Future of Division III

[PauldingLightUP]

Whoa.  Huge cuts coming at UW-Oshkosh and elsewhere in the UW system.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2023/08/03/uw-oshkosh-plans-layoffs-furloughs-due-to-18-million-deficit/70521062007/

UW-Oshkosh plans to cut about 200 non-faculty staff and administrators this fall, while furloughing others, UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said Thursday, as the university faces an unprecedented $18 million budget shortfall. The cuts amount to about 20% of university employees.

Oshkosh furlough program will end May 31. It will not continue next school year either. 2.1M saved as planned.

[Kuiper]

This is becoming increasingly common as faculty and administrations fight over the scraps as enrollment declines.  Cal Lutheran isn't a tiny school either.  It had 3,410 students as of Fall 2024, but that's 1,000 down from 2018.

Cal Lutheran president steps down after a no confidence vote from faculty relating to budget cuts and allegations of financial mismanagement

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/education/2024/05/21/california-lutheran-university-president-lori-varlotta-resigning/73728735007/

Varlotta's departure fulfills the primary demand of a Jan. 16 faculty assembly resolution — passed 122-3 — that accused the third-year president of mismanaging university finances and said Varlotta "eroded and divided" the university's "historically close" community.

In her three years at the helm the university faced steep post-pandemic enrollment drops and a tightening budget.

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/education/schoolwatch/2024/01/16/cal-lutheran-faculty-vote-no-confidence-in-president-lori-varlotta/72097752007/

Varlotta, Cal Lutheran's first woman president, has faced stiff headwinds since succeeding 12-year president Chris Kimball in September 2020.

Student enrollment plummeted in the wake of the pandemic, hitting its lowest point in 15 years this fall, according to university data.

In an interview Thursday, days before the no-confidence vote, Varlotta said the university will have a "bit of a challenge" for the next five years as it seeks to recover enrollment and balance its books. The drop has already triggered some belt-tightening measures, and Varlotta said more drastic cuts are possible if the situation doesn't improve.

[Ron Boerger]

Interesting.  According to their last 990 (y/e May 31, 2022) the school was quite profitable, with net income of $20.6M on revenues of $199.9M; however, revenues included contributions of $24.1M and $19.0M in "sales of assets."   

[jknezek]

And in today's bit of why colleges will face huge problems down the road:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-22/colleges-ramp-up-debt-sales-in-frenzied-race-for-new-students?srnd=markets-vp

There's a good section on Muhlenberg as well as bits on other D3 colleges including Alfred and Trinity TX.

I suspect there is a paywall, but you can get 5 free articles a month if you want to read it.

[Ron Boerger]

LOL I'd love to read it but the only "special offer" I get is to pay $199/year.  Thankfully, googling the title provided an link that isn't paywalled:

https://www.fa-mag.com/news/colleges-ramp-up-debt-sales-in-frenzied-race-for-new-students-78180.html

[The Third Division]

Does the antitrust suit affect d3 athletics in any way? Indirectly?

[DagarmanSpartan]

Gang,

As a graduate of two D3 schools and three D1-FBS schools, I have an opinion on this.

From the point of this settlement forward, any pretense that either Power Four Conference football or Division I men's basketball players are either amateurs or "student athletes" is OVER.

They are now officially professional athletes that simply take college courses as a part of their professional sports employment.

In theory, I guess D3 players could be recruiting using NIL as well, but given how low profile D3 athletics is in the eyes of the media and money people, that won't happen as a practical matter.  If a player isn't already being paid to play via an athletic scholarship, then they aren't likely to be paid in an NIL manner either.

D3 athletics will remain the last bastion of truly "amateur" sports competition in America.

[Little Giant 89]

Gang,

As a graduate of two D3 schools and three D1-FBS schools, I have an opinion on this.

From the point of this settlement forward, any pretense that either Power Four Conference football or Division I men's basketball players are either amateurs or "student athletes" is OVER.

They are now officially professional athletes that simply take college courses as a part of their professional sports employment.

In theory, I guess D3 players could be recruiting using NIL as well, but given how low profile D3 athletics is in the eyes of the media and money people, that won't happen as a practical matter.  If a player isn't already being paid to play via an athletic scholarship, then they aren't likely to be paid in an NIL manner either.

D3 athletics will remain the last bastion of truly "amateur" sports competition in America.

As it relates to D3 athletics, I do hope that you are right about that.  Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I fear that the money will eventually make its way into the D3 universe as well.

[Kuiper]

Gang,

As a graduate of two D3 schools and three D1-FBS schools, I have an opinion on this.

From the point of this settlement forward, any pretense that either Power Four Conference football or Division I men's basketball players are either amateurs or "student athletes" is OVER.

They are now officially professional athletes that simply take college courses as a part of their professional sports employment.

In theory, I guess D3 players could be recruiting using NIL as well, but given how low profile D3 athletics is in the eyes of the media and money people, that won't happen as a practical matter.  If a player isn't already being paid to play via an athletic scholarship, then they aren't likely to be paid in an NIL manner either.

D3 athletics will remain the last bastion of truly "amateur" sports competition in America.

