⚽ 🏑 🏐 A Busy Wednesday Around DIII

🗞 Headlines. Ohio governor issues fifth-year eligibility executive order. What colleges and universities need from donors. ITA Cup begins Thursday.

📆 What’s Happening Today. The DIII Interpretations and Legislation Committee meets today.

🎶 Your Morning Pick Me Up. Cruise. Florida Georgia Line

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“Is the NCAA about to be in another fight with state governments regarding its eligibility rules?

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) issued an executive order Tuesday with the goal of preventing the NCAA from barring any class of 2022 athlete at a school in the state from playing a fifth season. The NCAA's summer decision to grant players five years to play five seasons in their chosen sport applied only to athletes in the high school class of 2023 and younger. Players who graduated high school in 2022 and played four seasons in four years were prevented from getting a fifth season.”

» Point. “Per the order, "no state institution of higher education or private college or university in Ohio shall uphold any rule, requirement, standard or other limitation that prevents a student-athlete of that institution or college in the Class of 2022 from fully participating in intercollegiate athletics in the 2026-27 academic year, regardless of whether the student-athlete completed four seasons of intercollegiate competition or exhausted eligibility under 2025-26 NCAA regulations or any prior regulations, and regardless of any athletic authority's interpretation of applicable NCAA eligibility bylaws" including a provision that exempts players who have played in a professional sports league.”

» Counterpoint. “The NCAA later released a statement, through President Charlie Baker, Tuesday evening in response. In part, it said, "The Governor of Ohio cannot legislate NCAA eligibility rules." The statement also read, "The NCAA will protect the interests of all member institutions and student-athletes. Eligibility rules established through the Association's governance process have been and will continue to be applied consistently across the membership by the NCAA, including in the state of Ohio."

» Be Smart. “However, it's unclear how enforceable DeWine's executive order would be regardless of a decision in the Field case. Executive orders are not laws, and it was a rash of state laws that led to the NCAA overhauling its NIL rules in the early 2020s.”

“In 1638, John Harvard, an English-born Puritan minister and teacher in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, bequeathed 400 books and half his £779 estate, today equivalent to roughly US$2 million, to the college that would be renamed in his honor after his death.

In addition to launching America’s oldest university, Harvard’s donation began a tradition of philanthropy for U.S. colleges and universities that has continued ever since. Today, philanthropy is an important source of higher education funding that covers an average of 10% of college and university budgets.”

» Driving The News. “Donors contributed $79 billion to colleges and universities in 2025, up 4% in constant dollars from the year before. The richest Americans dominate giving to higher education: 89% of the funds raised came from only 2% of donors in 2025.”

» Be Smart. “In an article in Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning in September 2026, we listed ideas for college and university fundraising efforts. These tie to three recommendations for donors – and not only those making multimillion-dollar gifts.”

» The Final Word. “Philanthropy can’t solve every problem higher education faces. But by giving together, donating with fewer strings attached and helping students pay their college expenses, alumni and other donors can be strategic in how they help.”

“The 2026 ITA Cup is set to get underway this Thursday, October 15, from the Rome Tennis Center, with the nation’s top singles and doubles college tennis players from the NCAA Division III, NAIA, and Junior College levels all converging to compete for national championships.

Dating back to 1986, the ITA Cup is one of the most storied tournaments across the Division II, Division III, NAIA, and JUCO levels of play, with 2026 marking the first year without Division II competition after the introduction of the ITA Division II Singles and Doubles Championships. Student-athletes earn spots in the ITA Cup through the ITA Small College Regional Championships, which is a nationwide competition that sees over 8,000 student-athletes compete across 60 Regional Championships around the United States.”

» Title. “This year, several of the top players from the 2025-26 season have already made their presence felt again this year, with the likes of Garv Bahl (Tufts), Drew Goldman (Pomona-Pitzer), Caitilyn Bui (WashU), and Tina She (Amherst) all set to compete at this year’s ITA Cup after strong showings at the Regional Championships.

» Membership Committee. “The committee declined to take a position on the age-based eligibility proposal. During its discussions, the committee recognized the complexities and nuances of the proposal and expressed concern that the full implications cannot be adequately assessed within the three-month period leading up to the business session.”

» Academic Programs. “Pennsylvania State University administrators issued a final proposal Monday to eliminate 47 undergraduate programs after a multi-year academic review of the public institution’s 403 associate and bachelor’s degrees. Collectively, those programs enroll about 1.1% of the university’s roughly 68,000 undergraduate students, according to a Penn State news release. Nine of the programs have no students.”

» Volleyball. Berry senior Keira Kruk was named the AVCA Division III National Player of the Week after hitting .459 with 4.3 kills per set in a 3-0 weekend.

» Golf. Congrats to Dubuque on winning its fourth consecutive A-R-C women’s championship with a 54-hole score of +95. Central’s Allie Pfantz captured medalist honors at +19. The Penn State Altoona men won the AMCC title with a 36-hole score of +24. The Lions’ Andrew Bruce and Max Mottura, along with Michael Sevier of Mount Aloysius, shared medalist honors at +4. And Hartford came home with the CNE women’s trophy with a 26-stroke victory. UNE’s Abby Flanagan repeated as individual champ.

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