DIVISION III PRESIDENTS QUARTERLY UPDATE - MAY 2024
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR, PRESIDENT JIM TROHA
I am Jim Troha, president at Juniata College and chair of the Division III Presidents Council. As the spring semester comes to a close, I expect your campus is abuzz with graduation ceremonies and end of year activities. This quarterly newsletter highlights key discussions from the April Presidents Council meeting, and I encourage you to review and discuss the topics included in this update with your presidential colleagues, athletics direct reports, and commissioners.
COUNCIL CONFERENCE REPRESENTATION
During the 2023 NCAA Convention, the membership adopted Proposal 2023-7 to ensure that each Division III multisport conference will have one representative on either the Presidents Council or the Management Council and that the conference's slot on either will alternate accordingly. The councils approved a rotation for these roles and the Nominating Committee will begin soliciting nominations in early May to fill three new council openings effective Aug. 1. Click here for the rotation and an FAQ.
ATHLETIC TRAINING WORKING GROUP RECOMMENDATIONS
The council received an update from the Athletic Training Working Group with an initial set of recommendations revolving around three areas — culture and communication, workload, and work-life balance. The working group selected these areas because of feedback heard through surveys and the Division III Issues Forum at the 2024 NCAA Convention.
OUTSIDE REVIEWS
Consultants from Lewis Rice and Deloitte provided the council with updates on reviews of the Enrichment Fund and Division III's finances, respectively. Both reviews are ongoing, and full results will be shared with the Division III membership upon completion.
FORMER STUDENT-ATHLETE REPRESENTATIVE ON THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Per its policies, the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee oversaw the nomination process to select the new Division III former student-athlete representative to the NCAA Board of Governors. From a division-wide nomination process that included 16 nominees, SAAC recommended, and the council approved former Central (Iowa) football student-athlete Greg Ricketts to serve a two-year term beginning in August on the Board of Governors as the Division III former student-athlete representative.
NIL PROTECTIONS
During the April meetings, noncontroversial legislation was approved to establish resources for student-athletes engaging in name, image, and likeness activities. These resources would include voluntary service provider registration for NIL service providers, such as agents or financial advisors. In addition, the NCAA will manage a comprehensive educational program focusing on areas of interest, such as contract best practices and standardized terms, taxes, and brand management. This will go into effect Aug. 1.
CONCEPT REVIEWS
The Management Council provided an update that these concepts will be socialized with the membership this spring and depending on the feedback, the council may seek a recommendation to sponsor 2025 NCAA Convention legislation.
Transfer regulations. The governance structure is conducting a review of the year in residence requirement for transfer student-athletes, and specifically, should the division not use its year-in-residence requirement as the default.
Legislative process. The Interpretations and Legislation Committee is considering changes to the legislative process such as changing the sponsorship deadlines and establishing a membership comment period.
Sports Wagering. Currently each division is reviewing the Association’s sports wagering legislation in light of the changes to the national sports wagering landscape. The councils will continue to consider whether the legislation should remain the same for all divisions and review the appropriate scope of the issues.
Membership process. The Membership Committee is seeking feedback on a concept to establish a waiver to shorten the NCAA reclassifying process from three to two years.
WOMEN'S WRESTLING
Management Council voted to sponsor 2025 Convention legislation to add women's wrestling as a National Collegiate championship. If adopted, the first championship would be held in winter 2026.
CHAMPIONSHIPS
The brackets will be getting bigger next year in many sports, as Management Council took action to support expanding the football championship bracket from 32 to 40 teams and to change the championship access ratio for all team sports to 1:6. There also will be a single at-large pool for bids, combining the previously used Pool B and C. The councils also approved the use of the NCAA Power Index (NPI) as the selection metric for non-automatic qualifiers for the team championship fields effective Sept. 1, 2024.
CONCLUSION
It is my intent that the quarterly update provides the necessary and critical information to assist you in the oversight of Division III Athletics on your campus. You can find a full recap of the April Presidents Council meeting here and the Summary of Actions, which highlights all recent council actions. As always, I welcome any comments or questions.
This email was sent to NCAA Division III presidents and chancellors;conference commissioners and athletics direct reports based on contact information in the NCAA Directory.
