"The Division III Presidents Council approved a recommendation from the Division III Management Council to sponsor a proposal that would alter the composition and representation of the Management and Presidents Councils and six additional standing Division III governance committees in preparation for the 2023 NCAA Convention.
The council voted to sponsor the Convention proposal, which includes the following alterations to the existing legislation:
Representation from each multisport conference on either the Presidents Council or the Management Council. The Presidents Council would not exceed 20 members, and the remaining conferences would be represented on the Management Council.
Consistency in size and regional representation on the six governance committees. The proposal recommends the Championships Committee and Strategic Planning and Finance Committee have 12 members and the Interpretations and Legislation, Financial Aid, Membership, and Nominating Committees have 10 members. It also requires a minimum of two members from each legislated geographic region.
Opportunities for a broader pool of athletics administrators to participate in the governance structure.
The addition of student-athlete, faculty athletics representative and conference office voices on governance committees where such representation is not currently present.
The Division III Presidents Advisory Group held a meeting Monday and examined the philosophy statement in a roundtable discussion. Breakout conversations centered on Division III's philosophy statements and possible changes to modernize the guidelines. The Presidents Council tasked the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee with overseeing the review, which may include a membership survey in the fall and roundtable discussion and feedback during the Division III Issues Forum at the 2023 NCAA Convention."
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AWARDS
2. DIII Commissioners Select Regional Student-Athletes of the Year
"Twenty student-athletes were recognized as regional winners of the inaugural Division III Commissioners' Association Student-Athlete of the Year awards.
Each of the winners will advance to the national ballot for consideration for 2021-22 DIIICA Men’s Sport Student-Athlete of the Year and Women’s Sport Student-Athlete of the Year.
Selection criteria for the awards included considerations based on academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership and a personal statement submitted by each nominee.
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GOVERNORS
3. Cooper Ready to Serve
by Ron Chimelis, MassLive
"Springfield College President Mary-Beth Cooper describes herself as an optimist.
She must be, to take on her role this month as a member of the NCAA board of governors. It’s a job laden with prestige — and yet, given the organization’s current state, one many people might take any necessary steps to avoid if asked.
"In early March, a 17-year-old high school senior I’ll call Ethan got a text message from Ursinus College, a small, private liberal arts school located about 45 minutes outside of Philadelphia. It said, “Great news, [Ethan]! Ursinus College has awarded you additional money! Log into your portal to view your updated financial aid award.”
A few days later, Ethan got a letter from Ursinus repeating the same offer. “The Office of Student Financial Aid recently received additional information regarding your application for financial aid and, as a result, a change has been made to your original award,” it said. In December, Ursinus had offered Ethan a “Gateway Scholarship” of $35,000 to offset the college’s listed price of more than $72,000 for tuition, room, and board. Now it had added a “Grizzly Grant” (Ursinus’ mascot is a bear) of $3,500 to the mix.
Meanwhile, Ethan has a cousin who is also a high school senior. I’ll call her Ashley. Her overall academic profile was better than Ethan’s—higher grades and lots of AP courses, somewhat lower SATs. But her economic circumstances were not. Ashley also lives in Maryland. Her mother, a single parent, dropped out of community college and works in the back office of a local restaurant chain. Her income is well below the median for someone with college-age children, and she has no real financial assets to fall back on.
Ethan and Ashley were learning a lesson about the way the business of higher education actually works in this country: College financial aid is largely an illusion. Government financial aid is real, if inadequate—federal Pell grants and state appropriations to reduce tuition at public universities definitely exist. But the financial aid purportedly provided by colleges themselves is mostly fiction."
>> Situational Awareness: "But while schools may not love talking about it, nothing about this system is a secret within higher education. For instance, after taking a job in the enrollment management industry, former Ursinus vice president for enrollment Richard DiFeliciantoniowrote an essay for Inside Higher Ed in which he explained that the “financial aid matrix” colleges rely on is essentially “the same pricing technique taught to M.B.A.s and commonly used by corporations for commercial products.” He noted that the formula considers a student’s academic achievement mostly as a “proxy” for their willingness to pay for college (as opposed to a measure of merit)."
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Monday: John Wright, Cortland, football student , Cortland
Tuesday: Scott Ames, Western Connecticut, athletic communications; Andy Foltz, assistant AD, head rowing coach, Pacific Lutheran; JJ Akin, director of media relations, Gustavus Adolphus
Wednesday: Joel Luedke, athletic trainer, UW-La Crosse; Mike Boucher, SID, Cairn.
