This update is a tool to enhance communication between the NCAA national office and the Division III membership, with distribution to athletics directors, senior woman administrators, faculty athletics representatives, presidents, national SAAC, conference commissioners and the National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators listserv. We encourage athletics directors to share this communication with their athletics department members. Please contact Katie Mucci to include an item or share comments, and remember to check out the Division III governance homepage for the latest news and information.
To access this year’s Convention resources, visit the 2025 Convention resource webpage. Staff will post key information (for example: the Official Notice, legislative proposal Q&A guide and education session PowerPoints) on this page as they become available.
DEADLINE APPROACHING: Division III SWA Program
The NCAA Division III governance staff is excited to host the seventh annual Division III Senior Woman Administrator Program. Division III will provide funding for 30 senior woman administrators to attend a division-specific program March 10-11 at the NCAA national office in Indianapolis. The application process will be available on the NCAA Program Hub, titled “2025 Division III SWA Program.” Nomination and application materials must be submitted by 5 p.m. Eastern time Dec. 3.
LGBTQ of the Year Award Celebration
If you are traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, for the 2025 NCAA Convention, please reserve time from 6:45 to 8 p.m. Central time Wednesday, Jan. 15, to attend the fifth annual LGBTQ of the Year Award ceremony. You will need a Convention credential to attend. During the ceremony, we will recognize all the nominees and announce this year’s recipients.
2024 NCAA Woman of the Year Award
The Woman of the Year Selection Committee has named nine student-athletes as finalists for the 2024 Woman of the Year Award. The finalists — three from each division — are being honored for their outstanding achievements in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.
The Division III finalists are:
Alexandra Turvey, Pomona-Pitzer.
Maddy Miles, Mount Union.
Hannah Kassaie, Case Western Reserve.
All Top 30 honorees, including the nine finalists, will be celebrated at 5 p.m. Central time on Wednesday, Jan. 15, during the NCAA Convention in Nashville. Each honoree will be recognized, and the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced. Click here to read more about the nine finalists.
Division III Health and Safety Survey
The Sport Science Institute health and safety survey will again be sent to Division III athletics health care administrators. The survey is designed to collect information on the administrative and organizational aspects of Division III sports medicine programs. Data from the survey will allow schools to assess how they compare on issues related to athletics health care delivery and administration.
The survey will be available to the Division III membership Dec. 5 through Feb. 7 and is to be completed by the school’s athletics trainers/athletics health care administrators. The NCAA will make the aggregate and institutional survey data available through the Division III Institutional Performance Program.
Gameday the DIII Way
Gameday the DIII Way helps create a respectful and engaging environment through athletics, for everyone. Gameday the DIII Way offers in-person training and an online learning course on the NCAA Learning Portal.
If you prefer in-person, you can find a list of trained facilitators and a campus self-evaluation and discussion tool to start the discussion with your staff. If your preference is online, the Gameday the DIII Way learning course on the NCAA Learning Portal is set up for administrators to assign to staff members, not for individuals to self-enroll. To learn more check out Division III Sportsmanship on ncaa.org.
NCAA Directory
As a reminder, contact information for all NCAA email communication is pulled directly from the NCAA Directory. Please ensure all contact information for the athletics department administration, head coaches and conference personnel is updated for the 2024-25 academic year. Incorrect or missing contact information may result in the appropriate people not receiving correspondence. Changes can be made throughout the year as needed. Should you have any questions about adding contact information to the directory, please contact membershipdirectory@ncaa.org.
Diversity Grant Applications
Applications have opened for the Division III diversity grants. The grants provide funding to members committed to enhancing ethnic minority and gender representation in athletics administration and assistant coaching positions. For more information and to apply, visit the Division III Diversity Grants page on ncaa.org.
Division III SAAC #ThriveTogether Virtual Town Hall
The Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Mental and Physical Health Subcommittee hosted a virtual town hall for student-athletes, coaches and administrators on Nov. 18. The town hall featured Dr. Deena Casiero, the NCAA chief medical officer, and Kaya Mahy, a softball student-athlete at Muhlenberg College who shared her research on identity and life after sport. The subcommittee members also shared a document with tips on topics including motivation, nutrition, healthy relationships and more. To view a recording of the town hall, click here.
2024 NCAA Financial Reporting 2024 NCAA financial reporting is due Jan. 15. There are two methods to meet the constitutional requirement of reporting financial data annually.
