SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH
No publication covers NCAA Division III better. #whyD3

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🗞️ In Today’s Edition. Colleges Add Sports to Bring Men, But It Doesn’t Always Work. Energy Department Withdraws Controversial Title IX Athletics Rule. Wittenberg Ends Juniata’s Volleyball Streak. Pumpkin Concierges.

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TOP STORY

1. Football Fantasy: Colleges Add Sports to Bring Men, But It Doesn’t Always Work

“On a hot and humid August morning in this southwestern Virginia town, football training camp is in full swing at Roanoke College. It’s the first day of practice for a Roanoke College varsity football team since 1942, when the college dropped football in the midst of World War II.

Roanoke is one of about a dozen schools that have added football programs in the last two years, with several more set to do so in 2026. They hope that having a team will increase enrollment, especially of men, whose ranks in college have been falling. Yet research consistently finds that while enrollment may spike initially, adding football does not produce long-term enrollment gains, or if it does, it is only for a few years.”

» Field Awareness. “Women outnumber men by about 60 percent to 40 percent at four-year colleges nationwide. Roanoke is a part of this trend. In 2019, the college had 1,125 women students and 817 men. This fall, Roanoke will have 1,738 students altogether, about half men and half women. But the incoming freshman class is more than 55 percent male.”

» Quotable. “Do I think adding sports strategically is helping the college maintain its enrollment base? It absolutely has for us,” said Roanoke president Frank Shushok, Jr.  “And it has in a time when men in particular aren’t going to college.”

» Yes, But. “A 2024 University of Georgia study examined the effects of adding football on a school’s enrollment. “What you see is basically a one-year spike in male enrollment around guys who come to that school to help be part of starting up a team, but then that effect fades out over the next couple of years,” said Welch Suggs, an associate professor there and the lead author of that study. It found early modest enrollment spikes at colleges that added football compared to peers that didn’t and “statistically indistinguishable” differences after the first two years.”

» Reality Check. “Like most Division III athletes, the Roanoke players know that they have little chance of making football a professional career. Ethan Mapstone, a sophomore, said there are other reasons to embrace the sport. “It’s a great blessing to be able to do what we do,” he said. “There’s many people that I speak to who are older and, and they reminisce about the times that they had to play football, and it’s very limited time.” (Hechinger Report)

2. Energy Department Withdraws Controversial Title IX Athletics Rule

“The U.S. Department of Energy canceled plans to issue a rule that would have removed a regulatory requirement for colleges and schools receiving funding from the agency. The requirement in question is meant to level the playing field between women and men in athletics.

The Energy Department’s rule would have no longer required colleges and schools receiving Energy Department funding to provide women or girls a chance to try out for contactless men’s or boys’ sports teams in cases where no equivalent sports team exists for them.”

» Situational Awareness. “Under current requirements, for example, girls must be allowed to try out for spots on the boys’ baseball team if there is no girls’ softball team.”

» Driving The News. “The withdrawal was celebrated by Title IX civil rights advocates, who worried the rule would reverse progress for girls and women in sports. However, a handful of other changes remain — albeit delayed — on the Energy Department’s docket that would impact colleges and schools receiving the agency’s grants.”

» What They’re Saying. “Withdrawing the athletics rule shows that public pressure works, but continuing forward with the other rules shows this administration is still determined to chip away at opportunities for women, girls, and communities of color,” said Shiwali Patel, senior director of safe and inclusive schools at the National Women’s Law Center.” (Higher Ed Dive)

3. Wittenberg Ends Juniata’s 103-Match Volleyball Win Streak

Wittenberg won the decisive fifth set, 15-13, to down top-ranked Juniata and end the Eagles’ 103-match winning streak on Friday in Springfield. Alana Bartulovic had 15 kills for the Tigers (3-4).

It was the first loss for the three-time defending national champions since September 16, 2022, and ended the Eagles’ quest to set a NCAA record for consecutive wins. Juniata does hold the DIII record for longest win streak.

4. Lightning Round ⚡️ 

» Condolences. St. Olaf football student Matt Lee passed away early Friday morning. May his memory be a blessing.

» Football. UW-Oshkosh and Coe combined for 1,376 yards and 106 points in a 59-47 Falcon victory. UWO QB Kaleb Blaha threw for 335 yards while running for another 234, accounting for six scores.

» Field Hockey. Middlebury junior Megan Fuqua scored four times to lift the No. 1 Panthers past No. 3 Babson, 5-1, on Sunday in Vermont.

5. Comings and Goings 

• CONFERENCE of NEW ENGLAND - Announced addition of Salve Regina as an associate member in men’s and women’s ice hockey beginning in 2026-27

• GUILFORD - Michael Boyd resigned as associate athletic director for facilities

• JOHN JAY - James Holmes named head men’s basketball coach

• LYNCHBURG - Alison Morrison-Shetlar announced her retirement as president at the end of the academic year

• MILLSAPS - Announced addition of women’s flag football as a varsity sport in 2026-27

• PENN COLLEGE - Amber Savage named head softball coach

• POTSDAM - Mike Grace named interim head men’s ice hockey coach

• SAINT VINCENT - Josh Gurekovich named assistant athletic director for leadership. Ashley Campbell named assistant women’s basketball coach

• WILLIAM PEACE - Rowan Poppen-Eagan named head swimming coach

6. No Time For the Pumpkin Patch? Hire a Porch Decorator

“For hundreds or over a thousand dollars, a growing field of "pumpkin concierges" will deliver and decoratively assemble gourds and other seasonal goodies.

The big picture: Professional porch decorating is becoming big business, with options in Minneapolis, Denver, Washington, D.C., Nashville, Texas, California and Arizona, just to name a few.

How it works: Packages range from eye-catching clusters — with add-ons like hay bales and cornstalks costing extra — to abundant displays that cascade down a home's entryway.” (Axios)

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