Menlo College moving to NCAA Division II

Menlo College finds itself in just such a predicament. Because of the changing conditions and costs associated with college athletics, Menlo announced Tuesday it has begun the process of transitioning from the NAIA level to the NCAA Division II level.

“We’re in a constant state of evaluations. That’s just college athletics,” said Keith Spataro, vice president of Athletics at Menlo, who has been with the school for 22 years, including the last 14 as VP. “The movement that has been associated with college athletics the last three, four years has been pretty volatile. Because of that movement, it’s caused a chain reaction and trickled down to small schools like us.”

Spataro cited the costs of the loss of class time for student-athletes, the cost of travel and accommodations on the road, along with a lack of area schools all factoring into the decision. The Oaks have spent the last seven years in the Golden State Athletic Conference and Spataro said the school has been perfectly happy.

But the nearest conference rival is William Jessup University in Rocklin. After that, it’s Westmont College in Montecito, in the hills above Santa Barbara.

In all, eight of the 10 schools are based in Southern California and Arizona. Meanwhile, the PacWest, which Menlo is hoping to join in the next year, has athletic programs in San Francisco (Academy of Art), San Rafael (Dominican University) and Oakland (Holy Names), along with a shorter road trip to Fresno (Fresno Pacific).

There are still some significant road trips to three schools in Hawaii and four more in Southern California, but Spataro said it just made more sense on the academic and cost front to make the move.

“It’s a great opportunity for local and regional competition,” Spataro said. “It will level all things (academically and cost).”

The move should also lift Menlo’s recruiting profile. NAIA schools, which are ubiquitous in the Midwest, are lacking out West in general, and in Northern California, in particular. There are a lot more Division II opportunities in the state and the move would put the Oaks on the level of San Francisco State, Sonoma State and CSU Stanislaus.

“I love the NAIA. It’s a great organization. It’s super user friendly. The problem is, we just don’t have that many NAIA schools on the West Coast, and especially in Northern California,” Spataro said. “(More successful recruiting) is still to be determined. … We have built a really good, high level, quality student-athlete program. … What I think will end up happening is we will get in living rooms … that we probably aren’t in right now. My hunch is, it [the move to DII) will improve our recruiting.”

Spataro said the process to move from NAIA to NCAA Division II is a three-year process, during which the school will be evaluated and monitored by the NCAA to make sure Menlo is reaching the right benchmarks at the right time.

In addition to the 2021-22 season, the Oaks will play the 2022-23 season as a member of the GSAC. Assuming the school’s application is accepted by the PacWest, the Oaks would become a provisional member of the conference for the 2023-24 and the 2024-25 seasons. Beginning the 2025-26 season, the Oaks would be a full member of the PacWest.

This move is something Spataro has been planning on for a long time, but not necessarily the move to Division II. He said he has been constantly evaluating the school’s athletic department. When it became clear that a change was needed, Spataro said he was ready to make the move.

“I’ve had a vision for what I want in our athletic program. The goal for me was to always build a high-quality athletic program, wherever that takes us,” Spataro said. “We’ve ramped up (our ability to make a significant change) the last two, three years. I think we’re poised now (to make the move). Nine years ago, we weren’t ready. Ten years ago, we weren’t ready.

“(But) we’ve been preparing for the day we had to make the move. When that day presented itself, we would be ready. And that day is now.”