👋 Welcome to the Division III May Newsletter! 🚨 As a reminder: Complete the 2027 NCAA Convention Pla

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DIII Newsletter

Smart Brevity® count: 6 mins...1651 words

👋 Welcome to the Division III May Newsletter!

🚨 As a reminder:

  • Complete the 2027 NCAA Convention Planning Survey  to help the Convention Planning Subcommittee determine the Division III educational sessions and Issues Forum roundtable topics. 

  • Register for the Division III webinar, set for 1:30 p.m. Eastern time May 5, for an update on the Division III SAAC and council meetings held in April. 

Now onto the newsletter.

🚨 This Month’s Musts

Generic NCAA calendar graphic

D3SIDA Recognition Award — Nominations Due May 15

  • This award honors the best work — including press releases, feature articles, videos and other materials — produced by Division III campus and conference athletics communication offices.  

  • Each honoree will receive a $1,500 credit to attend the annual College Sports Communicators convention in June.  

🗳 Submit entries to d3identity@ncaa.org by May 15. 

LGBTQ of the Year Awards — The deadline is one month away! 

  • The awards annually recognize an honoree in three categories: LGBTQ Student-Athlete of the Year; LGBTQ Administrator/Coach/Staff of the Year; and the LGBTQ Institution/Conference of the Year. 

What’s Next: Submit nominations and completed applications by 5 p.m. Eastern time Friday, June 5. 

🎓 NCAA Graduation Data Collection  Due June 1!

  • This is the last month to submit NCAA Graduation data in the Academic Portal. Submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Monday, June 1. 

  • As of Saturday, June 6 the Academic Portal will be closed. Any late Grad Rates submissions or correction will need to be entered in Compliance Assistant 2.0.

👉 Instructions and Frequently Asked Questions can be found in the Portal. Contact Sadie Martinez with any questions. 

⚾ Sports Sponsorship Data Collection — Due June 30

What's next: The 2026-27 sports sponsorship data collection process is due by June 30. 

Why it matters: Contest and participation data is used to ensure Division III minimum requirements are met. All schools have an obligation to submit accurate data to assist in upholding the integrity of the NCAA by the June 30 deadline. 

👉 Contact Sadie Martinez with any questions. 

📈 Division III Analysis and Working Group 

When: The working group  held its first in-person meeting on April 19-20, where consultants presented an initial high-level review of stakeholder interviews and supporting quantitative analysis.

They emphasized the initial findings did not represent conclusions or recommendations, and are continuing to gather data and conduct more stakeholder interviews with the group’s guidance.

Initial findings: The interview feedback from approximately 12 engagement sessions and data research aligned to the six core tensions. From the initial interviews, the following are the tensions in order of rated significance (from most significant to least) along with themes from the stakeholder interviews: 

  1. Economic Implications. Themes include the resource gap between Division III institutions, diversity of Name, Image and Likeness activity use, and strategies to use athletics as an enrollment driver.

  2. Playing seasons and resources. Themes include the recent adoption of legislation to expand playing seasons without campus resources to fund the expansion;  pros and cons on the impact to the student-athlete experience, such as infringing on the division’s philosophy to the need to change to meet enrollment needs; and athletic trainer impact and shortages.

  3. Eligibility evolution. Themes include the impact on the student-athlete experience of potential eligibility models (e.g., four-year vs five-year); and a range of perspectives regarding the need to align with Division I eligibility rules.

  4. Governance oversight and presidential involvement. Themes include athletics directors reporting to presidents/chancellors, broad conference representation within the governance structure, and specifically, the engagement of presidents and chancellors in the governance structure.

  5. Championships selection criteria. Themes include assessments of NPI, the budgetary impact of championships travel and continuity with automatic qualification.

  6. Membership standards. Themes include recent discussions regarding dividing or sub-dividing Division III, sports sponsorship minimums, and the Division III Philosophy Statement that outlines the division’s core values.

➡️ Next steps: The working group will conduct videoconferences in May to review additional feedback and data and work toward identifying potential solutions. 

📰 Member Manual

Trophy

Division III Opportunity Grant Recipients 

What: Twenty-nine institutions and conference offices will receive grants in the upcoming cycles of the Pathway to Excellence Grant (23 recipients) and the Strategic Alliance Matching Grant (six recipients). Committees consisting of membership representatives selected the recipients.

Why it Matters: Successful grant applications encourage the access, recruitment, selection and long-term success of underrepresented individuals in Division III athletics administration and coaching.

2026 Grant Recipients

✏️ Rule of the Month — Regional Rules Seminar

The 2026 NCAA Regional Rules Seminar will be held in Atlanta from May 13-15, with the Division III programming beginning on the afternoon of May 14.  

Did you know? 

  • Every Division III school must attend the Regional Rules Seminar at least once every three years.

  • Schools can continually reset that requirement if they attend more often. 

Division III attendees may attend by either:   

  • Registering and attending in-person.  

  • Registering and viewing the livestream of the Division III sessions.  

Next Steps:

  • Meet the attendance requirement by confirming in-person or virtual attendance.

