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OCTOBER 27, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH
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😃 Welcome to the New Week

🗞️ In Today’s Playbook. NIL Has Birthed a Third-Party Cottage Industry—and It’s a Mess. Raman Named WNBA Head Coach. NPI Projections. Pavia Aiming to End NCAA's JUCO Eligibility Rule. Lightning Round.

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TOP STORY

1. NIL Has Birthed a Third-Party Cottage Industry—and It’s a Mess

“The opening of the NIL floodgates in college sports three years ago birthed an entire cottage industry of third-party NIL services companies that have raced to amass contracts with big school clients.

In just the past month, one of those companies has collapsed and another is under fire. How did we get here?”

» Driving The News. “In July 2021, the NCAA began allowing college athletes to get paid for use of their name, image, and likeness; that led to an open market in which star quarterbacks and basketball players freely transfer from school to school for promises of cash payments. Add to that the result of the House v. NCAA settlement in June, which allows schools to share up to $20.5 million of revenue per year directly with players—separate from personal NIL deals. While the $20.5 million in revenue-sharing is a hard cap, there is no limit to how much money players can make from NIL deals.”

» Reality Check. “Early in the NIL era, schools relied heavily on third-party collectives of rich boosters to help facilitate those huge payments to players. But as the House settlement looked set to pass, many Power 4 programs—not all—moved away from their collectives in preparation for a new landscape where revenue-sharing would, presumably, become the centerpiece of building championship rosters, and NIL payments would be a cherry on top of that cap. It hasn’t played out that way so far.”

» Quotable. “There’s no barrier to entry when it comes to NIL,” Learfield EVP of NIL growth and development Solly Fulp tells FOS. “And there’s a lot of new people coming into our space that are prioritizing the transaction over what is truly in the best interest of the student-athlete.” (Front Office Sports)

2. Raman Named Head Coach of WNBA’s Seattle Storm

“The Seattle Storm are set to hire New York Liberty assistant coach Sonia Raman as their next coach, according to ESPN's Shams Charania. Raman joins the Storm after a coaching career that spans across the collegiate and professional ranks and in both the WNBA and NBA.

Prior to her lone season with the Liberty this year, Raman was an assistant for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies from 2020 to 2024.”

» Why It Matters. “Before making the jump to the professional ranks, she was the head coach of MIT women's basketball team for 12 years between 2008 and 2020. During her tenure, she led the team to its first two conference championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances at the Division III level. Before that, she was the lead assistant at Wellesley College for six seasons, and began her coaching career at her alma mater of Tufts University.” (CBS Sports)

3. NPI Projections

As DIII enters the final week of the regular season for field hockey and soccer, the NCAA Power Index (NPI) is beginning to take shape. Here is our look at the projected “cut lines” for at-large candidates. Note: a conference’s top team in the NPI (not listed) is projected as the AQ. All other teams from a conference are considered for Pool C.

» Field Hockey (18 AQ, 10 at-large). Projected NPI cut line: 19.

» Men’s Soccer (43 AQ, 21 at-large). Projected NPI cut line: 38.

» Women’s Soccer (43 AQ, 21 at-large). Projected NPI cut line: 38

Football and women’s volleyball still have multiple weeks remaining in their regular seasons. Here is an early look at their NPI projections.

» Football (27 AQ, 13 at-large). Projected NPI cut line: 29 | Complete NPI

» Women’s Volleyball (43 AQ, 21 at-large). Projected NPI cut line: 43

4. Report: Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia Aiming to End NCAA's JUCO Eligibility Rule With Class Action Lawsuit

“Eight months after winning a historic legal injunction against the NCAA that allowed him to play a sixth season of college football, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia is doubling down. According to Front Office Sports, Pavia and his legal team are preparing to file an amended complaint against the NCAA’s rule that counts junior college seasons against a player’s collegiate eligibility by making it a class-action suit.”

» Field Awareness. “Pavia was awarded an additional sixth season of college eligibility by the NCAA in December after U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee judge William Campbell granted the Vanderbilt quarterback a preliminary injunction against the NCAA counting his junior college seasons by arguing the governing body’s redshirt rule violates antitrust law. Following the ruling, the NCAA issued a blanket waiver for 2025-26 that granted an extra year to athletes who previously “competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years” and otherwise would have exhausted their NCAA eligibility following the 2024-25 season.”

» What It Means. “The amended complaint would seemingly make the same case on a much grander scale. If granted, Pavia’s amended complaint against the NCAA would seemingly set a new nationwide precedent and potentially permanently change how the NCAA qualifies junior college seasons as it counts against a student-athlete’s current four seasons of collegiate eligibility.”

» What They’re Saying. “Pavia’s attorney argued that the appellate decision is still relevant because if the court finds that the rules are commercial and thus subject to antitrust law, he’ll be filing for a new injunction or an expedited trial schedule at the district court seeking to play 2026 as well. “It makes sense given that his attorney is also involved in the new class action lawsuit challenging the four seasons rule overall, and Pavia would be seeking — if you take the JUCO year out of the picture — his fifth season in five years,” said sports law professor Sam Ehrlich. (On3)

5. Lightning Round ⚡️ 

» Streaming. “When FloSports set out to scale its livestreaming presence across its deep portfolio of collegiate partners, it faced a familiar challenge: how to deliver professional-grade broadcasts at schools where the “production team” might be a single sports-information director, a student volunteer, or a multitasking grad assistant. That challenge is met with the FloSports Production Suite, a self-contained live-production kit launched this fall and in pilot use across 11 NCAA Division II and III schools.”

» Soccer (W). #2 ranked Washington U. (15-0-1) toppled top-ranked Emory (14-1-1),
2-1, to remain undefeated and move atop the UAA standings. Olivia Clemens scored the game-winning goal in the 81st minute.

» Football. Washington & Jefferson QB Kellan Stahl set a DIII single-game record by completing 27-of-28 passes (96.4%) in the Presidents’ 56-0 victory against Waynesburg. Stahl threw for 408 yards and five touchdowns.

» Cross Country. Hunter swept the CUNYAC men’s and women’s cross country titles on Sunday at Van Cortlandt Park.

» Tennis (W). Manhattanville captured the Skyline Conference title with a 4-2 victory against top-seeded Farmingdale State.

6. Comings and Goings 

• HOWARD PAYNE - Named Nick Cantu assistant athletic director for external communications

• SIMPSON - Named Kayla Cary head swimming and diving coach

• WILKES - Named Jackie Klahold and John McNichol associate athletic directors. Named Tony Marcincavage assistant athletic director

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