DII at 50: 50 memorable NCAA DII championships

The 2023-24 NCAA DII sports season is a celebration. Along with the normal confetti and flare that flies with crowning a national champion, it is the 50th anniversary of the creation of Division II.

There has been a lot of change since Aug. 6, 1973, when the NCAA voted to reorganize into three divisions. Today, 69 current Division II schools and six current Division II conferences were among the initial 193 schools and 13 conferences that made up the founding members.

Since the 1980s, there have been 25 championships a year. Simple math shows that's a lot of national championships. Narrowing it down to 50 is a daunting task, so keep in mind, there may be some that certain fanbases feel are missing. This is not a slight to anyone, nor is it saying these are the "best." These are championship games that one way or the other left their mark on DII history. Let’s take a look back at 50 national champions that have helped define the first 50 years of DII sports.

The first 25

Certainly, no list of the most memorable national champions is complete without the first program to win in each sport. Keep in mind, not every one of the 25 NCAA DII championship sports had its start in that inaugural 1973 season. Here is a list of the first national champion from each of the 25 current NCAA DII sports and the year the sport began its DII history.

25 big ones (in chronological order)

1-3. Walk off wonders. There have been three extra-inning DII baseball championship games in the history of the sport. The first came in 1988, so let's start there.

• Florida Southern wins No. 7: It took 10 innings but the Mocs prevailed when Fernando Arguelles singled home the winning run. It was national title No. 7 out of nine, the most of any DII baseball program. 
• Tampa's backup to the rescue: The Spartans have eight national championships of their own, and No. 4 was a doozy. In the 12th inning against Chico State, Tampa head coach Joe Urso turned to reserve catcher Chris Rosenbaum — who hadn't had an at-bat since the finals had started — to pinch hit. Rosenbaum delivered the game-winner, and Tampa won the 2006 DII baseball championship, the first of back-to-back titles. 
• Southern Indiana literally walks away with a win: In 2014 the Screaming Eagles and Colorado Mesa were locked at 2 in the top of the 12th inning when senior infielder Matt Bowles came to the plate with the bases loaded. Bowles drew the one-out walk and Southern Indiana won its second title of the decade.

4. Damon Martin nabs his first DII women's cross country title. The year is 1992. Adams State and Western Colorado (then Western State) were pretty much the teams to beat. The Grizzlies head coach led them to a 64-99 victory over Western State, and Martin would go on to win the next seven national championships. Still at Adams State today, his 20 DII women's cross country championships are the most any coach has won with one team in any DII sport and fourth all-time across all sports in all divisions of the NCAA. Martin took over the men's cross country team and beginning in 1998 with one of the closest decisions in the history of the championship (narrowly defeating Western State 68-74), Martin began compiling championships in DII men's cross country and has 10 more national championships there. Martin also took over the men's and women's track and field teams and won six more indoor and outdoor titles to bring his championship total an astounding 36, tied for fourth-most all-time in NCAA history.

5. Franklin Pierce's ridiculous DII women's soccer four-peat. From 1994-97, there was no better program in DII women's soccer than the Ravens. When you break down the numbers, it wasn't even close. Franklin Pierce went 78-1 over that four-year span, including three undefeated national championship runs. The combined score of those four straight championships? 11-0. Over the same span, they had the DII women's soccer scoring champion: Nathalie Geeris in 1994, Parnilla Larsson in 1995, and Pauliina Miettinen in 1995-96. Miettinen was on the 1995-97 title teams and her 309 career points are still the all-time mark in DII women's soccer. 

6. Northwest Missouri State wins the 1999 DII football championship. Still widely considered the greatest game in DII football history, this four-overtime classic was one for the ages. Northwest Missouri State had played the same Carson-Newman team the year prior and won handily, giving DII football legend Mel Tjeersdma his first title. The Bearcats won this epic battle, establishing their presence as one of the premier DII football powerhouses, which still continues to this day. Click here for our look back on some of the numbers and plays on the 20th anniversary of the game. 

Watch the full 4OT finish from the epic 1999 DII football championship game

7-12. Six champions crowned in one place: May 2004. In 2004, six spring sports — men's and women's golf, women's lacrosse, softball, and men's and women's tennis — hit the road for sunny Orlando for the final rounds of their respective championships. It was the first of now 12 DII National Championships Festivals that rotate seasons and have given DII student-athletes the opportunity to travel from Pittsburgh to Denver to Seattle. The first champions at that 2004 spring festival were:

• USC Aiken, men's golf
• Rollins (host school), women's golf
• Adelphi, women's lacrosse
• Angelo State, softball
• West Florida, men's tennis
• BYU Hawaii, women's tennis

13. Drury men's swimming and diving begins its 10-peat. You did not read that incorrectly. In 2005, head coach Brian Reynolds and his Drury Panthers' men's swimming and diving team defeated Cal State Bakersfield — arguably the most dominant DII program in the sport at the time — 726-480. The next time the Panthers would lose a DII men's swimming and diving national championship was 2015, when they finished as national runners-up. For Reynolds, it was a historic run — his 10-straight national titles are the longest such run in DII sports history and tied for third-longest in all NCAA lore.

