Every year brings its share of changes, more or less profound modifications to the various national championships. Let’s first look at the third level, namely Division 3. This is the first national level above the regional and before Division 2. Since 2013, this championship took place at the end of the season to separate the regional champions, allowing the winner to access Division 2. Rather in the form of a tournament, each year, teams moved up to Division 2 and others returned to the various championships of their region. Note that three times, La Guerche de Bretagne won this championship (2013, 2019, 2022). The Vallée du Gapeau, 2024 Division 3 champion, will move up to Division 2 in 2025.
The sports commission of the federation has set up a new championship system for the entire 2025 season, with 19 teams facing off over three months (April to June) and final phases at the end of August and beginning of September. This championship will be divided into four pools, more or less grouped by region to avoid exponential mileage. Only Pool C will have four teams, unlike the other three pools, which will have five teams each.
The opening day will be the first weekend in April and will see, over ten weekends until the end of June, matchups of up to eight games.
Here are the preliminary compositions of the four pools:
- Pool A: Dunkerque, Ermont, Tourcoing, Ronchin, Metz 2
- Pool B: Sénart 2, La Guerche, Saint-Lô, Rennes, Chartres
- Pool C: Beaucaire, BATS, Fénay, Montpellier 2
- Pool D: Anglet, Eysines, Saint-Aubin, Perpignan, La Rochelle 2
Four of the 19 Division 3 clubs are also engaged with a team in Division 1 (La Rochelle, Metz, Sénart, and Montpellier), and it is worth noting that no club engages a team in Division 2 and Division 3 at the same time. We will see in an upcoming article that Division 2 is also changing gears in 2025, as unlike in 2024, when 14 teams competed, there will now be only 9 teams in two pools. Indeed, several Division 2 clubs in 2024 will find themselves in this Division 3 championship in 2025: La Guerche de Bretagne, Anglet, Eysines, Ronchin, and Sénart 2
The Foxes of the Vallée du Gapeau, 2024 D3 Champions
This new championship will therefore give visibility to certain clubs that only saw the national spotlight at the end of the season during the final phases. On the other hand, this will bring the regional level back to what it should be, namely a championship of progression and learning. This makes, with the three national divisions, a total of 36 teams that will therefore have national visibility. Around thirty clubs in total will be able to communicate about one of their teams engaged in one of the three divisions. Some clubs can hope to compete for promotion to Division 2, knowing that in recent years, many clubs have had real difficulties in maintaining the top two divisions together with two teams. Only the Rouen Huskies remain in this situation in 2025. Previously, there were up to four teams with Division 1 and 2. Naturally, we now find these teams, in part, in Division 3 (Montpellier, La Rochelle, and Sénart). For example, Montigny had a team in D1 and D2 in 2022. In 2023, they did not engage a team in Division 2. In 2025, they will have only one team in Division 2 following their relegation from Division 1 in 2024. Montpellier and La Rochelle find themselves in the case of a team in D1 and D3, having abandoned Division 2 in previous years by choice or sportingly.
The Division 3 is also a way to standardize the third level of French baseball through national regulations. You can download the specific regulations of Division 3 here.
Note that aluminum bats are allowed and games are played in 7 innings.
Also note that regulations concerning Locally Trained Players (LTP) exist and are as follows:
Finally, the presence of two umpires (one per club) is mandatory.
Even though the deadline for team registrations was set for January 7, we are not immune to modifications before the start of the championship in April.
Note that the Division 1 teams have their opening day on March 22, and Division 2 will start, like Division 3, on April 5.
With this new national championship in Division 3, we can reasonably think that a certain consistency should settle in the future with the aim of gathering:
- Division 3: 20 teams with 4 pools
- Division 2: 10 teams with 2 pools
- Division 1: 8 teams without a pool
This consistency will allow for stable championships in their organization year after year, allowing for the conformation of team and player statistics. The history of our sport will pass through this stability so that future generations can better understand where they come from.
