Championships Committee Recap

Plus: DIII Week Is Here. Financial Aid Officers Losing Patience. Presidential Office Rescinded.

Author

Steve Ulrich
April 01, 2024

APRIL 1, 2024 | written by STEVE ULRICH

The news that you need to know about non-scholarship college athletics and those that love it.
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» ☔️ Happy April 1. To the chagrin of baseball and softball coaches, April showers bring May flowers. No foolin’

» 👂️ What We’re Hearing. The 2026 DIII Men’s Basketball Championship will be a joint championship with DI and DII in Indianapolis.

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Big changes are coming to the way that Division III selects non-automatic qualifiers to its championship tournaments beginning next fall.

The DIII Championships Committee is recommending the adoption of the NCAA Power Index (NPI) as the team selection metric. While the committee “realizes that there is still work to be done for each sport committee to finalize its specific details,” it feels there is more benefit to earlier implementation than delaying until 2025-26.

» Bracket Sizes. “The committee is recommending that the championships access ratio be established at 1:6.0 in team sports. This change in access ratio aligns championships access with the current six-core-member requirement for conferences to earn an automatic berth to team championships. It also lowers the threshold for future bracket expansion by only requiring six additional sponsoring institutions to gain an additional championship berth and allows for brackets in high-sponsored sports to reach the legislated maximum of 64 (i.e., baseball and softball).”

» Championship Per Diem. The committee is calling for an increase in the per diem to $135 in 2024-25 and $140 in 2025-26.

» Wrestling. The committee is recommending that the field size for the championship be increased from 180 to 210 and that an additional seventh regional site be created.

NEWS
2. It’s DIII Week

The celebration of Division III Week begins today and runs through Sunday. Division III Week is a positive opportunity for all individuals associated with Division III to observe and celebrate the impact of athletics and of student-athletes on the campus and surrounding community.

During the week, every Division III school and conference office is encouraged to conduct a type of outreach activity that falls into one of three categories: academic accomplishment; athletic experience; or leadership/community service/campus involvement.

» Situational Awareness. “The event is part of Division III’s Identity Initiative, which was introduced in 2010 to sharpen the division’s identity and to enable schools and conferences to more effectively explain why they prefer to compete in Division III. The initiative has been guided by a strategic-positioning platform, describing Division III as a place where student-athletes can “follow your passions and develop your potential,” within an approach that combines rigorous academics, competitive sports and an opportunity to pursue other interests.”

» Social Media. Remember to use the hashtag #D3Week on all your social media posts. During the week, Division III will be donating $1 to Special Olympics North America for each new follower on Instagram and Twitter (I just can’t call it X), up to $10,000.

MONEY
3. Financial Aid Officers Are Running Out of Time - and Losing Patience

by Eric Hoover, Chronicle of Higher Education

“The news frustrated Stephanie Levenson, but it didn’t surprise her. After all, she had been hearing about delays and technical problems with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, ever since the form went live, at the end of 2023. “Every day there’s something,” she said. “It’s a soap opera.”

But Levenson, vice president for enrollment management at Monmouth College, in Illinois, was especially concerned about what her financial-aid director had told her: Many of the processed FAFSAs the college had received contained data discrepancies that would need to be resolved. Levenson also learned that financial-aid experts elsewhere are finding problems with the FAFSA calculation that determines each applicant’s eligibility for federal aid.”

» Why It Matters. “As March ends, patience with the so-called Better FAFSA is evaporating rapidly. The U.S. Department of Education announced that it had processed more than 4.4 million FAFSAs as of March 25, and many colleges have been receiving big batches of processed applications, known as Institutional Student Information Records, or ISIRs, over the last two weeks. But several financial-aid experts say that some of the data colleges have been receiving is flawed. And a substantial number of colleges are doubting their ability to get aid offers out within the next few weeks.”

» The Bottom Line. “Everywhere, anxious applicants are still waiting to find out what they would have to pay to attend the colleges on their lists. And until they finally receive that crucial information, the enrollment process will remain stuck in neutral.”

» What They’re Saying. “If you wait, you might lose students to another school because they’re providing financial-aid packages sooner. But if you go early, without accurate data, you might have to peel back the offer later. But the schools that are extremely tuition driven probably can’t afford to wait.” - KC Woods, executive director of financial aid at Saint Mary’s (Calif.)

NEWS
4. Lightning Round

» Presidents. “Buffalo State University has rescinded an offer to presidential hire Chance Glenn amid an apparent controversy over a grant application at another institution, The Buffalo News reported.”

» Title IX. “The Biden administration has decided to delay a new rule that would prevent blanket bans barring transgender students from participating in the sport consistent with their gender identity, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.”

» Countdown. The countdown to Northland College’s self-imposed deadline of April 3 to raise $12 million is winding down. A group of alumni called Northland Forever has raised $200,000 in pledges, but that figure falls well short of the desired amount.

» Lacrosse (M). Whittier alumni hope to bring back its men’s lacrosse program that was sunset in November 2022.

TRANSACTIONS
5 Comings and Goings

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