Future of Division III

[Ron Boerger]

From the minutes of the Division III Strategic Planning and Finance Committee Meeting:

There will be $6M more in the NCAA Division III budget in 2025-26 thanks to increased NCAA broadcast revenues.

The committee also approved a recommentation to the Management and Presidents Council to increase the live
streaming stipend provided to preliminary-round hosts of the Division III Football Championship from $1,000 to $2,000, effective in the upcoming year.  The increase is to help hosts support a second camera for broadcasts on ESPN+.

[Ron Boerger]

You may be wondering "how significant is a $6M increase in the NCAA's budget for Division III?"  According to the NCAA Division III 2024-25 Facts and Figures document, the 2024-25 budget was $45.1M, so this would represent about a 13% increase. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

You may be wondering "how significant is a $6M increase in the NCAA's budget for Division III?"  According to the NCAA Division III 2024-25 Facts and Figures document, the 2024-25 budget was $45.1M, so this would represent about a 13% increase. 

And that's after they'd already increased the budget for this year in anticipation of this new revenue.  We were operating at just above $30m quite recently.

[Kuiper]

In light of Bryn Athyn's decision to discontinue varsity athletics, it has announced a partnership with Albright to allow athletes to transfer and compete at Albright.

Interesting announcement for both schools.  It suggests that Bryn Athyn really doesn't mind if the varsity athletes all walk out the door and it suggests Albright is sufficiently worried about enrollment at its school that it would be happy to effectively double the size of its rosters if all former Bryn Athyn athletes actually transferred to them.  Not sure what the "eligibility limited to Fall 2025" means other than it would only be open for transfers for next semester and not in future years.

Bryn Athyn College of the New Church (BAC) and Albright College have announced that BAC student-athletes who wish to be a part of a Division III sports program will be able to seamlessly transfer to Albright College starting in the Fall Semester of 2025 without any anticipated material impacts on costs or academic standing to the BAC student. This follows BAC's difficult and painful decision to end its participation in NCAA Division III and discontinue its club hockey team to allow it to address necessary financial restructuring.

"This partnership with Albright College represents our commitment to ensuring the best outcomes for our student-athletes, affording them choices to continue their collegiate athletic careers and complete their degrees without any significant effects on costs or academic standing," said Sean Connelly, President of Bryn Athyn College since Nov. 1, 2024. "While we hope all our student-athletes choose to finish strong and complete their degrees at BAC, we recognize the importance of athletics as a part of the college experience and the benefit to students of having this no-hurdle transition option."

Under the plan, BAC student-athletes may transfer to Albright College, with eligibility limited to Fall 2025. Students who choose this option will be admitted, full transfer of academic credits toward Albright degrees assuming a C- or better in each course, and a commitment that they will not pay tuition or fees higher than what they would have paid at BAC. Albright will match all scholarships and financial aid currently provided to students at Bryn Athyn.

"We are honored to welcome Bryn Athyn student-athletes into the Albright community," said Dr. Debra M. Townsley, President of Albright College. "Our institutions share a commitment to academic excellence and student success, and we have worked diligently to create a transfer process that ensures these students can continue their education without interruption, additional costs, or loss of academic progress."

The transfer program includes several key benefits for BAC student-athletes:

    Transfer of academic credits toward Albright degrees
    No increase in total cost of education, including room and board, beyond normal annual expected cost of living increases —Albright will match current scholarships and aid.
    Graduation timeline maintained
    Opportunity to compete in NCAA Division III athletics in the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC)

Albright College sponsors 23 NCAA Division III teams, with notable overlap to BAC, in basketball, cross country, lacrosse, and soccer for both men and women, as well as women's volleyball —all of this provides further continuity for BAC student-athletes electing to transfer.

The two institutions will work closely together to facilitate the transition, with presidents and staff from both colleges meeting to address administrative details and answer student questions. BAC and Albright have committed to a smooth transfer process, requiring minimal paperwork from students who elect to make the transition.

[Ron Boerger]

Albright is not in good shape financially, see https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/01/berks-albright-college-deficit-art-sale/

Trying to close a $20M deficit, they have cut 53 positions, cancelled some majors, and when this article was writter in January were seeking permission to borrow up to $25M from their endowment, saying "it owes $50 million to 'several financial institutions' and has experienced a 'net asset decline of more than $46 million from 2022 to 2024,' which required the college to take 'significant measures to lower its deficit.'"  They tried to get a commercial loan but nobody would loan them funds at a reasonable rate. 

The school's last available 990 (2023) showed a loss of over $20M on revenues of a little over three times that amount.  The school's last audit, for the period ending May 2024, showed a further decrease in net assets the following year of over $23M.  The audit also shows that the school received approval to borrow that $25M in December 2024, and that it sold a host of other assets:  two lots, for $1M; an FCC license, for $8.2M; an apartment complex, for $4.2M; and six residential properties, for $1M.  Total endowment assets as of May 31, 2024 were $53M, after consuming all investment gains, income, and contributions for the period ($6.1M, actually nearly $600K more than gained) to support opex.  The fire sale of assets may let them get by for another year or two, but absent a sudden change of fortune their future is in doubt.  Bringing in dozens of highly subsidized athletes from Byrn isn't going to move the needle much. 

