Retail Admissions: "Act Now"

D3Playbook FEBRUARY 13, 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.

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1. Retail Admissions: "Act Now"   by Eric Hoover, Chronicle of Higher Education   "In mid-January, a college applicant in the suburbs of Chicago received an enticing offer. It came from an admissions counselor at Illinois Wesleyan University, who left him a voicemail message and followed up with a text. "You have been selected," the text said, "to receive an extra $2,000 per year in scholarship money!" There was one stipulation. Because funds were limited, the university would hold the offer for just two weeks. "If you deposit by February 1st," the text said, "then you are guaranteed the extra 2k. Let me know if you have any questions!" Later that day, the young man shared the news with Augustana College, in Rock Island, Ill., which had sent him a financial-aid package weeks earlier. Could Augustana, he asked, match Illinois Wesleyan’s latest offer? He needed an answer by February 1. That snapshot from the heartland shows how the admissions realm is changing. It increasingly resembles the rest of the commercial world, in which come-ons relentlessly pelt consumers’ skulls, incentives drive decisions, and everyone expects to bargain. Here’s a 40-percent-off promo code! We will not be undersold! Act now — this special offer expires soon! The 2019-20 admissions cycle marks the end of student recruitment as we know it. Colleges are using fiercer tactics, and the official rules of competition are kaput. >> Situational Awareness: Like it or not, the demise of the NACAC guidelines is hastening the industry’s push into murky territory. New tactics — like Illinois Wesleyan’s offering applicants extra aid in exchange for a deposit three months before the traditional deadline — could affect hordes of colleges. Even those not trying new strategies of their own must decide how, or whether, to counter a competitor’s gambit. >> What's Next: Last fall, Clarkson University, in Potsdam, N.Y., emailed prospective applicants to announce a new benefit called the Early Decision Incentive Scholarship. The pitch: Students who applied by December 1 would, if accepted, get an additional $2,000 a year for four years. >> Reality Check: Last fall the mother of a 2019 Minnetonka HS graduate contacted Phil Trout, a college counselor, to say that her son, a college freshman, had received transfer solicitations from seven institutions. He hadn’t even applied to three of them. "She said, ‘This isn’t right,’" Trout recalls. "And I said, ‘Well … actually, now it’s allowed.’" >> Worth Noting: Early Deposit Awards Programs. Yes, it's what you think it is. >> You Will Want to Read This (find someone with a subscription)

2.  Regional Rankings    Men's Rankings Atlantic: 1-Stevens, 2-Yeshiva Central: 1-UW-Platteville, 2-Washington U. East: 1-Brockport, 2-Rensselaer Great Lakes: 1-Mount Union, 2-Marietta Mid-Atlantic: 1-Swarthmore, 2-Johns Hopkins Northeast: 1-Tufts, 2-Middlebury South: 1-Emory, 2-Randolph-Macon West: 1-St. Thomas, 2-Nebraska Wesleyan Women's Rankings Atlantic: 1-Marymount, 2-Rowan Central: 1-UW-Whitewater, 2-UW-La Crosse East: 1-Ithaca, 2-NYU Great Lakes: 1-Hope, 2-DePauw Mid-Atlantic: 1-Messiah, 2-Gettysburg Northeast: 1-Tufts, 2-Amherst South: 1-Oglethorpe, 2-Trinity (Texas) West: 1-Loras, 2-Wartburg

3.  Wrestling Poll  >> On The Move: Coast Guard (+7), Stevens (+7) >> Hello: Brockport, UW-Eau Claire. >> What We're Watching: #1 Wartburg vs. #3 Loras (FRI); #5 Coe vs. #25 Dubuque (FRI); WIAC Championship (FRI); #6 TCNJ vs. #17 Messiah (SAT).

4.  Finale Goes to the Bank The St. John’s/St. Thomas football rivalry is heading for U.S. Bank Stadium this fall, and that likely will be the end of it. The schools announced Wednesday that the teams will meet at 1 p.m. Nov. 7 in the Vikings’ stadium. It will technically be a home game for St. John’s. The rivalry spans 119 years. The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) voted last spring to remove St. Thomas, and this fall will bring the Tommies’ final football season in the conference they helped form. This won’t be the first off-campus matchup for the two teams. They played at the Metrodome in 1996 and 1997, and at Target Field before an announced crowd of 37,355 fans in 2017.

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5.   About Last Night   40 minutes wasn't enough. Neither was 45 or 50 ... or 55. No, SUNY Poly and Keuka needed 60 minutes last night before the Wildcats defeated the Wolves, 115-110, in four overtimes. It is the second four-OT game this season (UW-Whitewater-Beloit on Dec. 18)   Nyasha Howard (pictured) of John Jay recorded a quadruple-double in the Bloodhounds' game vs. Medgar Evers. She had 11 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals for her third straight triple-double.   Congrats to Muskingum junior Marcus Dempsey who became the first player in program history to reach 2,000 career points.   Salute to Augsburg's Aiza Wilson who set the MIAC all-time record for three-point field goals (214).   Conor Harkins scored 25 points as No. 1 Swarthmore moved to 22-0 with an 83-69 victory at No. 7 Johns Hopkins (19-3).   No. 1 Springfield (10-1) pulled out a 17-15 victory in the fifth and deciding set to defeat No. 2 Vassar (8-3), 16-25, 25-19, 25-22, 22-25, 17-15. Jarrett Anderson had 26 kills for the Pride.

6. Comings and Goings   Harry J. Elam named president at Occidental. Katie Conboy named president at Saint Mary's (Ind.) Dennis Mente named head men's and women's volleyball coach at Yeshiva. Curt Fitzpatrick named head football coach at Cortland. 7.  1 Streaming Thing Streaming accounts for nearly 20% of TV consumption for most Americans, almost doubling since 2018, Axios' Sara Fischer writes from a new Nielsen report. Why it matters: The data shows how quickly consumers are flocking to streaming as a replacement or complement to traditional TV. The report finds that Netflix accounts for a whopping 31% of streaming time — the largest share of any service — followed by YouTube (21%), Hulu (12%) and Amazon Prime (8%). Between the lines: Nearly half of U.S. viewers subscribe to three or more steaming services — a number likely to increase as options grow. While one study has suggested that the average American is willing to pay around $42 monthly for streaming services, Nielsen found most consumers (93%) are willing to increase the amount of streaming services they pay for — or at the very least, to keep the ones they currently have.