Since the Wallace Govs and Lady Govs moved to Division II competition in the NJCAA this year, there have been a lot of questions. In this two-part series, we will answer most of those questions. Part one will focus on baseball while part two will reference softball, That's because the two sports are affected differently.
 
First of all, it should be stated the move from Division I to Division II is NOT a drop in the level of competition.

"A lot of people have assumed we're going to be paying lesser competition," Wallace head baseball coach Ryan Ihle said. "We've had news crews that say we dropped down to Division II and it kind of tweaked me the wrong way. I know the administrative side of things and this is not a downgrade in division. It's not a downgrade in the types of teams we play or the type of program we are. We are going to be playing the same if not a tougher schedule. We've got to go through even tougher teams than we have in the past. For people that think that Division II junior college baseball is any less than Division I, they haven't been around the environment at all. We played a real good DII junior college team last year in LSU-Eunice. We played some really good teams earlier in the spring and in the fall. They are all producing SEC and ACC type players. I hope people see that. This isn't a downgrade. It's another opportunity."

So just what is the difference between Division I and Division II?  It can be summed up easily by saying it not the level of competition, but what can be offered in a scholarship package.

"NJCAA Division I programs are able to offer student-athletes, as part of their scholarship package, grant-in-aid coverage consisting of full tuition, fees, books, and room and board," said Wallace Athletic Director Ryan Spry, who also serves as the Men's Region Director for NJCAA Region 22 (the Alabama Community College Conference). "But we as a conference—with all of us previously operating under the Division I umbrella for baseball and softball—were and are still limited (by Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees policies) to only offering tuition, fees, and books. So I think there was some discussion among our member presidents that if we were not going to be able to offer scholarship packages at the Division I level, then we should have the choice to move to Division II, where the maximum grant-in-aid allowance is tuition, books and fees. In essence, the tone of the room was 'if we are going to scholarship like DII schools, we need to have the choice to be a DII school. Otherwise, give us the option to award maximum scholarships, to include room and board, so our scholarships are just as competitive as neighboring schools in the Florida Panhandle like Chipola, Gulf Coast, and Northwest Florida State.'"

One way to easily conclude that there is no drop in the level of competition is by looking at Wallace's results on the field this year. To date, the Govs baseball team has already played and defeated Division I powerhouses Chipola, Tallahassee Community College, State College of Florida, and Andrew College (who competed in the NJCAA World Series last year).

"From a competition perspective," Spry said, "I would put our baseball program up against any Division I school around the country, including within our own state. I think they've debunked the myth that DII schools are not as strong as our DI counterparts."

With the move to Division II, here is how Wallace's ACCC opponents change. New to Conference play this year will be Marion Military Institute, Central Alabama Community College and Bevill State. Opponents still on the Conference slate include Enterprise State, LBW, Wallace-Selma, Coastal Alabama-North, and Bishop State. Former ACCC foes Chattahoochee Valley and Coastal Alabama-South are now in the new look Division I portion of the Conference.

The split into two Divisions within the Conference created another issue—there are now not enough teams to qualify for an automatic bid to the national tournament. Spry explains it this way:

"In the past, we had a north and south division, with all of us operating under the same NJCAA Division I status. With an 18-team conference, a 10-team Conference tournament at the end of the season, and a strong showing at national tournaments in the past, the NJCAA determined our Conference champion was worthy of receiving an automatic berth to the national tournament. Now, with the split in schools between DI and DII, we only have nine schools in our Division and only six making it to the Conference tournament. That smaller number, combined with a few other factors, meant our Conference champion would no longer receive an automatic bid to the national tournament. So, we've now added a District three-game series with Florida's champion on top of the Conference tournament to determine who goes to the national tournament. One more step in the equation so to say."

But the way the calendar worked, if the Conference schedule had started at the same time as it usually does, then the Conference tournament would have ended on a Tuesday (weather permitting), with the District three-game series set for three days later on a Friday. The baseball coaches quickly realized that wasn't going to work. Most of their quality pitching arms would have been used up to make it through the Conference tournament, with little depth available to play a top-ranked opponent at the District level just three days later. So the coaches opted to play the Conference tournament in late April as opposed to the second week in May, giving the champion plenty of time to rest in between.

That decision meant the start of the Conference regular season schedule also had to back up. That's why Conference play started this year on February 22, subsequently preventing Wallace from playing in the annual Hits for Heroes event. The Conference tournament will still be played in Oxford at Choccolocco Park from April 25-30. The District three-game series will alternate sites each year. This year it's scheduled for May 10-13 at St. Johns River Community College in Florida. Next year, there is an effort to bring the event to Dothan at Westgate Park when it's Alabama's turn to host.