🗞 A Wednesday Post-Election Freebie. Five-Year Eligibility Debate Deserves More Nuance. House v. NCAA Attorneys Seek $18.6M. D3hoops WBB Preseason All-Americans. Send Your Name to Titan.

🎶 Your Morning Pick Me Up. Twist and Shout. The Beatles

🙏 We’re Asking For Your Support. A monthly subscription for every weekday access to D3Playbook costs just $8 - or $0.44 per day. A yearly subscription costs $59. Please consider supporting our work and our advertisers today. Thank you.

A MESSAGE FROM CONDE NAST

Breasts are among the most talked about and medically researched parts of the human body, yet many of us are embarrassed to discuss our breast health openly. 

Allure Perspectives, a new podcast hosted by Allure editor-in-chief Jessica Cruel, spends its first season exploring how breasts intersect with beauty, health, identity, sexuality, and culture. Episodes feature Olivia Munn on the test she says to take even if your mammogram is clear, sex educator Ericka Hart on reclaiming her body after breast cancer, and a Beverly Hills surgeon on why GLP-1s are driving a surge in breast lifts. All episodes available now.

Listen wherever you get podcasts.

by Rick Willis, VP for Strategic Recruitment, Wartburg College

“The conversation around a potential five-year eligibility model in Division III has generated strong opinions, and for good reason. For many, the issue is about protecting what makes Division III different. Having spent more than three decades in Division III, I understand and respect that perspective. I have seen firsthand the value of an athletics model that prioritizes balance, education, personal growth, and campus engagement over the commercialization that increasingly defines other levels of college sports.

At the same time, anyone who has worked in Division III athletics during periods of significant change knows that eligibility reform is rarely simple. Our experience during the COVID eligibility era highlighted both the opportunities and challenges that can accompany these decisions. While some institutions benefited from experienced rosters and extended student engagement, others struggled with roster management, competitive balance, and creating opportunities for younger athletes. Those realities should be part of this discussion as well.

My perspective on this issue is also influenced by my current role in enrollment leadership. Today’s students do not always follow a traditional four-year timeline; many move through higher education in ways that reflect changing academic opportunities and personal circumstances. That is why I am not sure this issue is as simple as preserving a four-year rule.”

» Continue Reading

“Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the House v. NCAA settlement are asking a federal court to approve $18.6 million in fees for having spent more than 3,430 hours of work monitoring and enforcing the landmark college sports agreement during its first year in existence.

In a motion filed late last week, class co-counsel Hagens Berman and Winston Taylor (formerly Winston & Strawn) asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins to award them $3.81 million for work related to “monitoring and enforcing” the settlement, $14.82 million in incentive fees tied to the college athlete revenue-sharing pool and $200,251.26 in related out-of-pocket expenses.”

» Court Awareness. “Attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman outlined a number of their accomplishments from June 2025 through June 2026 in overseeing the settlement’s injunctive relief. This included the discovery of more than $88 million not included by schools as part of data they provided to the NCAA’s Membership Financial Reporting System (MFRS). The lawyers credited their auditing work with making an additional $44 million in compensation and benefits available to class members during the current academic year.”

» Notable. “In accompanying declarations, class counsel disclosed hourly billing rates ranging from $2,250 for their firms’ most experienced partners down to $500 for the most junior associate.”

“While several All-American forwards have returned, it's a changing of the guards on our preseason honor roll. Here are 25 outstanding players to watch this coming season.”

First Team

» Fundraising. Trinity University athletics raised $288,233 from 1,453 donors during its 1869 Challenge.

COLBY - T.J. Maines named assistant men’s basketball coach

“You may never soar under the clouds or over the organic sands of Saturn’s moon Titan, but your name can. NASA is inviting the public to send their names aboard the agency’s Dragonfly rotorcraft and be part of the first science mission to fly and explore the surface of another world.

To have your name included on a microchip aboard Dragonfly and receive a personalized digital boarding pass commemorating your place on this historic mission, visit:

https://go.nasa.gov/dragonfly-names

☕ Thanks for starting your day with us.
Please support D3Playbook with a subscription

Copyright © 2026, D3Playbook.com All rights reserved