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.
SAVE THE DATE: Division III 50th Anniversary Social Blitz
In conjunction with the start of Division III’s yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, all member schools, conferences and fans are invited to join in a social media blitz at 3 p.m. Eastern time Monday, Aug. 7. Those participating are asked to share a message of support for Division III at that time using #DIII50 and #WhyD3 in the posts.
SAVE THE DATE: NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign
The 2023 NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign, presented in partnership with the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and national Student-Athlete Advisory Committees, will take place Tuesday, Oct. 17, through Thursday, Oct. 19.
Gameday the DIII Way
Gameday the DIII Way in-person trainings are available and help create a respectful and engaging environment through athletics, for everyone. Interested in requesting a 90-minute in-person training for your staff? Looking for a list of Gameday the DIII Way trained facilitators or a campus self-evaluation and discussion tool to start the discussion with your staff? Check out Division III Sportsmanship on ncaa.org.
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. 8 — Updates from Management Council, Presidents Council and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee meetings.
All past webinar PowerPoints are on the Division III webinar webpage.
NCAA Championship Site Selection and Bid Process Updates
The bid process has been adjusted from a four-year process to a two-year process, with hosts and sites being awarded for approximately 88 of the 90 NCAA championships for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 academic years. Additionally, the opening of the bid portal and publication of bid specifications have been rescheduled for Sept. 6. These adjustments will help for further analysis of future processes and allow the ability to upgrade the current bid portal for a better user experience. None of the other key dates have been adjusted. For questions regarding the process or timeline, please contact Ryan Tressel at rtressel@ncaa.org.
The timeline for the bid process is as follows: Aug. 29, 2023: Host symposium at the NCAA national office. Sept. 6, 2023: Bid specifications publish on ncaa.org/bids; bid portal opens. Feb. 7, 2024: Bid responses due. March-September 2024: Committee deliberations, recommendations and approvals. Oct. 2, 2024: Hosts/sites announced.
Campus Sexual Violence Attestation
Eachyear, all NCAA member schools must complete the requirements set forth in the NCAA Board of Governors Policy on Campus Sexual Violence no later than Fri. Nov. 3. A school's president/chancellor, athletics director and campus Title IX coordinator must sign the campus sexual violence attestation. Failure to complete the requirements of the policy or to attest will result in the school being unable to host an NCAA championship for the next applicable academic year.
For administrators to complete the attestation, they need their school's NCAA MyApps administrators to assign the course to them in the NCAA Learning Portal. Instructions and other information on the attestation process can be found on the attestation page on ncaa.org. Questions about the attestation process can be sent to webhelpdesk@ncaa.org.
Individuals meeting the definition of an international student per Bylaw 12.1.1.1 must have an Eligibility Center account and receive an amateurism decision before competing for an institution. The definition is only applicable to individuals initially enrolling at a Division III institution this fall or afterward (June 3, 2022, Official Interpretation). Individuals who have already enrolled at any Division III school prior to fall 2023 will continue to be certified on campus.
Individuals who have attended secondary or postsecondary school outside the United States or a U.S. territory. Individuals who studied abroad are excluded provided they did not participate in athletics while studying abroad.
Individuals whose permanent residence is outside the United States or a U.S. territory.
Individuals who participated in athletics outside the United States or a U.S. territory. Any participation before age 13 is excluded. Individuals based in the United States or on a team based in the United States who compete individually or with that team outside the United States are also excluded. Please note: Individuals who need an Eligibility Center account may practice for up to 45 days without an Eligibility Center decision. However, they are not eligible to compete for an institution until the decision is finalized. If the prospective student-athlete still does not have a decision at the end of the 45-day window, the individual must cease all participation. See Bylaw 12.1.1.4.1.
If you have any questions about whether an individual needs an Eligibility Center account, please submit an interpretative request through Requests/Self-Reports Online with the individual’s educational background and sports participation history. If you have questions about how to use the Eligibility Center’s portal via MyApps, email ecinfo@ncaa.org. Any students with questions about their Eligibility Center account should email ec-international@ncaa.org.
2024 NCAA Convention — Division III IPOPL
The 2024 Convention Division III Initial Publication of Proposed Legislation will be available through the NCAA website Aug. 15. The IPOPL is published and provided to the Division III membership to provide all proposed amendments to NCAA legislation that were properly submitted from Division III members by the July 15 deadline. The IPOPL may contain proposals that are sponsored by at least one member conference or 10 member schools. If a proposal is not properly co-sponsored by Sept. 1, the proposal will be automatically withdrawn. Sponsors of the proposals are permitted to refine and change amendments in any manner germane to the proposal as presented until Sept. 15. Such changes may either increase or decrease the modification in the original proposal.
No new proposals may be submitted by members for the 2024 Convention after the July 15 deadline has passed. Member schools and conferences that wish to offer and suggest revisions to a proposal are encouraged to contact the proposal’s designated primary contact person. Such contacts should be made as early as possible and before the Sept. 15 deadline to ensure time for appropriate consideration by the sponsors.