Submit financial data to the NCAA via the Financial Reporting System.
Submit the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act Certificate of Completion to the NCAA via the Financial Reporting System.
The required financial data or EADA Certificate of Completion is submitted via the Membership Financial Reporting System located within My Apps (single-source sign-on), which can be accessed from NCAA.org. For information, contact Andrea Worlock at the national office.
Division III Webinars
Webinars will be from 1:30 to 2 p.m. Eastern time the first Tuesday of the month on the following dates and topics:
Dec. 3 — Academic and membership affairs review of 2025 Convention legislation.
Jan. 7 — Tips and tricks for new NCAA Convention attendees.
Feb. 4 — 2025 NCAA Convention recap.
All past webinar PowerPoints are on the Division III webinar webpage.
To be eligible for any practice or competition between terms, student-athletes must either have been registered full time at the end of the previous fall term (if they are continuing enrollment) or they must be accepted for full-time enrollment for the upcoming winter/spring term (if they are continuing or beginning enrollment). See Bylaw 14.1.7.1.7.6.
If you have a student-athlete whose eligibility is changing (e.g., the student-athlete was ineligible in the fall but will be eligible in the spring), Bylaw 14.1.9 provides a timeline in which the certification for a student-athlete must occur: no earlier than the day after the day of the last scheduled final and no later than the first day of classes for the following academic term. While your institutional policy should dictate when on that timeline the certification happens, it does not have to happen on the same day for all student-athletes. Finally, a conference may adopt more stringent requirements for its member institutions.
Bonus Rule of the Month — Midyear Transfers
In Division III, transferring midyear does not prevent student-athletes from being immediately eligible for competition at their new institution. If you’re working with a student-athlete who transfers to your institution following the 2024 fall term, you will want to confirm if they would have been academically eligible had they remained at their previous institution. If the answer is yes, they may be immediately eligible per Bylaw 14.5.5.1.
This is true even if the student-athlete participates in a winter sport and has already begun their season at the previous institution. In that instance, their participation at your institution during the 2025 spring/winter term would be considered a continuation of the same season. Please note, however, that the student-athlete may not participate in more than the Bylaw 17 maximum permitted contests or dates of competition for the sport between both institutions.
Official Notice and Legislative Proposals Question & Answer Document
As a reminder, per Bylaw 20.8.4.15, Convention and Regional Rules Seminar Attendance, each active member institution must be represented by an institutional staff member who is certified as a voting delegate and who votes for the institution at the NCAA Convention Division III business session. Institutions must vote at the business session to satisfy Bylaw 20.8.4.15. If you have questions regarding the Convention attendance requirement, please contact Eric Hartung at ehartung@ncaa.org.
Visit ncaa.org/convention for details on registration fees, the NCAA Convention schedule and much more.
2025 NCAA Regional Rules Seminar — Division III Attendance Requirement
At least once every three years, an active member school must be represented by at least one institutional staff member at the NCAA Regional Rules Seminar. Unsure if you need to attend? Please reference the Division III Institutions Required to Attend the 2025 NCAA Regional Rules Seminar List. You will also find this on the Regional Rules Seminar website. If you have attendance requirement questions, contact Brittany Higgins at bhiggins@ncaa.org.
Available Now — 2025-26 Division III Practice Start Date Calculator
The DIII Playing and Practice First Practice Date Calculator is available for the 2025-26 academic year. Please click here to access the start date calculator in Compliance Assistant 2.0.
ATHLETICS COMMUNICATION UPDATES
Division III Athletic Communicators Emerging Elite Program
The inaugural Athletic Communicators Emerging Elite Program will take place in Indianapolis at the NCAA national office Dec. 9-10. The program will bring 30 participants from across the membership to participate in a day and a half of education. The professional development sessions will cover topics such as leadership, building a culture, amplifying the brand of your institution/conference, conflict resolution, being present in your work and more. To learn more about the program, click here.
Share Your Stories
Division III is looking to feature membership stories on social media and through NCAA.com. To share stories for consideration, please email Katie Mucci at kmucci@ncaa.org.
NCAA and D3SIDA Recognition Award
The NCAA Division III and D3SIDA Recognition Award seeks to honor the best work — including news releases, feature articles, videos, blogs and other materials — produced by Division III campus and conference athletics communication offices. Each top honoree will receive a $1,500 credit to attend Division III Day at the annual College Sports Communicators convention. The next submission deadline is Feb. 15. For more information, click here.
