UCSD Students pave the way for Division I

On Tuesday afternoon, UCSD announced that the students had approved a measure to increase student fees in order to start the process of moving to Division I. It was a long time coming.

After multiple failed attempts over the past decade to make the move, the time was right. Of the over 8,000 students who voted (35 percent of the student body), about 70 percent of the voters said “Yes.”

“Division I will help extend the entire university’s culture of excellence, align us with peer academic institutions, improve the student experience, strengthen our brand, increase alumni engagement and further our community connection. This move will impact the entire campus in a multitude of ways,” said UCSD Director of Athletics Earl Edwards in a release from UCSD Athletics.

Excitement

People were pretty pumped on social media today.

UCSD students overwhelmingly pass the DI referendum. DI here we come! Go @UCSDtritons !! pic.twitter.com/V7UMGIOafs

— Brad Kreutzkamp (@UCSDcoachK) May 24, 2016

Got chills watching the announcement all said and done UCSD is D1 bound #tritonsrising

— Justin Donatella (@jdonatella9) May 24, 2016

UCSD IS NOW GOING DIVISION 1!!!! So proud to have taken part in the pro side of this referendum ??? #UCSD #Tritons

— Kelly Weldon (@kellyweldon20) May 24, 2016

Not D-1 yet

Many were tweeting on Tuesday that UCSD was now “officially Division I.” That’s actually not the case. The vote was provisional and dependent on the University finding a Division I conference.

Enter the Big West, which we are quite familiar with here at Fansmanship. The conference currently includes Cal Poly, UCSB, UC Davis, Hawai’i, CSUN, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and Cal State Fullerton. UCSD could be the tenth team –it makes so much sense from an outsider’s perspective — but including the Tritons will still take a number of steps on the part of the Big West and the UCSD administration.

@BigWestMD @Ghizal_Hasan Thanks Steve!

— fansmanship (@fansmanship) May 24, 2016

So, there’s still clearly some work to do, and the concept that UCSD is already rubber-stamped is one the Big West doesn’t seem to like very much.

In the end, UCSD seems to make way too much sense not to be the 10th Big West Conference school.

A proud alumnus

Hey, in case you haven’t heard, I did my undergraduate studies at UCSD. While I never voted in an election like this between 1999 and 2003, students before me voted to fund projects like the Price Center and RIMAC, adding tons of value to my college experience and that of thousands of other students over the years.

In terms of what matters to me about on-campus life, UCSD basically had everything I could want — except Division I athletics.

Over the past week, 6,137 students paved the way to change the future of UCSD. For that, I couldn’t be more proud. Way to go Tritons.