In Dispute

D3Playbook DECEMBER 10, 2019 | written by Steve Ulrich your must-read briefing on what's driving the day in NCAA Division III Our goal is to keep you - the influencers in DIII athletics - apprised of what's happening around Division III - the games, polls, news, happenings, awards, calendar of events, and much more. We hope you enjoy d3Playbook and that you'll share this with your friends, colleagues and co-workers.   Happy Tuesday. Make it a great day! >> Thanks for reading D3Playbook. Please invite your staff and colleagues to sign up below. >> Today's Word Count: 1,276 (just over 5 minutes). Brief, concise, smart.   Subscribe to d3Playbook 1.  In Dispute     "Macalester President Brian Rosenberg, who is retiring at the end of this academic year, had some interesting comments about the ongoing story of St. Thomas’ removal from the MIAC. In a recent interview with Mac Weekly — a student-run publication at Macalester — Rosenberg challenged as “inaccurate” some of the reporting on why St. Thomas was removed from the conference and disputed that it was “involuntary” even though the MIAC used that exact language in announcing the decision in May." “A lot of the reporting has been inaccurate,” Rosenberg told the publication. “But that’s reasonable when you can’t say anything. That’s the consequence of confidentiality — that people are going to make their own determinations about what they think happened.” >> Keep Reading (Mac Weekly article) >> They Said It: “There was reporting that other colleges were just jealous of St. Thomas’ academic success, which is kinda preposterous when you’ve got a conference that has Macalester, Carleton and St. Olaf in it. The MIAC is an athletic conference. I see it really, purely, as a decision that had to do with athletics.” >> Read More from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune 2.  Esports Showcase The New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) will begin sponsoring esports, beginning in the 2020-2021 academic year, the league announced recently. ESports will be the conference’s 16th sport, and will feature a regular season schedule, as well as a championship in each of the different games the league will offer. With this announcement, the NECC will become the first NCAA Division III conference in New England, and third nationally, that will offer esports. ESports is currently one of the fastest growing markets globally, with many institutions taking advantage of the boom and adding esports programs in recent years. The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) began in 2016 with six members, and has since grown to 128 members. Several current NECC institutions sponsor esports at either the varsity or club level, including Becker College, Dean College, Elms College and New England College. >> What They're Saying: “Esports is one of the fastest-growing competitive efforts on college campuses, and it is a tremendous opportunity for us to expand the impact of the New England Collegiate Conference beyond traditional sports on campus. We are proud to announce the addition of esports as an NECC-sponsored sport." - Jacob VanRyn, commissioner >> Worth Noting: In conjunction with the announcement of ESports sponsorship, the NECC is excited to announce it will hold an ESports Showcase, in partnership with the Massachusetts Digital Game Institute (MassDiGi), on January 31. Genji Esports will also serve as a presenting sponsor. The Showcase will feature panel discussions by industry leaders, as well as a question and answer session for those interested in learning more about this emerging landscape. The day will also feature a gaming showcase in which NECC members will compete to determine a conference champion.   3.  Best of the Decade We continue our "Best of the Decade" series with a look at the champions, runners-up and final four finishers in soccer. Champions: Messiah (4), Tufts (4), Amherst, Ohio Wesleyan. Runner-Up: Calvin (3), Amherst, Loras, Lynchburg, North Park, Ohio Northern, Rutgers-Camden, Wheaton IL. Top Four Finishes: Calvin (5), Messiah (4), Tufts (4), Loras (3), Oneonta (3), Amherst (2), Brandeis (2), Chicago (2), Ohio Wesleyan (2), Williams (2), Bowdoin, Centre, Lynchburg, Montclair State, North Park, Ohio Northern, Rochester, Rutgers-Camden, St. Thomas, UW-Oshkosh, Wheaton IL.   