  • This will be accomplished via a QR code available at the beginning and end of each session.

  • If your school does not record attendance via the QR code (in-person or virtually), attendance will not be recorded.  

Please contact ncaaregionalrulesseminars@ncaa.org with questions.

2026 Required Schools

✅ International Athletics Certification

As of April 1, Fall 2026 enrollees can begin requesting final athletics certification in their account.

  • What’s Next: Ensure your incoming international recruits have created the Athletics Certification Account, accurately responded to the sports participation questions, and requested final athletics certification as early as possible.

  • Additionally, you will need to activate these accounts to the 2026-27 IRL cycle. Other Division III students must create a Profile Page to obtain an NCAA ID and confirm it in the Eligibility Center portal.

Contact Us: To reach Customer Service staff, please use the Contact Us button at the top of the Eligibility Center portal to submit questions, or submit your inquiries to ecinfo@ncaa.org or ec-international@ncaa.org.

🧬 Sport Science Spotlight

SSI Spotlight

Mental Health First Aid Program 

Division III is excited to engage the National Council for Mental Wellbeing to fund athletic trainers and head coaches to receive Mental Health First Aid for Higher Education.

Why it Matters: Schools will be eligible to receive one fully funded training during the program, which is in effect until Aug. 1, 2027, to support the mental well-being of student-athletes throughout the division.
 
What's next: To schedule a fully funded MHFA training for your Division III school, athletics directors or athletic trainers should complete an inquiry form. 

Learn More

📘 The updated NCAA Athletics Health Care Administrator Handbook is now available.

What they're saying: “The AHCA Handbook underscores the important role athletics health care administrators play in overseeing health care delivery on campus. It offers clear, practical guidance—both for AHCAs and for school leaders—to ensure AHCAs are empowered to carry out their responsibilities,” NCAA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Casiero.

📗 In support of the NCAA Mental Health Best Practices, the following new resources are now available:

Substance Misuse and Problem Gambling — Information about the signs of problem gambling and resources for support.

Social Media and Mental Health — How social media use may impact mental and physical health, safety and performance, as well as strategies for reducing social media related harms.

Above the Noise: Protecting Your Mental Health, Safety and Identity Online — An e-learning module designed to help student-athletes recognize forms of online harassment; understand the potential impact on health, safety and performance; and develop strategies to protect their well-being.

👉 Learn more: All the NCAA resources for mental health can be found here.

🏈 Official Business

Football Field

Officiating Resources 

With a natural path from athlete to referee, the NCAA provides free training and resources for student-athletes interested in officiating.  

  1. Share this interest form with your student-athletes! 

  2. Learn more about the NCAA’s officiating resources and initiatives on its Say Yes to Officiating page. 

🏈 Football 

  • The Division II and Division III Playing Rules Oversight Panel has approved football rule changes, which can be found here.  

🥎 Softball 

  • The playing rules survey will be available May 4. Head coaches will receive a direct email link and administrators can access the survey through NCAA Weekly. It is not a rules change year for softball. 

🎳 Women’s Bowling 

  • The Women’s Bowling Committee met April 27-28 for its annual meeting. It is a rules change year for women’s bowling, so a comment period will be available in May. 

Commercial Logos on Playing Surfaces. 

A chart outlining the placement of commercial and nonprofit logos on playing surfaces can be found here.

What’s Next: This chart will be continuously updated as Division II and III sports receive final approval of logo placements on the playing surfaces.  

💙 That’s a Wrap

Suffolk

On April 9, the NCAA office of inclusion had the opportunity to visit Suffolk to celebrate DIII Week!

  • Niya Blair Hackworth, director of curriculum and internal engagement, and Tyler Noragon, assistant director of education and communications, in the office of inclusion gave a presentation to over 50 student-athletes. The Rams in attendance were able to: 

    • Recognize how their backgrounds and experiences shape their perspectives. 

    • Identify behaviors that create cultures of belonging within teams. 

    • Understand how blind spots diminish belonging, community and connection. 

Following the presentation, Blair Hackworth and Noragon snapped a photo with Adam Skaggs, a former NCAA employee with Division III governance who is now associate director of athletics at Suffolk. 

DIII WEEK CELEBRATION

⏰ Know Before You Go

Division III Sign

💻 Webinars will be from 1:30 to 2 p.m. Eastern time on the following dates and topics:

  • May 5 — SAAC and Council Meeting Updates.

➡️ All past webinar PowerPoints are on the Division III webinar webpage.

📆 Key Dates — May through July

Calendar

Thanks for reading!

This update is a tool to enhance communication between the NCAA national office and the Division III membership.

  • We encourage athletics directors to share this communication with their athletics department members. 

Please email DIIIGovernance@ncaa.org to include an item or share comments.
This email was sent to members of the NCAA Division III Presidents Council, Management Council, National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, directors of athletics, athletics direct reports, faculty athletics representatives, senior woman administrators, sports information directors, directors of compliance, commissioners and assistant/associate commissioners based on contact information in the NCAA directory. This email was sent by: NCAA
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