Division II
About 260 programs
What it actually is. Good baseball with a shorter season and less travel. A lot of D2 players were D1-capable and were a year late developing.
The money. Nine scholarships across a roster, so partial money spread thin. Academic money stacks on top and often matters more.
The part nobody tells you. The best D2 programs would beat a fair number of low-major D1 teams, and everybody in the sport knows it.
Why the summer matters more than the season. The Cape Cod League and the other elite summer leagues are played with WOOD bats. College baseball is played with BBCOR metal, which is capped near wood but is more forgiving on mishits and has a bigger effective barrel. A hitter who produces on the Cape has done it with the tool he will use as a professional, and scouts weight those two months accordingly. It is the single best reason a college hitter's numbers do not translate the way people expect.
Batter's Eye: look up anything in baseball