Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-I schools are generally the major collegiate athletic powers, with larger budgets, more elaborate facilities, and more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III. This level was once called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the College Division; this terminology was replaced with numeric divisions (I, II, III) in 1973. In football only, Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A (the principal football schools) and Division I-AA; these were renamed "Football Bowl Subdivision" and "Football Championship Subdivision" in 2006. Division I contains 346 institutions. There was a moratorium on any additional movement up to Division I until 2012.

All Division I schools must field athletes in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with two team sports for each gender. There are several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III.

German Fernandez (born November 2, 1990) is an American collegiate runner from Riverbank, California, known for his performance in high school cross country and track and field. He is most well known for running the CA Cross Country State Meet course record (14:24), as well as running a new American high-school record, 8:34 for two miles, at the 2008 Nike Outdoor Nationals championship. He also holds the World Junior Indoor Mile record at 3:55.02.

He currently attends Oklahoma State University.

Fernandez was coached by Bruce Edwards of Riverbank High School, which competes in Division IV of the Sac-Joaquin Section. Fernandez first drew some attention as a high school freshman in track, when he raced 1600m in 4:22.95. During his 2005 CIF State championship victory, he clocked the second fastest sophomore time of all divisions, 15:14, on the heralded Woodward Park course. He went through a number of injuries throughout his junior year, giving him a relatively slow season. Fernandez set a number of course records in California. He won the prestigious Stanford Invitational (5k) with a time of 14:42, gapping the second place runner by 40 seconds. He won the Sac-Joaquin Section finals race with a time of 15:03, setting the course record and leading his team to win the section title. This culminated with his performance at the 2007 California CIF state meet where he ran the 5k race in 14:24, breaking the historic course record set by Olympian Marc Davis by 14 seconds. The performance is seen as one of the most outstanding in the history of high school distance running.