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.
The NCAA has selected participants for the 2024-25 Pathway Program, the yearlong initiative designed to prepare senior-level athletics administrators for the next career step as directors of athletics or conference commissioners. Congratulations to Chassidy Holloway, Midwest Conference; Libby Ladrach, Wooster; Matthew McMasters, Tufts; Casie Runksmeier, Colby; and Ryan Wildenhain, Marymount (Virginia). The Pathway Program is an intensive experiential learning opportunity for selected participants who work at an NCAA school or conference in Divisions I, II or III. During the year, the participants will be paired with and have regularly scheduled meetings with a campus or conference mentor. The mentors include directors of athletics, conference commissioners and school presidents, among others in leadership roles.
NCAA Power Index for Championships
Click here for an updated resource that includes established NPI weights set by the fall and winter championship sport committees and a Frequently Asked Questions guide.
Sexual Violence Attestation
The NCAA’s Campus Sexual Violence Policy requires all member schools meet the policy’s six provisions each academic year (Aug. 1-July 31). In the fall, each school’s president/chancellor, director of athletics and campus Title IX coordinator must attest to their compliance with the policy for the previous academic year.
The attestation period for the 2023-24 academic year will be open in September through the attestation deadline of Nov. 1. Additional communications regarding the attestation process will be delivered in the coming weeks. Please make sure your school’s information in the NCAA Directory is up to date to ensure communication is delivered to the appropriate people.
Nominations for the 2025 Today’s Top 10 Award are being accepted for college athletes who completed their athletics eligibility in the 2023-24 academic year. This award is given to 10 student-athletes who have brought distinction to themselves, their schools and college sports. Award nominations are submitted through the NCAA Program Hub and are due by 5 p.m. Eastern time Monday, July 8. A school may nominate more than one student-athlete for the Today’s Top 10 Award. Please note: Each nomination must be entered by a separate Program Hub user on your campus. Contact Melody Lawrence with any questions.
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:
Aug. 6 — Recap of SAAC, Management and Presidents Council Meetings.
Sept. 3 — Outcomes of Division III Financial Reviews.
Oct. 1 — Review of Division III Noncontroversial Legislation Recent Approvals.
All past webinar PowerPoints are on the Division III webinar webpage.
The academic and membership affairs staff has received several requests about USA Wrestling clubs, regional training centers and styles of wrestling. The information below should help your school provide guidance about contact between coaches and student-athletes (current and prospective).
Quick Note: Wrestling Styles
Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling is considered the same sport as folkstyle/NCAA collegiate wrestling. Therefore, the guidance below applies to freestyle, Greco-Roman and folkstyle/NCAA collegiate wrestling.
Current Student-Athletes
Coaches cannot be involved with a USA Wrestling club with their current student-athletes outside of the collegiate team’s playing season unless that club team is considered a regional training center. Per Bylaw 17.1.5.2.1, coaching staff members are prohibited from being involved in any capacity with an outside team that involves student-athletes with remaining eligibility from the school’s team. Therefore, if current student-athletes are on the club team, the coach cannot be involved unless the club is a regional training center.
Prospective Student-Athletes
Per Bylaw 13.11.3.4, it is permissible for a school's coach to be involved in any capacity in an organized sports club or organization involving teams of prospective student-athletes. If no current student-athletes are on the team, the coach can be involved with prospective student-athletes regardless of whether the club is a regional training center.
Regional Training Centers
Provided the regional training center is chosen and conducted by USA Wrestling, it is permissible for your school to serve as a regional training center site. Other items of note and bylaws to keep in mind are:
Please note that in addition to your school being chosen as a regional training center site, all coaches, student-athletes and prospective student-athletes must also be chosen by USA Wrestling. Bylaw 17.1.5.2.2 would consider a regional training center to be a national team development program and, thus, interactions between institutional coaches and current student-athletes would be permissible, even outside the declared playing season.
During the declared playing season for wrestling, all regional training center workouts with a school’s coach are considered athletically related activity and must follow those rules (for example, one day off a week). Outside the season, the regional training center would be considered an exception to athletically related activity for the reason stated above. Please note, however, that regional training center workouts are limited to regional training center members at all times, and non-regional training center student-athletes may not be in the wrestling room in any capacity when a regional training center workout is being conducted.
