The California Baptist Lancers are the athletic teams that represent California Baptist University, located in

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division I level of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA), primarily competing in the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to most of t ...

(WAC) for most of its sports since the 2018–19 academic year; while the men's water polo team competes in the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA); the women's water polo team competes in the

Golden Coast Conference The Golden Coast Conference (GCC) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States in which its members compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association National Collegiate (D-NC) division. The conference sponsors one sport, water ...

(GCC); and the men's wrestling team competes in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

. The men's water polo team will move to the West Coast Conference in 2023. The Lancers previously competed in the Pacific West Conference (PacWest) of the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

ranks from 2011–12 to 2017–18; and in the

Golden State Athletic Conference The Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The conference commissioner is Mike Daniels. Conference leadership is shared among the memb ...

(GSAC) of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA) from 1987–88 to 2010–11. The Lancers also field a team in

STUNT A stunt is an unusual and difficult physical feat or an act requiring a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually on television, theaters, or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Before computer generated imagery sp ...

, a sport not currently recognized by the NCAA. A member vote will be held at the January 2023 NCAA convention to add STUNT as an emerging sport for women. The Lancers STUNT team competes as an independent in the College STUNT Association. In a rematch of the 2021 title game, the Lancers defeated Oklahoma Baptist, 20–5, on April 24, 2022, to win their second consecutive College STUNT Association national championship. The Lancers had beaten Oklahoma Baptist, 19–11, on May 1, 2021, to win the previous season's title.

Move to the NCAA

During the transition process, Cal Baptist's athletic teams were ineligible for NCAA postseason competition. Cal Baptist received full membership into the NCAA . Cal Baptist had been a member of the NAIA since 1969 and has won 26 GSAC Championships, 19 NAIA National Championships, and an NACDA Directors' Cup

Sports sponsored

Cal Baptist competes in 19 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming & diving, track (distance), water polo and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, stunt, swimming & diving, track (distance), volleyball and water polo; and co-ed sports include cheerleading and dance. In 2017, Cal Baptitst announced that women's beach volleyball will be a varsity sport "in the near future", but no specific date for the addition of the sport has been given.

Championships

The Lancers won the 2021 and 2022 Division I/II national championships in STUNT, a sport not currently recognized by the NCAA and governed by the College STUNT Association.

Team

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, California Baptist Lancers, color=white , list = {{Western Athletic Conference navbox {{Big 12 Conference navbox {{Western Water Polo Association navbox {{Golden Coast Conference navbox {{Inland Empire Sports