Media Coordination/Statistics Staff Contacts
To find information about whom to contact at the NCAA for media coordination and statistics, the current assignments can be found here.
The NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program was created in 1994 from a recommendation put forth by the Gender Equity Task Force. Its goal is to provide new sport opportunities for women and allow additional flexibility to NCAA schools to support new sports and participation on their campuses. In 2023-24, over 5,000 student-athletes participated in emerging sports. Since its inception, five sports have gained championship status, and six sports are currently part of the Emerging Sports for Women program. Click here to read more.
Special Olympics Unified College Championship Week is coming back this spring from April 7-11. More information regarding registration, activities and kickoff events will be shared throughout the semester. Learn more about champ week here. If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Price.
Special Olympics Reporting Form
Share the Special Olympics activities taking place on your campus or with your conference by filling out the Special Olympics reporting form here. You can also email stories about activities to d3specialolympics@ncaa.org.
The NCAA has developed a campaign toolkit in partnership with the National Federation of State High School Associations. The Become an Official toolkit provides campaign graphics and social media deliverables that can be co-branded with your conference logo for a consistent and shared recruitment message to address the growing concerns regarding the number of NCAA officials across all sports. The toolkit can be found in the Officiating and Member Resources section on the NCAA Say Yes to Officiating website here.
The NCAA has partnered with Officially Human to provide two versions of the Elevate Respect learning module for NCAA membership. Elevate Respect is a click-through course that individuals can use to understand the important role officials play in NCAA competition. The Elevate Respect team course offers an opportunity for institutions to engage coaches and student-athletes prior to the start of their season in a team setting. Both versions of the program were created to emphasize positive sportsmanship and engagement with officials during competition and are intended to improve student-athlete, coach and fan behavior directed at officials. The Elevate Respect modules can be found in the NCAA Learning Portal. If you have a Learning Portal account, you can access Elevate Respect course here, and the Elevate Respect team course here. For more information about the Elevate Respect modules, contact Ben Brownlee at bbrownlee@ncaa.org.
As a reminder, NCAA legislation requires member schools to report annually on all student-athlete fatalities and catastrophic injuries, regardless of whether such fatality/injury is sport-related. Schools must report a catastrophic event that occurred during this annual cycle and must report retroactively any catastrophic event that occurred since the legislation became effective Aug. 1, 2014, if that event has not already been reported.
To report a fatality or catastrophic injury, visit the online reporting portal at sportinjuryreport.org/NCAAReport. In addition, schools can also report a fatality or catastrophic event by calling the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at 919-843-8357.
For more information about fatality and catastrophic sport injury reporting or clarification about whether an event should be reported, visit the website at ncaa.org/injuryreporting or email the Sport Science Institute at ssi@ncaa.org. Thank you for your commitment to support the mental and physical health, safety and performance of student-athletes.
The NCAA needs your help in sharing scholarship opportunities with your student-athletes. These scholarships, totaling $2.6 million, provide financial support to over 350 individuals annually. They are crucial for student-athletes pursuing further education after their athletics-related financial aid has been exhausted.
Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship: One male and one female student-athlete awarded $24,000 for outstanding academic achievement and potential for future leadership.
Jim McKay Graduate Scholarship: One male and one female student or student-athlete awarded $10,000 for excellence in sports communication or public relations.
Postgraduate Scholarship: $10,000 awarded three times a year for each sport season. Each sport season, there are 21 scholarships available for men and 21 scholarships available for women for use in an accredited graduate program.
For the Jim McKay, Walter Byers and Postgraduate scholarships, student-athletes must be nominated by their faculty athletics representative. Those interested in the Ethnic Minority and Women’s Enhancement Graduate Scholarship must apply themselves.
Applications for the Walter Byers, Jim McKay and Postgraduate scholarships close Jan. 10. The Ethnic Minority and Women’s Enhancement Graduate Scholarship application window closes Feb. 3.
This email was sent to NCAA Division III presidents and chancellors, athletics direct reports, directors of athletics, faculty athletics representatives, senior woman administrators, sports information directors, directors of compliance, commissioners, assistant/associate commissioners, national Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, provisional, reclassifying and exploratory members based on contact information in the NCAA Directory.
