🎒 Here They Come. So as the fall season begins, we’re back to our regular schedule, publishing every weekday morning.

🎶 Your Morning Pick Me Up. Beautiful Day. U2

🔈 What We’re Hearing. “The most intense rivalry in small college sports isn’t between two teams 10 miles apart…. It’s between the men’s and women’s basketball programs fighting over who gets the “good” practice time.” Don’t forget about women’s volleyball.

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At the recent NCAA DIII Presidents and Management Council meetings, the groups reviewed a membership-sponsored proposal to transition from a season-based eligibility and waiver-driven framework to a continuous, five-year age-based eligibility model that mirrors the framework adopted by Division I.

The period of eligibility will be triggered by either a student-athlete's initial full-time collegiate enrollment or the start of the regular academic year following their 19th birthday (whichever occurs earlier), operating continuously for five years with limited, clear exceptions (e.g., pregnancy, military service, and religious missions). Furthermore, this proposal intends to establish an equitable implementation timeline providing current student-athletes with eligibility remaining after the 2025-26 academic year the benefit of whichever model is most advantageous, while exploring avenues to protect student-athletes finishing their eligibility during the 2026-27 academic year.

The proposal was sponsored by the American Rivers and Ohio Athletic Conferences.

» Point. “Proponents highlight significant operational benefits. A standardized, time-bound framework would drastically reduce administrative burdens on compliance staff by eliminating the tracking of athletic redshirts, delayed enrollment, and complex competition variables. It replaces unpredictable, case-by-case waiver pipelines, such as medical hardships and extensions, with clear, predefined rules that offer upfront transparency for student-athletes.”

» Counterpoint. “However, a shift of this magnitude introduces challenges that run counter to traditional Division III values. Moving away from a flexible, enrollment-driven framework provides less flexibility for student-athletes who pause their participation to focus on rigorous academics, study abroad opportunities, or financial constraints. Consequently, a continuous "clock" could negatively impact non-traditional, older, or transfer student-athletes whose journeys do not follow a rigid timeline.”

» Why It Matters. “This proposal initiates a necessary legislative debate within Division III following Division I's landmark shift toward a continuous, age-based eligibility framework. Introducing this proposal ensures our division can evaluate how this model aligns with or challenges our distinct divisional philosophy before risking long-term misalignment.”

» What Happens Next. The Presidents Council referred the proposal to the Division III Interpretations and Legislation Committee, the Division III Financial Aid Committee, the Division III Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement, the Division III Membership Committee, the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, and the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for feedback.

» Convention Planning. The Management Council endorsed the proposed topics for the Division III educational sessions at the 2027 NCAA Convention in Anaheim, Calif., which are (1) Beyond ChatGPT Basics: Practical Tools for the AI-Driven Athletics Leader; and (2) Developing and Sustaining a Healthy Department and Team Culture. Recommended topics for the Issues Forum are updates from the NIL and Division III Analysis Working Groups and a review of 2027 Convention legislative proposals.

» Championships. Championship budget enhancements of $1.7 million in 2026-27 and $790,000 in 2027-28 that include expenses related to bracket expansion; an increase in per diem and officiating fees; a joint championship for women’s basketball in 2028; and a new Division III Women’s Wrestling Championship in 2028.

» Enrichment. An increase of $522,000 in new Enrichment Fund initiatives for 2026-27 that include a two-year increase to the conference grant program to offset web platform hosting increases; a one-time grant to support officiating; inflationary increases for programs and NCAA Convention expenses; an initiative to add photographers at NCAA individual team championships to provide the membership with greater access to photos; a one-time expense to collect data from the National Clearinghouse to study football academic outcomes; and additional funding to support the partnership with the National Association of Division III Athletics Administrators.

» Supplemental. Supplemental budget enhancements of $8.3 million in 2026- 27 that include continuing the stipends provided to championship hosts to offset livestreaming costs; maintaining the health and safety grant for institutions; continued funding for institutions to participate in the Mental Health First Aid program; a new grant for institutions to offset athletics communications expenses; the development of new Division III-specific public service announcements; and funds to provide flexibility in establishing brackets to protect highly-ranked teams. | Read More

“The National Collegiate Athletic Association has an antitrust problem. And it’s not going away. The association’s best shot at dispelling the morass faded on Friday when the Senate failed to vote on the Protect College Sports Act, a bill that, among other things, grants the NCAA an antitrust exemption. The earliest time senators will consider it again will be in September. After that, the midterm frenzy kicks in, and who knows when the bill will be back on the floor? The antitrust carve-out would allow colleges to act and negotiate as a collective but is far from a silver-bullet solution. But if it’s unsuccessful, the NCAA will continue to get pummeled with lawsuits.”

» Court Awareness. “The NCAA’s refusal to pay athletes because they’re amateurs no longer reflects the reality of college sports. And by acting as a single bloc in negotiating standards, NIL payments, scholarships and media rights, the NCAA runs into antitrust law at every turn. The Protect College Sports Act could shelter the organization from antitrust challenges, but it would take agency away from student athletes. Collective bargaining could give athletes greater voice in how their time and bodies serve the athletics enterprise, but college leaders are fearful of the costs.”

» The Final Word. “Until a solution is found, legal cases will keep piling up, and the only winners will be the antitrust lawyers.”

“Connor Barry’s dream finally became a reality.

Only after he humbled himself enough, put his ego aside and went from being that Division I walk-on to a Division III school in search of more playing time.

Only after he endured the 14-hour bus rides through the night from Vermont to Northern Virginia.

Only after he took home major awards at that Division III school — Christopher Newport — where he was a semifinalist for the Gagliardi Trophy, awarded to the top player in Division III and was named conference offensive Player of the Year.”

» Field Awareness. “Yet the riskiest decision of them all was the one Barry made this past offseason. The one where he bet on himself that he was good enough and experienced enough to be sought after by Penn State. And he did so without a guarantee of playing time.”

» Why It Matters. “Barry is one of only a handful of Division III transfers to make the jump to the Power 4 level between last year and this year and is the only offensive skill position player to do so.”

» Quotable. “It’s still football in the end of the day,” Barry said. “There are some pretty good players there, and it’s honestly a little bit like a JUCO. Like there are a bunch of DI players that transfer down to DIII, and kind of use it to get film, just like how I did. But I mean, it’s still still good quality football.”

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» DII Finances. “St. Michael’s College has quietly obtained a judge’s permission to raid tens of millions of dollars from its restricted endowment to keep the struggling university afloat. The extraordinary move this month allows university leaders to cover ongoing budget deficits by using as much as $30 million that donors had previously gifted St. Michael’s for specific purposes, such as scholarships or endowed professorships.”

» Sweet Home Chicago. “The University of Chicago men's basketball program will host Harvard on Sunday, November 8, at 1 PM at the Ratner Athletic Center in Hyde Park. This game will mark just the 15th time since 2000 that a DIII institution has hosted a DI institution in a regular-season contest and only the seventh time that the DI team was not in the first year of its conditional reclassification period upon entering the DI ranks.”

» Football. “Matt Young, the NCAA football coordinator of officials for Division II, was named the NCAA secretary-rules editor for football. Young, who has worked as a football official for 37 years, including 22 years at the NCAA level, succeeds Steve Shaw, who is retiring from the position.”

» Congress. “The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) Athletics Act of 2026, which passed the Senate on Aug. 6, 2026, would authorize the academy to establish a dedicated nonprofit organization to manage fundraising, licensing, ticketing, and other athletic operations. The change brings the USMMA into parity with the other four U.S. service academies, which already use 501(c)(3) entities to generate revenue for their sports programs.”

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