14. Brady Starkey nabs his first DII women's volleyball championship. Starkey became the head coach of Concordia-St. Paul in 2003. The Golden Bears went 128-15 in his first four years, but something was missing: a national championship. That all changed in 2007 when Concordia-St. Paul disposed of Western Washington 3-1. The Golden Bears finally won their national championship, and then they won another... and another... and another... and, well, you know how this goes. That championship started a run of an unheard seven consecutive DII women's volleyball championships. In the years since that run ended (2013), the Golden Bears have tacked on two more titles, going back-to-back in 2016-17. Starkey is one of the winningest coaches in DII history in any sport.

15. West Texas A&M and Abilene Christian go bananas. Okay, this wasn't the actual national championship game, but it was the second round of the DII football championship tournament. That Nov. 22, 2008, day, Abilene Christian defeated the Buffs 93-68. To this day, some of the numbers in that game stand out, like ACU's Bernard Scott's six rushing touchdowns, the Buffs' Charly Martin's five receiving touchdowns and Keith Null's seven passing touchdowns for the Buffs. The 22 total touchdowns are still the DII record — as is the 1,531 combined yards of offense. 

16. Findlay defeats Cal Poly Pomona in 2009 overtime thriller. Although recent history may suggest otherwise, undefeated seasons were not commonplace in DII men's basketball, so that alone makes Findlay's 56-53 victory — which brought the Oilers to 36-0 — in the 2009 DII men's basketball championship rather impressive. But it was how those Oilers won... as time expired in overtime... with the player of the year on the bench... and 3-point specialist, who was held scoreless to that point, Tyler Evans stepping back and nailing a 3 that went through the net with zero seconds on the clock. It is, to this day, one of the best finishes to a DII men's basketball season in its 50 years of play.

DII men's basketball: Tyler Evans buzzer beater gives Findlay the championship and perfect season

17. Grand Valley State captures first DII women's soccer title. The Lakers had been close two times before, but when freshman Ashley Botts' goal in the 77th minute of play in 2009 went through the net, it gave Grand Valley State its first DII women's soccer national championship. That goal that gave the Lakers the 1-0 thrilling victory changed the course of DII women's soccer and made Grand Valley State the program to beat in the sport. Over the next 12 years (and counting), GVSU women won six national championships and finished as national runners-up three times. That includes a three-peat from 2013-15. As of this writing, GVSU is currently a one-loss, top-10 program in 2023 once again.

18. Lynn wins the 2009 DII baseball championship. This was a tightly fought battle between Lynn and Emporia State. The little runs that were scored came early, as the Fighting Knights won 2-1. Tommy Kahnle — currently a New York Yankee and amid a nine-year MLB career — shut the door with two innings of shutout relief, picking up the save in Lynn's only DII baseball national championship. That is not why this championship makes the list, however. No, the importance here is that it was the first DII baseball championship played in Cary, North Carolina. The friendly confines of the USA Baseball National Training Complex — and its ice cream sandwiches — have become synonymous with DII baseball, and every year since then, teams look forward to "the Road to Cary."

19. DII softball's powerful punches. By the time teams get to the final game of the DII softball championship finals series, pitching seems to win the day. Only two DII softball teams have scored double-digit runs in the grand finale of the season. The first was Florida Southern, in its 11-5 victory over Augustana (SD) in 1993. That win brought the school its first women's championship and is still the most runs scored in a series finale to this day. The second came in 2011, when UC San Diego erupted for a 10-3 win over Alabama-Huntsville. Surprisingly, there was nary a home run hit by the Tritons that day, but the bottom of the order that delivered as their Nos. 6-8 hitters combined for eight of the team's 10 RBI. 

20. Ashland women's basketball goes perfect, for a very long time. The Ashland Eagles dominated their way to the 2017 DII women's basketball national championship. While the 93-77 victory over Virginia Union was quite impressive, it was the larger story that went on to make headlines. The Eagles' victory put them at 37-0, and the very next season, they would run off 36 more wins without a loss. This championship win was right smack in the middle of the longest winning streak in DII basketball — men's or women's — history. The Eagles would lose to Central Missouri in the 2018 championship game, giving them their first loss in 73 games.

