The city of Enid received good news last night from Charlotte, NC as they received word that the NJCAA Division II World Series will remain in Enid through 2025. The NJCAA also announced that after this year’s World Series, more teams will be making the trip to Enid as the World Series field will be be expanding from 10 teams to 12.
The city of Enid and David Allen Memorial Ballpark has been the host of the Division II World Series since 2009. The NJCAA announced a 2-year extension of their agreement with the city. NJCAA senior vice president for external affairs and development Brian Luckett said in a press release, “We look forward to having this World Series in Enid once again. The city of Enid continuously provides a quality championship experience for our student-athletes, coaches and fans, and we are excited for them to carry on that tradition.”
As you can imagine, ballpark director Bill Mayberry is more than thrilled to have the World Series sticking around for a few more seasons. Mayberry said in a press release, “The Enid fan base for baseball has set new standards for hospitality and we appreciate their efforts. We are pleased to have the new NJCAA agreement reflecting that continued support of the positive experiences in Enid.”
This year’s World Series will start up on May 27th and will run through June 2nd or 3rd and will feature some of the best Division II programs in the country. And as mentioned before, starting next season, Enid will play host to even more of those teams.
The NJCAA also announced yesterday that starting in 2024, the Division II World Series will have 12 teams instead of 10. As it sits right now and will sit for this year’s World Series, only the 10 teams who win their district tournament get a shot at the title. Now, there will be those 10 automatic qualifiers along with 2 at-large bids which is certainly going to make things interesting. You could have a team who was consistently one of the best all season long but just have 1 or 2 bad games in the district tournament and they’re gone for good. Now, you will still get to see one of those great teams even if they run into some bad luck battle it out for a chance to win the title. It’s a win-win for the city of Enid, and the city will be ready to be a great host for another 2 seasons. Assistant city manager and member of the local World Series planning committee Scott Morris said in a press release, “Downtown Enid and championship baseball are a perfect combination that we hope will add to that special nostalgia the fans appreciate.”