As it relates to D3 athletics, I do hope that you are right about that.  Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I fear that the money will eventually make its way into the D3 universe as well.

If you're talking about NIL money, that is already happening in DIII.

Marietta has an NIL collective for Men's basketball

https://pioneers.marietta.edu/news/2024/4/24/mens-basketball-nil-collective-two-rivers-trust-launched-to-support-marietta-college-mens-basketball-program.aspx

Carthage College recently announced a partnership with Opendorse, which has 14 other DIII school partnerships and entire Ohio Athletic Conference signed up already (and since Otey recently moved to the UAA to take over as commissioner, it will be interesting to see if they do as well).

https://www.nilnewsstand.com/updates/division-3-nil-heats-up

MOGL has a partnership with Rhodes College

https://news.rhodes.edu/stories/mogl-brokers-first-ever-division-iii-all-athlete-nil-partnership-rhodes-college

Centre has an NIL deal that lets players earn commissions from the sale of gear featuring their name and numbers

https://centrecolonels.com/news/2023/8/15/baseball-centre-athletics-x-nexus-licensing-announces-first-athlete-thread-nil-opportunity-in-ncaa-diii.aspx

Plenty of other DIII athletes now have NIL deals.  Most are small, but Connor Printz, a bench player for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball, did so well, that he had 80 NIL deals and "retired" from basketball to focus on his social media work full time

https://www.si.com/fannation/name-image-likeness/news/division-iii-basketball-player-shows-whats-possible-in-nil-michael9

Amherst WR Jack Betts had 35 NIL deals as of Sept 2022

https://amherststudent.com/article/jack-betts-24e-the-king-of-division-iii-nil/

Virginia Wesleyan's Men's Basketball Team is enrolled in the NIL Club, which sounds like a go fund me for the players

https://marlinchronicle.vwu.edu/nil-rules-create-diii-financial-opportunity/

If you're talking about DIII players unionizing like Dartmouth, that is possible if the NLRB definition of employee compensation is upheld, which includes non-scholarship and non-monetary benefits like priority admissions review, travel and hotel on away trips, uniforms etc.  That is being appealed, however, so it is TBD whether it will be upheld. I suspect DIII would be a more popular line in the sand for Congress to enact legislation protecting college sports, but if not, then everyone would go to the club sport model where players have to rely upon fees/fundraising for coaches, uniforms, and travel and the only support the college would provide is offering field space as they do for all registered student groups.

I do think the more that conferences and schools start doing revenue generating deals like with FloSports, the more there is an argument for players to get a cut of those revenues, which is basically what the recent big P5 conference settlement is doing. That settlement could unravel because of a Colorado court decision not to consolidate its cases with the settling cases though.

At the moment, though, the biggest impact of the changes at the DI level on DIII is that it threatens to reduce or eliminate the subsidy that the NCAA currently provides to DIII for conducting its championships because the NCAA has to pay big damages and has to divert a larger share of future revenues for the DI players.  My guess is that this would result in increased DIII membership fees to make up the difference, plus reduced or eliminated travel subsidies and hosting support.  You could end up with more DIII schools opting for cheaper national governing bodies (e.g., NAIA) or more regional sports associations like the ECAC where travel is less of an issue.

[Ron Boerger]

In addition to the excellent points raised by Kuiper, another strong possibility IMO would be the hard-fought, recently won 1:6 playoff access ratio in all sports be cut back.  40 football teams making the playoffs?  Maybe 16, and winning your conference won't be a guarantee any more.   

[Little Giant 89]

Holy Cow!  I had no idea.  Thanks for the information, Kuiper.

[scottiedoug]

Not sure I can do this, but maybe this link to the NYTimes recent article about the paying athletes issue will work....https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/us/ncaa-payments-athletes-reaction.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vE0.l4Oe.ZHqCsrltMiz5&smid=url-share

[WashJeff68]

Opendorse is sponsoring a "Bowl Series" involving the runners up from the Heartland, NCAC, OAC and PAC.

PAC member (Westminster) has signed an NIL deal. I'm sure others will follow.

[Kuiper]

Sounds like Albright College is in financial trouble.  They cut the men's and women's swimming teams (which makes sense since they had very few swimmers), but the bigger issue is they also cut 53 staff and faculty positions and the President resigned.

https://swimswam.com/albright-college-ncaa-d3-is-the-latest-to-cut-its-swim-team-amid-financial-woes/

Albright College eliminated 53 positions on Thursday, though a spokesperson said at the time that the reduction would not results in the elimination of any classes or programs. 29 of those are current staff and faculty positions, while 10 staff positions and 14 faculty positions currently empty will be left vacant.

Albright College president Jacquelyn Fetrow, who had run the school since 2017, resigned earlier in May after there were campus protests over her management and calls for more transparency.

[Ron Boerger]

University of Lynchburg too - cut 40 staff (including 5 VPs) immediately, 12 entire programs.

The 40 were told to show up for a mandatory meeting yesterday where they were given letters telling them they were canned, that they had to pack up and be off campus by 5pm, and oh by the way not only are you not going to get paid any kind of severance but your health insurance is gone as of today (Friday).  Private college or private equity?

Edit:  per this article "[t]hose in eliminated roles will receive severance".