[Gregory Sager]

That's something interesting, and I don't recall ever seeing this sort of we'll-take-all-of-your-athletes accommodation by a school in the wake of a neighboring school dropping sports. Out of curiosity I'm going to try to track how this goes. Bryn Athyn currently lists:

* 5 non-senior MBB players (3 juniors and 2 sophs)
* 4 non-senior M X-Country runners (1 junior, 2 sophs, 1 frosh)
* 11 non-senior MLAX players (5 juniors and 6 frosh)
* 16 non-senior MSOC players (3 juniors, 4 sophs, and 9 frosh)
* 12 non-senior MVB players (1 junior, 3 sophs, and 8 frosh)
* 7 non-senior WBB players (3 juniors, 2 sophs, and 2 frosh)
* 4 non-senior W X-Country runners (2 sophs and 2 frosh)
* 10 non-senior WLAX players (5 juniors, 4 sophs, and 1 frosh)
* 14 non-senior WSOC players (6 juniors, 4 sophs, and 4 frosh)
* 5 non-senior WTEN players (2 juniors and 3 frosh)
* 11 non-senior WVB players (3 juniors, 5 sophs, and 3 frosh)

There's a fair amount of overlap, as Bryn Athyn has several two-sport student-athletes (particularly on the women's side), so it's conceivable that if they choose to transfer to another school (whether Albright or elsewhere) they may drop one of those sports. Also, I'd estimate that 20% or so of Bryn Athyn's student-athletes are graduates of the school's affiliated high school in that town, Academy of the New Church, so I suspect that a large proportion of them will remain at Bryn Athyn out of institutional and/or denominational loyalty despite the discontinuing of Bryn Athyn sports.

One nice thing about transferring from Bryn Athyn to Albright to play sports is that you won't have to get used to a new primary school color (both red) or a new nickname (both Lions).

Albright doesn't have a men's hockey program, so any Bryn Athyn hockey refugees will have to lace up their skates for somebody else.

[hickory_cornhusker]

Albright doesn't have a men's hockey program, so any Bryn Athyn hockey refugees will have to lace up their skates for somebody else.

Maybe a school will start up hockey with intention of taking essentially the entire team like Dubuque did with Finlandia and Beloit is doing with Northland.

[Little Giant 89]

Middlebury slashes budget by over $10 million, imposes partial hiring freeze

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Middlebury is a very strange situation.  The administration and faculty/staff have been fighting for years about compensation.  The big issue is that they've been pulling 7-8% annually from the endowment and they want to lower that.  When I was there last year, I asked about it (because the student newspaper had almost nothing else in it) - people just kept responding "5% is standard," even when I pointed out their endowment growth, on average, was much larger than 8% annually and it probably wasn't going to bankrupt them.

I guess there are a lot of industry SOP that these schools follow that don't make sense to me.  I wouldn't look at this as anything of significance compared to the financial issues at other places.

Middlebury is overflowing their ability to house students, so I don't think their future is in much jeopardy.

[Ron Boerger]

Middlebury is a very strange situation.  The administration and faculty/staff have been fighting for years about compensation.  The big issue is that they've been pulling 7-8% annually from the endowment and they want to lower that.  When I was there last year, I asked about it (because the student newspaper had almost nothing else in it) - people just kept responding "5% is standard," even when I pointed out their endowment growth, on average, was much larger than 8% annually and it probably wasn't going to bankrupt them.

I guess there are a lot of industry SOP that these schools follow that don't make sense to me.  I wouldn't look at this as anything of significance compared to the financial issues at other places.

Middlebury is overflowing their ability to house students, so I don't think their future is in much jeopardy.

No kidding.  Their 2023 Form 990 showed an income of $55 million on revenues of $456M, including contributions of almost $80M, investment income of $43M, and net assets of nearly $1.6B.   Their endowment as of June 30, 2023 was $1.47B.  They did have just over $300M in long-term debt with interest rates ranging anywhere from 1.45% to 5%.

[Pat Coleman]

Trying to hew to arbitrary standards makes me wonder if they think it will move them up some ranking.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Trying to hew to arbitrary standards makes me wonder if they think it will move them up some ranking.

Probably - and also likely why they're reluctant to add to that 300m long term debt to build more housing.

[EnmoreCat]

I suppose that you could argue that multiple days of reckoning have been coming for the sector for a very long time and the new White House administration, for better or worse has its own ideas on how it should look, has suddenly created a massive disruption.  I sit in the middle in terms of what higher education should look like and for all the focus on the more vocational aspects to it, I also believe that needs to be more than offset by people who study philosophy, anthropology and dare I say it, in light of recent events, economic history.