athletic Administrative Advisory Committee (which includes faculty and students), voting 11-2, with one abstention, in favor.

The views of the longtime teacher-coaches were also weighed, Vanderhoef said.

"We have in our ranks many who lived with, built and espoused the virtues of Division II athletics," Vanderhoef said. "They are proud of their accomplishments, not the least of which is a significantly higher graduation rate for our athletes than for the campus at large -- about 85 percent compared to 75 percent. Yet these teacher-coaches have come to know that we cannot preserve what we have if we stand still. They conclude that, of all the changes we could make, the affiliation with the Big West Conference, a group of universities very much like ourselves, is necessary and comes just in time."

UC Irvine Chancellor Ralph Cicerone, UC Riverside Chancellor France Cordova and UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry Yang in a March 4 letter encouraged Vanderhoef to consider UC Davis' addition to the Big West Conference. "(We) are committed to Division I athletics programs that are based on very high ideals that focus on student-athletes.... The Big West Conference is an excellent home for such programs," they wrote.

The three chancellors noted that the conference is "strongly California-centered," which makes it possible for student-athletes to travel to away games and matches "without sacrificing great lengths of time away from campus and classes." And such travel is relatively inexpensive, they added.

"The affiliation with the Big West Conference is a principled step in seeking to preserve the core values of a program that has been a model for the nation," Vanderhoef concluded in announcing his decision. "This is not about seeking 'bigger' or about 'growing the business.' Rather, this is about continuing to make available to our students another broad set of opportunities for participation in a meaningful out-of-class experience.

"This move to the Division I Big West Conference is the best and correct move for UC Davis. It is, in fact, our only responsible action."

Timeline

With today's decision, UC Davis will complete four years of provisional status, beginning in 2003-04. (Last November, the campus declared a year of exploratory status with the NCAA.) In 2003-04, the campus will be considered Division II in scheduling against Division I opponents and Division I against Division II opponents. Beginning in 2004-05, it will be considered Division I in scheduling competition and will begin play in the Big West Conference.

During the four-year provisional status period, UC Davis will be ineligible for NCAA postseason competition except in wrestling, women's gymnastics and men's and women's water polo. The wrestling and women's gymnastics teams already play at the Division I level, and the NCAA sponsors just one championship for all divisions of men's and women's water polo.