Champions: Messiah (3), Williams (3), Hardin-Simmons, Lynchburg, Washington U., William Smith. Runner-Up: Messiah (2), Chicago, Emory, Middlebury, Trinity TX, Washington U., Wheaton IL, William Smith, Williams. Top Four Finishes: Messiah (6), William Smith (4), Williams (4), Washington U. (3), Chicago (2), Hardin-Simmons (2), Middlebury (2), Wheaton IL (2), Brandeis, Capital, Carnegie Mellon, Centre, Christopher Newport, Illinois Wesleyan, Ithaca, Johns Hopkins, Lynchburg, Misericordia, Otterbein, Pomona-Pitzer, TCNJ, Emory, Trinity TX. Tomorrow: Basketball SPONSORED MESSAGE Would you like to sponsor this newsletter? Would you like to advertise an open position in your department for a head coach or administrator? Contact d3playbook@gmail.com to get your job opening in front of decision-makers in small-college athletics.   4. Polls  Ice Hockey (M) - USCHO UW-Eau Claire (10-0-1) Trinity (7-0) Geneseo (8-2-1) Norwich (8-2) Augsburg (8-2) Salve Regina (8-1-1) Adrian (7-2-1) Hobart (6-3-1) U. of New England (9-2) Oswego (7-3) 11-15: Utica, Stevenson, Lake Forest, Williams, New England College. >> Hello: Stevenson, Lake Forest >> Bye-Bye: UW-Stevens Point, MSOE. >> Looking Ahead: #8 Hobart at #2 Trinity (12/11) Concordia (Wis.) GK Bob Didur made a D-III season-high 62 saves in a 4-3 win at St. Scholastica on Nov. 8. Ice Hockey (W) - USCHO Plattsburgh (10-1) Middlebury (5-0-2) Norwich (10-1) Gustavus Adolphus (8-0-1) UW-Eau Claire (8-1-1) Adrian (9-1-1) UW-River Falls (6-2-1) Elmira (7-2) St. Thomas (7-2-3) Hamline (6-3-1) >> Looking Ahead: #7 UW-River Falls at #4 Gustavus Adolphus (12/13) Neumann's Katelyn Brown leads D-III with five game-winning goals among her 12 total.   5. Polls   Basketball (W) - D3hoops.com Tufts (7-0) Scranton (7-0) Bowdoin (8-0) Hope (9-0) Amherst (4-1) Mary Hardin-Baylor (5-1) Wartburg (6-1) DePauw (8-1) St. Thomas MN (6-1) George Fox (6-1) 11-15: DeSales, UW-La Crosse, Trinity TX, Messiah, Whitman. 16-20: Transylvania, UW-Platteville, Baldwin Wallace, Marymount, Chicago. 21-25: Augsburg, Illinois Wesleyan, UW-Whitewater, Loras, Gustavus Adolphus. >> Hello: UW-Whitewater, Gustavus Adolphus. >> Bye-Bye: Wheaton IL, Claremont-M-S. >> Eight for Eight: Misericordia junior Tessa Zamolyi has eight double-doubles in eight games this season, including a 24-point, 19-rebound performance vs. Gwynedd Mercy and an 18-20 stat line vs. Keystone. >> Looking Forward To: #21 Augsburg vs. #9 St. Thomas (12/11). Basketball (M) - D3hoops.com Swarthmore (8-0) Emory (9-0) Wittenberg (5-0) Middlebury (9-0) St. Thomas MN (7-1) Nebraska Wesleyan (9-1) Marietta (6-0) Randolph-Macon (9-0) Washington U. (7-1) UW-Platteville (8-0) 11-15: Johns Hopkins, Elmhurst, Saint John's, Babson, UW-La Crosse. 16-20: Whitworth, Nichols, UW-Stevens Point, Colby, Guilford. 21-25: Springfield, Carthage, Augustana, Benedictine, Amherst. >> Greetings: Babson, UW-Stevens Point, Colby, Springfield, Benedictine. >> Adios: UW-Oshkosh, Christopher Newport, North Central, WPI, Oswego State. >> Half a Hundred: Marietta's Jason Ellis (51) and Lynchburg's Tharon Suggs (50) have the only 50-point games in Division III this season. >> Looking Ahead: #11 Johns Hopkins at #1 Swarthmore (12/10); #21 Springfield at #25 Amherst (12/10).   6.  Comings and Goings    Chris Shenk named head baseball coach at Eastern Nazarene. Mike Schmidt resigned as head football coach at UW-La Crosse to accept position at Northern State. Leo Weil will not return as head women's soccer coach at Johns Hopkins. David Gansell named director of athletic communications and academic affairs at Washington College.   7.  The Word of the Year   Merriam-Webster declared the personal pronoun "they" as word of the year, with a 313% increase in Merriam-Webster.com lookups over 2018, AP reports. Why it matters: Merriam-Webster recently added a new definition to its online dictionary to reflect use of "they" as relating to a person whose gender identity is nonbinary. In October, the American Psychological Association endorsed "they" as a singular third-person pronoun in its style guide for scholarly writing. "We believe writers should try to use a person's self-identified pronoun whenever feasible," said Jasper Simons, chief publishing officer for the APA. "The singular 'they' is a way for writers to avoid making assumptions about gender when it is not known." Flashback: The American Dialect Society, which is dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, named "they" its word of the year for 2015, in recognition of its emergence among people who reject "he" and "she." - courtesy of Axios   Subscribe to d3Playbook