Do you know of someone celebrating a birthday soon? Drop us a line at D3Playbook@gmail.com
"Their working relationship dated back nearly two decades to a sports management program at Stanford — John Swofford, mentor, and Kevin Anderson, mentee. There was history. Camaraderie. And strong mutual respect.
So when the ACC decided to expand in 2011, Swofford, the ACC commissioner, designated Anderson, Maryland’s athletic director, as one of his point people. The result was a stunning moment for college athletics: the addition of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the league.
Anderson had completed his mission. But he soon turned to his own secret plan: engineering Maryland’s departure from the ACC, of which it was a charter member, to the Big Ten. It was a move that — by design — caught almost everyone by surprise, including Swofford.
A few months later, Swofford approached Anderson at a conference.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Swofford asked.
Anderson looked at his former mentor matter-of-factly.
“John, I learned a lot of this from you,” he answered. “I saw what happened and how you did it.”
>> Situational Awareness: "And that’s the way conference realignment is still being done — in closed-door meetings with only a chosen few in the loop. On June 30, USC and UCLA submitted formal applications to join the Big Ten, and school presidents unanimously approved their applications that same day. A source involved in the Big Ten’s discussions with USC estimated only about 10 people at the school were aware of the talks until a week before, when preparations for the announcement began."
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CONFERENCES
2. Keeping The Secret in DIII
If you've been around Division III long enough ... you have probably seen your Conference do the expansion dance.
What's that, you say?
Kicking the tires and checking under the hood at an institution that you think would be a fit in your conference.
You might be adding an associate member for a sport or two (i.e. think ice hockey, lacrosse or women's golf). You might be thinking it's time to bolster our lineup (think NEWMAC football replacing Catholic with Salve Regina). You might just want additional dues (think ...)
Fortunately, I worked at what I always referred to as a "destination" conference, or, one that others aspired to join. So I never had to deal with members being poached by another conference and the hurt feelings that come along with that.
But I have friends still in the business that bear the scars of their expansion dance. With just 44 conference commissioners in DIII, the group can seem like family ... until membership comes up.
>> Court Awareness: When the chair of the Conference's Presidents Council says to keep discussions under wraps, as a commissioner, you're not talking to anybody. For obvious reasons. Even to your good friend at the neighboring conference. See the conundrum?
>> Background. Our friend Pat Coleman and his team at D3sports.com have been covering the "Conference Shuffle" for over two decades. We share the article below for a history lesson.
Eleven NCAA Division III students were recipients of NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships for the spring 2021-22 season.
The NCAA awards up to 126 postgraduate scholarships annually. The scholarships are awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are at least in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition.
The one-time non-renewable scholarships of $10,000 are awarded three times a year corresponding to each sport season (fall, winter and spring). Each sports season there are 21 scholarships available for men and 21 scholarships available for women for use in an accredited graduate program.
All former student-athletes who earned an undergraduate degree from an NCAA member school are eligible to be nominated by that school for an NCAA graduate degree scholarship, regardless of when they received their undergraduate degree.
Women Melinda Cornwall, Carnegie Mellon, tennis Gina Dello Russo, Stevens, track and field Makenzie Fisher, Wheaton, Ill., track and field Ekaolise Jose, Washington, Mo., track and field Payton Rahn, Ripon, track and field Brooke Swain, Wooster, softball
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Chuck Mitrano, Empire 8 Commissioner and chair of the Division III Championships Committee, sat down to talk with Karen Weaver recently about the changes taking place in college athletics and DIII.
>> Show Notes: "We cover a wide range of topics on the future of Division III, and discuss the Empire 8's substantive proposal on mental health safety nets for athletes on campus. We also discuss what happened in January, 2022. The NCAA reverted back to the “one school, one vote” rules that were eliminated in the late 1990s, a huge opportunity to influence the direction of NCAA policy. Chuck walks us through why that happened, and in particular, the discussions surrounding increasing the amount of money DIII receives from the CBS/Turner contract (currently at 3.18%). This impacts how Division III championships are funded and managed.
Matt White was named assistant commissioner of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference. He joins the UMAC after serving as sports information and operations director at Crown.
Happy Birthday
Cake and candles to:
Friday: Cate Clark, Executive Director, NFHCA; Allison Kwan, assistant AD, John Carroll; Kurt Dread
Saturday: Kayla Tidrick, assistant AD, Heidelberg
Sunday: Ana Pistilli, alum, North Park
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