📖 In Today’s Playbook. U.S. Endowments Report Stable Returns. A Small University Bet Big on Enrolling Athletes. Now It Will Close. Big Wrestling Conference Championship Weekend. Chambliss Awarded Sixth Year of Eligibility. McNugget Caviar.

🎶 Your Morning Pick Me Up. Waterloo. ABBA

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“In a turbulent year, U.S. colleges and universities increased spending from their endowments to help stabilize operations and support their students, faculty and missions, new data from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and Commonfund show.

Data from the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments® (NCSE), show that the 657 U.S. colleges and universities and affiliated foundations participating in the Study reported a 10-year average annual return of 7.7 percent on their endowment assets in fiscal year 2025, an increase from 6.8 percent last year. The one-year return for FY25 was 10.9 percent, down modestly from last year’s 11.2 percent.”

» What They’re Saying. “This year’s report shows how important well-managed endowments are to colleges and universities,” said Kara D. Freeman, NACUBO President and CEO. “Endowments help fuel innovation and serve as a stable foundation for institutions. Because of challenges in the economy, some institutions relied more heavily on their endowments—but that additional spending benefited students, faculty, staff, research, operations, and more. Endowments make college possible and more affordable, and contribute to better lives for all.”

» Top 10 DIII Endowments (in thousands). 1-MIT ($27,366,239); 2-Johns Hopkins ($13,734,964); 3-Washington U. ($13,298,963); 4-Caltech ($4,317,200); 5-Carnegie Mellon ($4,287,143); 6-Williams ($3,931,247); 7-Amherst ($3,898,671); 8-Rochester ($$3,243,682); 9-Pomona ($3,220,513); 10-Wellesley ($3,185,271).

» Top 10 Baccalaureate Endowments (in thousands). 1-Williams ($3,931,247); 2-Amherst ($3,898,671); 3-Pomona ($3,220,513); 4-Wellesley ($3,185,271); 5-Bowdoin ($2,915,143); 6-Grinnell ($2,847,381); 7-Swarthmore ($2,842,685); 8-Smith ($2,709,530); 9-Tufts ($2,707,042); 10-Washington and Lee ($2,192,230).

» Coming Monday. A look at endowments conference-by-conference.

“In a sign that athletics can’t always save struggling colleges, Lourdes University, a small, Catholic institution outside Toledo, Ohio, announced Wednesday that it will close at the end of the academic year.

Like hundreds of similar campuses faced with falling enrollment, Lourdes had sought to bolster its numbers by dramatically expanding its NAIA athletics programs. Those efforts did bring new students to campus, but overall enrollment continued to decline.”

» Background. “Until 2010, the university had served mostly adult learners and commuter students. But in the midst of the Great Recession, as college enrollment grew nationwide, the institution pivoted to become a residential liberal-arts college. To attract new students, Lourdes added college athletics and steadily grew its offerings from eight teams to more than 20 over a dozen years.”

» Reality Check. “Despite more than tripling its number of athletes, Lourdes saw its full-time undergraduate enrollment tumble from 1,285 in the fall of 2012 to just 691 in fall of 2022. In addition, the costs of college sports — especially the unrestricted spending on athletic scholarships that were often added to the normal tuition discount — drove the university into a deep financial hole. The average tuition discount for athletes averaged 74 percent, compared to about 34 percent for other students.”

» What They’re Saying. “Steve Dittmore, a scholar of college athletics and dean of the Silverfield College of Education and Human Services at the University of North Florida, said the announcement was the latest warning signal “that campuses which aggressively grow enrollment through the addition of sports or increased roster sizes are, it appears, at a much greater risk of closure.” “Schools engaged in these practices need to be certain their enrollment strategies, particularly around athletics, make sense for long-term sustainability,” he wrote in an email.

It’s the biggest weekend of the season for DIII conference championship meets that begin on Saturday.

» Conference Championships. Allegheny Mountain, CCIW, Centennial, Old Dominion, Presidents, St. Louis, UAA, WIAC.

“Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss was granted an extra year of eligibility by a state court judge, who issued an injunction that paves the way for Chambliss to be eligible in 2026.

In a ruling that lasted well over an hour Thursday, Judge Robert Whitwell ruled that Chambliss clearly met the criteria to receive a medical redshirt for a sixth season.

Whitwell detailed that the NCAA ignored medical evidence in denying Chambliss' waiver and the quarterback would suffer irreparable harm if denied this year. The judge concluded that Chambliss submitted adequate medical reference and that the NCAA didn't act in good faith in denying the waiver.”

» The Big Picture. “This decision in a state court illustrates the impossible situation created by differing court decisions that serve to undermine rules agreed to by the same NCAA members who later challenge them in court," the NCAA said in a statement. "We will continue to defend the NCAA's eligibility rules against repeated attempts to rob future generations of the opportunity to compete in college and experience the life-changing opportunities only college sports can create.”

» Basketball (W). Aurora tied the DIII single-game record for three-point field goals as the Spartan women drained 26 in a 111-50 rout of Rockford. The markmanship equaled the standard set by La Verne in 2012, LaGrange in 2013 and North Central (Ill.) in 2014.

» 3-Year Degrees. “Massachusetts colleges and universities may soon be allowed to offer three-year bachelor’s degrees, after the state Board of Higher Education voted Tuesday to consider proposals from public institutions seeking to establish degree programs that require fewer than the standard 120 credits, Statehouse News reported.”

» Bond Ratings. “Moody's Ratings has affirmed the A2 issuer rating for Worcester State University. Overall wealth remains healthy, with total cash and investments growing to $93 million, supporting resilience amid generally moderate operating margins. Moody’s also has downgraded Lawrence University, WI's issuer and revenue bond ratings to Baa2 from Baa1. The university had approximately $92 million in debt outstanding as of June 30, 2025. The outlook remains negative. Finally, Moody'shas revised Whitman College, WA's outlook to negative from stable and affirmed the Aa3 issuer and revenue bond ratings. For fiscal 2025, (June 30, year-end), the college had about $108 million of debt outstanding.”

“A bizarre and highly anticipated McDonald's promotion combining its iconic Chicken McNuggets with luxury caviar ended in digital chaos on Tuesday. The fast-food giant's "McNugget Caviar" kits, offered for free, sold out within minutes of their 11 a.m. ET launch on February 10, 2026, leaving thousands of hopeful fans with nothing but error messages.

The promotion, hosted exclusively on the website McNuggetCaviar.com, was met with such overwhelming demand that the site buckled under the pressure. Prospective customers who visited the site as the countdown timer hit zero were greeted not with a checkout page, but with an "HTTP Error 429" message, indicating too many requests were hitting the server at once.

Within ten minutes of the chaotic launch, the website updated with a new message: all kits had been claimed.”

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