Tommie Time?

D3Playbook JANUARY 22, 2020 | 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. >> Hump Day. If you're headed to Anaheim ... safe travels! >> Thanks for reading D3Playbook. We appreciate your support over the last four months. Please invite your colleagues to sign up below. >> Today's Word Count: 1,153. An easy morning read. Subscribe to d3Playbook 1. Tommie Time? "Time and again, Gene Taylor found himself reaching for the same familiar cliché. As North Dakota State athletic director, he often reminded colleagues that the program’s transition from NCAA Division II to Division I was going to be a marathon, not a sprint. It didn’t take long, though, to realize that adage was woefully inadequate. “I said it a million times,” recalled Taylor, now the AD at Kansas State. “Every time I walked out of a room after I said it, I was like … ‘How long is this marathon going to last?’ It felt like a double marathon at times.” As someone who has been through the process, Taylor has provided some counsel for Phil Esten, the St. Thomas athletic director who soon could be guiding the Tommies from Division III to Division I. Among Taylor’s insights: It’s going to cost far more money than Esten might think. He’s going to need steadfast support from university administration. He must be prepared to stand strong in the face of skepticism from some fans, faculty and the community." >> The Bottom Line: Taylor told Esten to be prepared for a significant budget increase from the start. He said North Dakota State’s athletic budget was about $5 million when he arrived in 2001. It rose to about $9 million in 2004-05, the school’s first year in Division I, and reached $15 million within four years. Today, Taylor said, that number stands at about $25 million. While St. Thomas does not disclose its athletic budget, it reported total athletic expenses of $4.86 million in its 2017-18 Equity in Athletics Data Analysis report. >> Reality Check: “One mistake we made at Concordia was that we didn’t allocate as much money as we should have for recruiting," said Dan O'Brien, former AD at Concordia (St. Paul) when the school left the NAIA for the NCAA. “Travel costs will go up, because there will be more airplane trips, hotel stays and food. Coaching salaries have to be competitive with the schools you’re competing against. Where you might have one compliance officer now, you’re probably going to need three or four, plus more people in academic support. And those are only some of the things you have to think about.” >> Be Smart: “You might think it’s just the athletic department that’s going to Division II,’’ Dr. Howard Patterson, AD at Texas-Tyler said. “But it’s the whole university. Enrollment, financial aid, admissions, the registrar, all those offices are affected, too." >> Keep Reading courtesy of Rachel Blount, Minneapolis Star-Tribune >> Go Deeper 2.  Revenge Served Cold Top-ranked Plattsburgh State avenged its lone loss of the 2019-20 women's ice hockey season with a 4-1 win against No. 2 Middlebury on Tuesday. The Cardinals jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two periods and never looked back in improving to 18-1 while handing the Panthers (10-1-2) their first defeat. Nicole Unsworth led Plattsburgh with a pair of goals. 3.  Net Generation The ITA has released its 2020 preseason rankings. No surprise ... the Emory men and the Wesleyan women hold down the top spots. >> Top Singles Players: (1) Boris Sorkin, Tufts; (2) Stanley Morris, Middlebury; (3) Nikolai Parodi, CMS; (4) Jack Katzman, CMS; (5) James Hopper, Case Western. >> Top Doubles Players: (1) Hopper/Matt Chen, Case Western; (2) Bradley Cummins/Brysl Libao, Redlands; (3) Alex Taylor/Peter Frelinghuysen, Williams; (4) Antonio Mora/Will Wanner, Emory; (5) Joe Cartledge/Austin Gu, Johns Hopkins. >> Regional Rankings >> Top Singles Players: (1) Justine Leong, CMS; (2) Catherine Allen, CMS; (3) Serim Jin, Wesleyan; (4) Lauren Park, Chicago; (5) Katie Fleischman, Wesleyan. >> Top Doubles Players: (1) Allen/Leong, CMS; (2) Kristina Yu/Sophie Henderson, Wesleyan; (3) Venia Yeung/Caitlyn Ferrante, Wesleyan; (4) Crystal Juan/Anna Kern, CMS; (5) Danna Taylor/Courtney Ollis, Carnegie Mellon. >> Regional Rankings 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.  About Last Night     Sam Jefferson and Alex Dorian combined for 41 points as Colby (15-0) remained unbeaten with a 97-70 win at Husson.   Jordan Powell made 14 of his 15 shots from the floor for 32 points as Saint Joseph's (Conn.) improved to 14-2 with a 99-83 win over Suffolk.   Robert Colton scored a career-high 25 points and added 12 rebounds as Whitman (12-4) took over the top spot in the Northwest Conference with an 89-80 triumph at No. 20 Whitworth (12-4).   No. 8 Baldwin Wallace topped #22 John Carroll, 21-13, in an OAC dual-match. 141 Charlie Nash won its 100th career bout for the Yellow Jackets. 5.  Comings and Goings Deb Steward named associate vice president and director of athletics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Sharon Beverly named interim athletic director at Guilford. Aynsley Rosenbaum named head football coach at Framingham State. Neil Johnson announced his retirement as head women's soccer coach at Gwynedd Mercy. 6.  Game On The popularity of gaming, and by proxy esports and primarily game streaming platforms like Twitch, exploded in the 2010s as the relevance of video games in popular culture reached a new level. It was in 2013 that Grand Theft Auto V was released and became the fast-selling entertainment product in history, generating more than $800 million in sales in its first day alone and more than $1 billion within three days. Games industry analyst group NPD took a look back at the last decade, tracking what the best selling game titles were. Which Games Sold The Most Copies Between 2010 and 2019? Grand Theft Auto V Call of Duty: Black Ops Call of Duty: Black Ops II Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Call of Duty: Black Ops III Call of Duty: Ghosts Red Dead Redemption II Call of Duty: WWII Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII Minecraft No sports game cracked the top 20 in most sales of the last decade. Of the top 20 top-selling games in the last decade, 14 were shooting games. Throwing Things Back The prior decade - 2000 to 2010 - presented a much different gaming landscape, according to NPD. Three of the top five games were music-related - Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock was the top-selling game from 2000 to 2010, while Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour were ranked third and fifth, respectively. The other two games in the top five were related to sales of the Wii console. Only four of the top 20 were shooting games, while multiple versions of Madden NFL Football made the top 20 list that decade - the top-charting one being Madden NFL 07, which was the thirteenth best selling game from 2000 to 2010. - courtesy of Front Office Sports 7.  1 Shootout Thing  Might be the funniest end to a shootout in ice hockey history! KHL all star game is hilarious pic.twitter.com/kBdYoPSI7X — Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) January 18, 2020

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