If there is competition associated with the regional training center, the restrictions in Bylaw 14.7.2.5.1 and Bylaw 14.7.1.1 (i.e., no competition between the beginning of academic year and Nov. 1) are still applicable. Since operating a regional training center is not currently an official tryout or competition for a national team event, it does not qualify as one of the exceptions in Bylaw 14.7.3.
Because USA Wrestling is a national governing body, a prospective student-athlete's participation in the regional training center on your campus would not be considered a traditional tryout for purposes of Bylaw 13.11.2.1.
USA Wrestling must rent the facilities for the regional training center at the going rate for your school. If your institutional athletic training staff is used, the regional training center must pay for those expenses, as well.
If your institution’s coach is selected to work at the regional training center and part of that coach's responsibilities is recruiting prospective student-athletes to attend the regional training center, those conversations must be limited to regional training center activities. No mention of wrestling for the school may be made, and no institutional gear can be worn unless the prospective student-athletes are of contactable age (Bylaw 13.1.1).
All financial transactions and fundraising for the regional training center must be completely independent of your school. Your school’s coach cannot send a letter to boosters that mentions the school’s program when soliciting funds for the regional training center.
If your school is not a regional training center, your coach may only coach student-athletes at events listed in Bylaw 16.8.1.3; they cannot train the student-athlete prior to or in preparation for the event (see also Bylaw 17.1.5.4). Bylaw 16.8.1.3.1 allows institutional coaching staff members to engage in coaching activities with a student-athlete during the particular event and provide actual and necessary expenses related to participation. Training in preparation for the event would not be permitted.
If the student-athlete were to qualify for an event specified in Bylaw 16.8.1.3 and had supporting documentation showing selection/qualification, the school may then seek relief to train and provide expenses by filing a legislative relief waiver. Access the legislative relief information standards, guidelines and directives here. Staff would encourage the school to search Requests/Self-Reports Online for waiver precedent prior to submitting a waiver request.
REMINDER: 2023-24 Rules Test is on the NCAA Learning Portal
Just a friendly reminder that the Division III Rules Test is on the NCAA Learning Portal. To access the exam, individuals must have an active NCAA MyApps account and be assigned NCAA Learning Portal access within NCAA MyApps. Resources on how to create accounts, assign access and take the exam will appear on the Division III Rules Test page of ncaa.org. The 2024-25 academic year Rules Test will launch Aug. 1.
2023-24 NCAA Compliance Forms Application Scheduled Outage
The Compliance Forms application remains offline for the annual maintenance. This maintenance is in progress and more information will be forthcoming soon in regard to the 2024-25 form release. While the application remains offline, users will be unable to access the system, including any data stored within the application. PDF versions of the 2023-24 forms for all three divisions will still be available within the membership section of ncaa.org. Updates about the 2024-25 forms will be made first via LSDBi. Please direct any questions to forms@ncaa.org.
ATHLETICS COMMUNICATION UPDATES
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 Oct. 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.
As you prepare for the 2024-25 seasons, consider using this resource for athletics communication and sports information offices. The Division III LGBTQ+ Communication Inclusive Language resource offers several inclusive communications practices and templates, such as student-athlete and coach information collection, game and website presentation, and social media policies, specific to the athletic communication and sports information roles, responsibilities and spheres of influence. The NCAA Division III LGBTQIA+ Working Group in collaboration with the NCAA office of inclusion and members of the Division III Sports Information Directors of America executive board created the resource.
Diversity Spotlight Initiative
The Centennial Conference is the recipient of this month’s Diversity Spotlight award. The league hosted the inaugural Centennial Conference Inclusion Summit at Franklin & Marshall College. This event brought together over 100 Centennial Conference administrators and head coaches for a day of impactful programming and actionable insights aimed at bolstering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts within collegiate athletics. At the CC Inclusion Summit, attendees learned from engaging education sessions covering critical topics such as accessibility, mental health awareness, unconscious bias, transgender inclusion in sport, and more.
The Diversity Spotlight Initiative recognizes and promotes outstanding diversity development projects, programming and initiatives occurring on Division III campuses and in conference offices. Each month an institution or conference is identified by the selection committee to be featured on the DIII webpage and in the DIII Monthly Update. In addition, the featured institution or conference office receives $500 toward its next diversity initiative. Click here for more information.
