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<\/a><\/p>\nChancellor Juan S\u00e1nchez Mu\u00f1oz and Executive Director of Recreation & Athletics David Dunham were notified this morning during a phone call with NCAA officials. The Bobcats are now eligible for all conference, regional, and national championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited to be full members of NCAA Division II. This would not have been possible without the support of Chancellor Mu\u00f1oz and the entire UC Merced leadership and the hard work and dedication of our coaches and staff\u201d said Executive Director David Dunham.<\/p>\n
UC Merced was first accepted into NCAA Division II on July 11, 2024. The university played its final year as an NAIA member in the 2024-25 academic year and began NCAA Division II competition with the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n
“Achieving full NCAA Division II membership is a significant milestone that reflects the dedication of our student-athletes, coaches and staff. We are committed to cultivating scholar-athletes who excel both in competition and in the classroom, preparing them for success long after their playing days. This achievement reinforces our mission of providing an exceptional educational experience where academic excellence and athletic achievement go hand in hand,\u201d said Chancellor Juan S\u00e1nchez Mu\u00f1oz.<\/p>\n
UC Merced had many highlights in its first year of NCAA Division II competition. Men\u2019s track\u2019s Sharvin Manjrekar won the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Steeplechase Championship. Women\u2019s soccer appeared in two United Soccer Coaches West Region Top 10 Polls. Men\u2019s soccer beat 22nd-ranked Western Oregon in the season opener. Women\u2019s volleyball beat 2024 CCAA Tournament Champion Stanislaus State. Women\u2019s basketball swept 2024-25 CCAA Regular Season and Tournament Champion Cal State Dominguez Hills. Men\u2019s basketball\u2019s Elijah Charles earned D2CAA All-West Region honors. Men\u2019s track\u2019s Martel Fields hit the NCAA 200m qualifying time. Men\u2019s volleyball hosted NCAA Division I nationally-ranked opponents, No. 1 UCLA and No. 6 BYU. Six Bobcats earned all-conference honors with nine more student-athletes earning honorable mention. 85 student-athletes earned an academic distinction as well.<\/p>\n
Other milestones throughout the NCAA Division II process include being accepted into the CCAA in November of 2023. UC Merced men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball, cross country, soccer, track, and women\u2019s volleyball compete as a CCAA member. UC Merced water polo was admitted into the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) in January 2024. The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) accepted UC Merced men\u2019s volleyball to join the conference in June of 2025.<\/p>\n
UC Merced is now the highest-ranked university in NCAA Division II in U.S. News and World Report’s list of Best Colleges in the Nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Merced, CA…The University of California, Merced will officially become an active NCAA Division II member on Sept. 1 after receiving confirmation that the athletics department successfully completed its expedited two-year transition process from the NAIA to the NCAA. Chancellor Juan S\u00e1nchez Mu\u00f1oz and Executive Director of Recreation & Athletics David Dunham were notified this morning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,20,1,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-featured","category-news","category-sports","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ucmerced_sayyes_optimized.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=203228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203230,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203228\/revisions\/203230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/203229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=203228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=203228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=203228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}