The IPOPL is not mailed to Division III members. The online version of the IPOPL contains all the information of the former hard-copy version and can be printed from your computer in the traditional format. The IPOPL is produced directly from the Legislative Services Database for the Internet each time it is downloaded. Therefore, the content of the publication may change each time it is accessed from the NCAA webpage. As modifications or corrections are made to proposals during the sponsor modification period, updates will be made to LSDBi, and those changes will be reflected in this document.
The 2024 NCAA Convention Division III Second Publication of Proposed Legislation, which will include proposals sponsored by the Division III governance structure, will be available online Sept. 23. The 2024 NCAA Convention Division III Official Notice, which will include final versions of proposed legislation, will be available to Convention attendees in an online format only. The Official Notice will be available Nov. 15.
Please contact Jeff Myers if you have any questions regarding either the IPOPL or SPOPL.
NCAA Division III Manual
The NCAA Division III Manual for the 2023-24 academic year is now electronically available. Hard-copy versions of the manual will not be distributed, nor will they be available to purchase through NCAA Publications. Instead, schools and conferences may use LSDBi (which always has the most up-to-date version of NCAA legislation) to download electronic versions of the standard manual or other custom reports (e.g., sport-specific) and print such versions as needed.
Beginning today, the 2023-24 Division III Rules Test is live and has moved to the NCAA Learning Portal. To access the exam, individuals must have an active NCAA MyApps account and be assigned NCAA Learning Portal access within MyApps. Institutional email addresses are preferred, but not required, to create a MyApps account. For more information, the Division III Rules Test page of ncaa.org has been updated with several resources to aid in the transition.
Please remember that, per Bylaw 11.8, institutions must administer the NCAA Division III Rules Test to all head coaches and athletics administrators with compliance responsibilities on an annual basis. Failure to administer the test on an annual basis shall be considered an institutional violation per Bylaw 20.15.2.
If you have questions regarding the 2023-24 NCAA Division III Rules Test, contact D3CoachesExam@ncaa.org. If you have questions regarding the NCAA Learning Portal, contact webhelpdesk@ncaa.org.
NEW RESOURCE: Division III University
To help educate your staff and coaches during the new academic year, several e-learning modules known as Division III University are available in the NCAA Learning Portal. These new modules were designed to provide basic information on Division III-specific rules and can help supplement your on-campus or conference-wide education efforts. There are six modules total, covering the following topics:
NCAA DIII: Graduate & Postbaccalaureate Students.
NCAA DIII: Strength & Conditioning Activities.
NCAA DIII: Transfers.
NCAA DIII: Waiver Basics.
NCAA DIII: Social Media Use in Recruiting.
NCAA DIII: Playing & Practice Season Structure.
To access the Division III University modules, individuals must have an active NCAA MyApps account and be assigned NCAA Learning Portal access within MyApps. If you have questions regarding the NCAA Learning Portal, contact webhelpdesk@ncaa.org.
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 October 15. For more information, click here.
DEADLINE APPROACHING: Submit Fall Schedules to NCAA
The deadline for submitting schedules for football and women’s soccer is Tuesday, Aug. 1. Field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s volleyball and men’s water polo schedules are due Tuesday, Aug. 8 . Even if a schedule is auto-uploaded, users MUST log into the system to add neutral-site locations and fully submit the schedule. A schedule WILL NOT be marked as complete until this is done. Exhibition games should be included in the schedule submission if an institution plans on using NCAA LiveStats to keep statistics for those contests. Please see the Presto or Sidearm directions for additional help.
Roster Submissions
The roster form should be updated before each team’s first contest (including exhibitions). Please review the instructions for more information, including how to add returning student-athletes back onto the roster and how to link up transfers.
Media Coordination/Statistics Staff Contacts
To find information about whom to contact at the NCAA for media coordination and statistics, check out the 2023-24 assignments here.
Defining Disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act defines disability, in part, as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity of an individual. With the ADAAA regulations in place, the U.S. Department of Justice identified numerous benefits from providing broad coverage under the law. More student-athletes can use disability supports. Check out this resource for definitions and accommodations.
Diversity Spotlight Initiative
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.
The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports signaled its support for removing cannabis from the Association’s banned drug list and testing protocols. CSMAS will gather input from the membership this summer, with final action expected in the fall. This issue was referred to CSMAS by Divisions II and III. Those divisions asked CSMAS to further consider the Association’s cannabis policy and whether NCAA drug testing should be limited to performance-enhancing substances. The rationale for considering the change was largely informed by the December 2022 Summit on Cannabinoids in College Athletics and includes the consensus opinion that cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug and that a harm reduction approach to cannabis is best implemented at the conference and school level, which is likely more effective in reducing cannabinoid-related health consequences than approaches that focus only on abstention.
360 Proof
360 Proof is a high-risk alcohol use prevention platformdeveloped jointly by the NCAA and NASPA, also known as Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. All NCAA Division III and NASPA small colleges and universities have free access to the program, which is provided as a membership benefit.
Sign up for the Eligibility Center’s Division III newsletter here.
As a reminder, Division III International prospective student-athletes who previously enrolled do not require an amateurism certification; only fall 2023 Division III enrollees and those who enroll later are required to have a certification. For more information on which student-athletes need an amateurism certification, click here.
Joint meeting of President’s Advisory Group and Presidents Council
Indianapolis
Oct. 25
Presidents Council
Indianapolis
Oct. 26
Nominating Committee
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.