The NCAA Division III Special Olympics Spotlight Poll is a storytelling initiative on ncaa.org/D3SpecialOlympics. It features new stories each month that highlight a Division III and Special Olympics joint activity or event. That school or conference receives $500 to use for its next Special Olympics event. Written and digital submissions both are accepted. Featured stories are selected based on inclusion of the student-athlete perspective and Division III messaging. To submit a story for consideration, email d3specialolympics@ncaa.org.
York College (PA) is the winner of the June Special Olympics Spotlight Poll after hosting an "open gym" night for Special Olympics athletes in partnership with Special Olympics York County. During the event, 30 York student-athletes ran the event which featured five different stations, including kickball, volleyball, cornhole and more.
NCAA Officiating Background Check Program. The NCAA conducts background checks on officials for NCAA championships in several different sports for the dual purpose of promoting the student-athlete experience and protecting the integrity of the NCAA championships. Officials must consent to and pass the background check to be eligible to officiate an NCAA championship in the following sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, bowling, field hockey, football, men’s ice hockey, women’s ice hockey, men’s lacrosse, women’s lacrosse, soccer, softball, women’s volleyball, men’s water polo, women’s water polo and wrestling. Consent to the background check is provided during registration on the RefQuest+ platform, and conferences have access to background check reports through Sterling Volunteers. More information about the background check program can be found here under “Officiating Links.”
Learning Portal Module Available. The NCAA has partnered with Officially Human to develop the Elevate Respect learning module for NCAA member conferences and schools. The learning module, available on the NCAA Learning Portal app, is curriculum intended to improve student-athlete, coach and fan behavior directed at officials. The Elevate Respect course was created as an opportunity to engage coaches and student-athletes before the start of the season to emphasize positive sportsmanship and engagement with officials during competition. For more information about the Elevate Respect module, please contact Ben Brownlee at bbrownlee@ncaa.org.
RefReps: The NCAA has entered an alliance with RefReps (refreps.com) to provide comprehensive sports officiating education curriculum, training materials and resources for 15 different sports. This curriculum is designed for sports officiating to be taught in the collegiate classroom. For schools already offering sports officiating courses, we believe these materials would positively enhance your programs and streamline your efforts to develop and procure resources. For schools not currently offering a sports officiating course, these materials are academically rigorous enough to serve as the entire foundation for one. Please check out RefReps.com and contact Kyle Armstrong and team at hype@refreps.com to learn more about the opportunity to join this NCAA-supported initiative to help address the national shortage of sports officials.
Softball
The Softball Rules Committee met June 10-12 for its annual meeting and approved three playing rules change recommendations. Conference commissioners, directors of athletics and head softball coaches should’ve received the 2024 softball comment period via email June 18. The deadline to submit feedback is 5 p.m. Eastern time July 2. For questions, please contact Ashlee Follis at afollis@ncaa.org
Women’s Basketball and Women’s Volleyball
The 2024-25 women’s basketball rules changes can be found here.
The 2024 and 2025 Women’s Volleyball Rules Book can be found here.
Last month, the Eligibility Center hosted a webinar for Division III compliance administrators. Staff discussed the latest on upcoming changes to Eligibility Center policies that may impact your recruits. Click here to view the recording. For more updates, you can view recent Division III newsletters here.
DEADLINE APPROACHING: Student-Athlete Leadership Forum Facilitator
As a facilitator for the Student-Athlete Leadership Forum, you’ll play a crucial role in shaping the future leaders of collegiate athletics. Facilitators guide teams through open dialogues on diverse topics, fostering personal leadership development. This role is not only integral to the participant experience but also a profound opportunity for professional growth within collegiate athletics. The application deadline is 5 p.m. Eastern time July 5. To be eligible, you must meet this criteria:
Must be employed at an NCAA member school, an NCAA conference office or the NCAA national office.
Eligible facilitators can apply via the NCAA Program Hub. The facilitator training is Sept. 18-21 in Indianapolis, and the 2024 NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum is Nov. 21-24 in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more information, review the frequently asked questions about the program or email ldevelopment@ncaa.org
Championships Committee, June 17-18. Strategic Planning and Finance Committee, June 20.
Interpretations and Legislation Committee, June 24. Membership Committee, June 26-27. Nominating Committee, June 27.
Committee on Women’s Athletics and MOIC Joint Meeting
Virtual
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.