2017 DII Women's Basketball: Ashland wins Championship

21. St. Augustine's defeats Lincoln (MO) 58-52 for 2017 DII men's outdoor track and field title. Well, that's a pretty ho hum headline, so why is it so memorable? It was the final win for the Falcons' legendary head coach George Williams. Williams coached the men and women Falcons from 1985-2020. That national championship gave Williams No. 39, the third-most of any coach in NCAA history. His iconic status went far beyond DII as he was the 2004 head coach for the U.S. Olympic track and field team. Williams teams were so consistent for so long, his 33 national runners-up campaigns would rank sixth on the all-time wins list.

22. Lubbock Christian and Southwestern Oklahoma State didn't want the game to end. Heading into the 2019 DII women's basketball championship game, there were only two overtime games since the tournament's inception in 1982. That was doubled in this game alone, as Lubbock Christian and Southwestern Oklahoma State went to two overtimes in one of the more thrilling DII women's basketball championship games ever played. There were plenty of talented athletes in the game, but the two biggest shined brightest — the Lady Chaps' Maddi Chitsey put up 22 points and 13 rebounds while SWOSU's Hailey Tucker dropped 30 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. The game put the Bulldogs on the map and established Lubbock Christian — who had been an official DII women's basketball program for just four years — as a powerhouse with its second title in four seasons (and a third on the way two years later).

Lubbock Christian claims the 2019 Women's DII Basketball Championship

23. A dynasty is born: Northwest Missouri State's 2019 title. It wasn't head coach Ben McCollum's first title — that came in 2017. But this one began a run that is unmatched in DII men's basketball history. It was a defensive battle, but with the 64-58 victory over Point Loma, the Bearcats went 38-0 and went on to win three straight DII men's basketball national championships, the first three-peat in DII men's basketball history. On the court that day, two freshmen — Trevor Hudgins and Diego Bernard — became household names and would go on to become the Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen of DII men's basketball over the next three years. When you consider that the Bearcats were 33-1 when play stopped in 2020 due to the pandemic, "would the Bearcats have won four in a row?" will forever be one of the biggest what-ifs in DII history. 

24. West Florida and Minnesota State duel in record-setting day. West Florida became a DII football program in 2016, and by 2019, the Argos were playing in their second national championship game. That's a crazy enough stat right there, but the Argos and Mavericks went toe-to-toe in a 48-40 thriller that shattered some of the records set the previous season in Valdosta State's 49-47 win over Ferris State. Argos' quarterback Austin Reed threw for 523 yards and six touchdowns, both championship game records, while West Florida wide receiver Tate Lehito and Minnesota State wide receiver Justin Arnold set the championship game record with 13 receptions apiece. The Argos' Quentin Randolph's three touchdowns are tied for the most ever in a championship game — and even the defense joined in the fun, as West Florida's Marcus Clayton set the championship game mark with four passes defended. 

25 (TIED). St. Cloud State ekes by Nebraska-Kearney for DII wrestling title. The closest team championship score in DII wrestling history was in 1979 when Cal State Bakersfield defeated Eastern Illinois 112.75-112.5. While that's about as thrilling as it gets, both of those programs are Division I schools nearly 50 years later, so we turn our attention to St. Cloud State's narrow 1.5-point team victory in the 2021 DII wrestling championship, the second narrowest ever. It was the Huskies third straight title and fifth in six years, ending one of the more dominant runs in the history of the sport. Kameron Teacher took home the 285-pound individual title to seal the deal.

St. Cloud State wins the 2021 DII wrestling championship

25 (TIED). Nova Southeastern and West Liberty blow the roof off. This one is still fresh in the memory. Sharks' head coach Jim Crutchfield spent the first portion of his career at West Liberty, turning the program into a high-scoring DII Men's Elite Eight powerhouse. When he took his talents to South Florida and left his assistant Ben Howlett in charge, the two programs became the top-scoring teams in DII on an annual basis. That was the case in the 2023 DII men's basketball championship, when Nova Southeastern defeated West Liberty, 111-101. Both teams broke the previous points record (100 scored by Virginia Union in 1992) in a scoring fest that may never be matched. 

Also considered

There are a lot of DII national championships, and it would be remiss to not mention these championship games.

• Valdosta State's 2018 DII football 49-47 championship over Ferris State
• Barry and Columbus State's current DII men's tennis championship match rivalry
• Lander's DII men's tennis 8-peat in the 1990s
• Barry women's tennis current (as of spring 2023) six-consecutive championship run
• Shippensburg's 2013 overtime DII field hockey championship, its first of five over the ensuing decade
• Western Washington's utter dominance in DII rowing from 2005-2011