D3Playbook: What's Next For College Sports

written by STEVE ULRICH
your must-read briefing on what's driving the day in NCAA Division III

Good Monday morning. Welcome to November and Championship Week

>> Today's Word Count: 1,047 and quite a few pictures, too.

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TOP STORY

1. What's Next for College Sports

by Andrew Zimbalist, Sportico

"The longstanding “amateur” model of college sports in the United States is broken. What is going to replace it?

The conventional model was broken well before athlete name, image and likeness income became acceptable, educational benefits became uncapped or the pandemic blew a gaping hole in college athletic department budgets. The issues were clear. Budgets were deeply in deficit (even in FBS, where the median program lost more than $18 million a year); coaches and administrators made off like bandits with the loot generated largely by black football and men’s basketball players; the vast majority of athletes were not receiving the quality education that they were promised; medical coverage was inadequate; and Title IX was not being fully or properly implemented at 90% of U.S. colleges and universities. Today, mid-pandemic with NIL income unleashed, educational benefits uncapped, NCAA enforcement in retreat, and sports betting poised to pounce, the model and its functioning are in profound crisis.

What is to be done?"

>> The Bottom Line: "There are two fundamental paths of reform: (a) toward marketization and professionalism or (b) toward educationally centered athletics."

>> The Big Picture: "It has been reported that litigating the O'Bannon and Alston suits has cost the NCAA upwards of $200 million. Not only do these suits challenge NCAA authority, but they are pushing the association toward insolvency. It cannot afford ongoing litigations."

>> The Final Word: "While righting the wrongs of athlete exploitation by relaxing various NCAA constraints is desirable, there is a preferable alternative to budding marketization. It is to reinforce the educationally centered, extracurricular model of college athletics. Over 98% of college football and men’s basketball players will never play a single game in the NFL or NBA. If they don’t receive a real education, it will have a much bigger impact on their lives than earning some NIL money while in college."

>> Continue Reading

Note: Zimbalist is a professor of economics at Smith College

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CROSS COUNTRY

2. Champions

It was conference championship weekend for Division III cross country teams. Here is a chart of the women's and men's champions.

Men's Consecutive Winning Streaks
47 - North Central, CCIW
34 - Calvin, MIAA
23 - MIT, NEWMAC
7 - Geneseo, SUNYAC
6 - Greenville, SLIAC

Women's Consecutive Winning Streaks
14 - MIT, NEWMAC
13 - Johns Hopkins, Centennial
11 - Claremont-M-S, SCIAC
10 - Geneseo, SUNYAC
7 - Hunter, CUNYAC; Washington, Mo., UAA

>> Recap from the USTFCCCA
>> Scoreboard

NCAA

3. Council Updates

The latest in NCAA Division III's webinar series takes place on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. EDT.

Nov. 2 — Updates from Management and Presidents Council meetings.

All past webinar PowerPoints are on the Division III webinar webpage.

REVIEW

4. About Last Weekend

Volleyball vs. Calvin image 15

Volleyball (W)

No. 6 Hope (21-3) rallied from a set down to defeat No. 4 Calvin (25-2) in five sets before a crowd of nearly 1,200.
No. 2 Trinity, Texas (29-2) recovered from an opening set loss to defeat No. 16 Southwestern (22-4) in four sets. Annie Rose Leggett had 12 kills.
No. 14 Berry (22-2) swept No. 11 Emory (21-4) in straight sets. Molly Bergin had 14 kills.
Whitworth (19-2) claimed the Northwest Conference title and its AQ with a four-set victory at Pacific Lutheran. Maddie Lee led the way with 20 kills.

Soccer (M)

No. 24 Penn State Harrisburg (14-1-1) recorded its biggest win in program history, stunning No. 2 Messiah (14-2-2), 1-0. Joey Aman scored the lone goal in the 30'.
Colby (8-7-1) knocked No. 10 Amherst out of the NESCAC tournament on penalties, 4-3. The Mammoths (12-3-1) outshot the Mules, 21-3.
No. 16 Franklin & Marshall blanked No. 23 Johns Hopkins, 2-0. GK Sam Farrell recorded his 10th clean sheet of the season.

Soccer (W)

No. 17 Scranton (14-0-1) suffered its first blemish on the season and settled for a 1-1 draw with Elizabethtown (7-6-3). Trinity Soto made 17 saves for the Blue Jays.
No. 11 Case Western Reserve (13-1-2) handed No. 3 Washington, Mo. (13-1-1) its first loss of the season, downing the Bears, 1-0. Kati Davis scored the winning goal in the first half.
No. 16 Carnegie Mellon blasted No. 12 Chicago (12-2-3), 4-0. Maria Askounis tallied twice for the Tartans (11-4-1).

Field Hockey

Swarthmore (12-5) turned back No. 17 Haverford (13-4), 2-1, to qualify for the Centennial playoffs for the first time since 2000. Samantha Meacock scored the game-winner with 3:14 left.
No. 19 New Paltz (14-2) held off No. 18 Vassar (11-6), 2-1, on strokes. Natasia Plunkett had the Hawks' goal and the decisive stroke.

Football

No. 4 Mount Union (8-0) needed a Josh Petruccelli TD run with 2:14 remaining to down Ohio Northern (4-4), 42-35.
Ike Irabor ran for 121 yards and scored the game-winning TD in OT to lift No. 12 Union (8-0) past Hobart (6-2), 27-20.
No. 20 Johns Hopkins (7-1) jumped out to a 24-0 lead early in the second period and defeated No. 18 Susquehanna (7-1), 38-17. Danny Wolf rushed for 140 yards and four scores.
The ranks of the unbeaten shrank by four more as No. 15 Ithaca, Merchant Marine, Trinity (Conn.) and Wesleyan all suffered their first losses.

Scoreboards - XC | FHK | FB | MSOC | WSOC | VB

FOOTBALL

5. Rankings

Football defense October 16
photo by Steve Frommell

D3football.com

North Central (Ill.), 8-0
Mary Hardin-Baylor, 8-0
Wisconsin-Whitewater, 8-0
Mount Union, 8-0
Saint John's, 8-0
Wheaton (Ill.), 7-1
Linfield, 7-0
Hardin-Simmons, 7-1
Central, 8-0
Delaware Valley, 8-0

>> Complete D3football Poll

>> Unbeatens (14): Birmingham-Southern, Central, Cortland, Delaware Valley, Lake Forest, Linfield, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Mount Union, North Central (Ill.), Saint John's, Trinity (Texas), Union, Williams, Wisconsin-Whitewater

>> Games We're Watching