Division 3 Junior College Baseball in Texas
Playing baseball in junior college is a great way to extend a player's career and possibly move up to higher divisions in the future. The vast majority of high school players are much better suited to start at a junior college and I think most high school and showcase team coaches would agree. If you haven’t read my article about my Top 5 Reasons to Play Junior College Baseball you can find it at the link below.
5 Reasons to Play Junior College Baseball
I discussed the Division 1 Junior College programs in Texas in an earlier article that you can find at the link below:
Besides Division 1, there is also a Division 2 and a Division 3 baseball competition in the National Junior College Athletic Association [NJCAA]. Although Texas does not field any teams at the Division 2 level, we are home to 8 NJCAA Division 3 baseball teams. Below is a table listing the teams and which region they are located. Clicking the team’s name will take you to their website.
In Texas, the teams compete in Region 5 and Region 14, similar to the Division 1 teams but not in competition against them. The Region 5 teams are all members of the Dallas Athletic Conference while the two teams in Region 14 are not affiliated with any conference. Below is a map of the location of these 8 schools. As the name implies, the 6 teams in the Dallas Athletic Conference are all centered around Dallas.
Here is a link to the map in Google Maps:
The NJCAA Division 3 World Series is held at Pioneer Park in Greenville, Tennessee. To reach the World Series, teams must win their District or receive at at-large bid. There are 6 District winners and 2 at-large bids awarded. All of the teams from Texas are in the South District along with teams from Region 2. Here is the breakdown of the Regions in each District. The link below the chart will take you to a list of all NJCAA teams in Division 1, 2, and 3.
In this year's World Series, Tyler Junior College received an at-large bid and went a perfect 4-0 in the tournament to win their sixth national title! Teams from Texas have historically done very well at the Division 3 World Series. Since 1992 a team from Texas has won 13 times out of the 29 times it has been held.
If you are a high school player that is considering playing at the next level, I would encourage you to attend some games featuring our NJCAA Division 3 teams. It would offer an excellent opportunity to evaluate the level of play and see how you would fit. The talent level is quite good and Division 3 teams often play Division 1 teams during each season. Players from Division 3 are eligible for the MLB Draft each year and can transfer to a four year university as well.
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