😎 Rise and Shine. It’s Monday

📆 What’s Happening Today. The DIII Championships Committee continues its meeting in Indianapolis.

🎶 Your Morning Pick Me Up. Manic Monday. The Bangles

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“The timing is symbolic, if not ironic.

Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday afternoon that he’s sending House of Representatives members home early until after November’s midterms. The decision effectively pauses the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA). The very institution eager to bring order to college sports has now ensured the bill it designed to do so will be delayed for months.

If it ever becomes law at all.”

» Driving The News. “Just months ahead of what could be the most consequential midterm election in modern American history, college sports are near the epicenter of a country in flux. That’s because college athletes have moved beyond asking if they’ll ever be compensated for their worth. Now the discussion has evolved. It’s become more than just being let in the room. The present-day rhetoric centers on how much those same athletes can actually control their worth. Hence, the Protect College Sports Act lives at the heart of a true American debate.”

» The Big Picture. “Power requires representation. The schools have representation, as do the conferences, the NCAA at large and even Congress. When President Donald Trump held a roundtable discussion on the future of college sports in March, politicians, athletic directors, coaches, conference commissioners, media executives and more attended the White House event. The only perspective missing from the room — then and now — was that of the players, who remained essentially voiceless.”

» Quotable. “The athletes have not made the decisions that have led to this point,” Brandon Copeland, executive director of Athletes.org and former 10-year NFL veteran said. “I would tell people, ‘Don’t hate the player, hate the game.’ The athletes didn’t make the game.”

“Friends and former teammates of slain UMass Dartmouth running back Marvins Antoine are remembering him as a role model and leader.

Antoine, 18, was stabbed to death early Saturday morning during an altercation in a Wendy's parking lot across the street from Mezzo Lounge in Providence, Rhode Island. One of his teammates was also stabbed but had what police said were "non-life-threatening" wounds. Another UMass Dartmouth student, 19-year-old Chukuwnonoso Uzoma Eze, was arrested and charged with murder.”

» Worth Noting. “Orlando Delgado, one of Antoine's former teammates at Atlantis Charter School in Fall River, told WBZ-TV that Antoine was one of the first people to welcome him when he first arrived on the team. "If I was being left out of anything, he always was the person to include me in sports or activities," Delgado said. "He made me feel welcome when I really was having a very hard time."

» Of Note. “Xavier Gracia, another former teammate from Atlantis Charter School, told WBZ-TV that Antoine set a high standard for the younger players on the team. "He held me accountable, as a teammate, as a person," he said. " On the bus rides to games… our losses, our wins, he was like a role model to all the players."

Our condolences to his family, friends, teammates and the entire UMass Dartmouth community. May his memory be a blessing.

North Central continues to sit atop the latest DIII football rankings, but closing fast on the top-ranked Cardinals are defending national champion UW-River Falls.

The Falcons took out sixth-ranked Wartburg on the road by a 31-14 count to leap a pair of spots in the D3Football poll and four positions in the D3Huddle survey.

» D3Football Top 10. 1-North Central (3-0), 2-UW-River Falls (3-0), 3-Wheaton (3-0), 4-UW-Platteville (3-0), 5-Saint John’s (2-0), 6-UW-Whitewater (2-0), 7-John Carroll (3-0), 8-Hardin-Simmons (2-0), 9-Bethel (1-1), 10-Trinity TX (3-0)

» D3Huddle Top 10. 1-North Central (3-0), 2-UW-River Falls (3-0), 3-Wheaton (3-0), 4-UW-Platteville (3-0), 5-Saint John’s (2-0), 6-John Carroll (3-0), 7-UW-Whitewater (2-0), 8-Bethel (1-1), 9-Trinity TX (3-0), 10-Hardin-Simmons (2-0)

» Finances. “As the University of Maine tries to close its budget hole, the public institution’s academic affairs unit is taking on roughly half the burden by committing to reduce its base expenses by $10 million, President Joan Ferrini-Mundy and Provost Gabriel Paquette said in a university message. Measures include permanently nixing 20% of vacant positions within academic affairs as well as reducing instruction budgets, consolidating course sections and trimming some additional compensation areas.

Endicott DL Jackson Adams blocked a potential game-tying extra point with 37 seconds remaining as the Gulls upset Mary Hardin-Baylor, 28-27. Video by Bryan Mallett.

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