Interested in advertising a department opening in D2.ticker? Post your department-wide openings on CollegeSports.jobs for inclusion in any of our College.town publications, where tens of thousands of administrators and coaches get news and updates about the industry. Want unlimited job-postings for one year? Learn more about all job posting options HERE or contact jobs@wearecollegetown.com

D2 Jobs on CollegeSports.jobs... New opportunity at Wagner (DI), below. Post your department-wide openings with CollegeSports.jobs, where thousands of administrators start their days and where tens of thousands of coaches get news and updates about their respective sports. Want unlimited job-postings for a year? Learn more about all job posting options HERE or contact jobs@wearecollegetown.com

More from Mammoth Sports Consulting Asst. VP of Consulting Tim Selgo’s Small College Conversation on how he helped his staff develop and put himself in a better position to lead early in his tenure at Grand Valley State. Selgo recalls in his first 18 months working to educate everyone on campus on who to go to besides him for every issue, big or small. That opened him up to develop deeper relationships with coaches through routine check-ins and in-depth evaluations. More broadly: “People make you successful. Finding the right ones to surround yourself with is the most important job you do. And then helping those people develop is extremely important. Professional development at many schools is underperforming in that, I think, as we're at NACDA. Nobody comes into any of these levels, Division I, II, III, or NAIA, being instantaneously ready to go and having it all figured out. No, they all have to grow and get better. So, we had to commit dollars to that. I wanted that because I wanted our staff to grow and get better.” On one key quality for leaders: “The best leaders are teachers. They can communicate their message to the recipients and that's what leadership is. If you're an athletics director, that staff of yours better know what your vision is, they better know what your plan is, and you better be able to explain it in terms they understand and your superiors understand.” Full conversation on BOSCA. (link)

The first ranked Football regional rankings are live. Kutztown, West Florida, Ferris State and Harding sit atop their respective super regions. See the 40 teams ranked across the four super regions. (link)

The NCAA has sent a letter to prediction market Kalshi, calling on the entity to align with its commitment to “contest integrity and the protection of contest participants.” The association has specifically asked about cooperating with investigations into prohibited gamblers (i.e. coaches, student-athletes, etc.), their position on prop bets, and more. Further, the NCAA has asked for Kalshi to clarify verbiage about their relationship and update verbiage on the platform from “Outcome verified from NCAA” to “Outcome sourced from NCAA.com,” with an added disclaimer that the two are independent of each other. (link)

St. Mary’s (TX) inks a three-year deal with FanWord to support its storytelling and content creation efforts. (link)

CollegeSports.jobs continues to outpace other job boards throughout the industry. In October alone, the number of DII jobs posted on CollegeSports.jobs increased by 28% compared to October 2024. Meanwhile, the number of DII jobs posted on all other job boards fell by more than 55% during the same time period. The message here is clear: Those in the know keep coming back to College.town to reach the largest number of the industry’s best and brightest candidates. (link)

Coaches.wire…
➤ Incoming DII Lackawanna (NJCAA) Football HC Mark Duda will retire after 32 years at the helm as the active NJCAA wins leader following a recent Parkinson’s diagnosis. (link)
➤ This morning’s edition of Coaches.wire is ready for your review. (link)

More Higher Ed…
➤ Northern State narrows its presidential search to four finalists: former Nebraska Methodist Provost/VP for Academic Affairs Amy Clark, Valley City State (NAIA) President Alan LaFave, NSU Assoc. VP for Academic Affairs/Director of Graduate Studies Erin Fouberg and Lower Columbia (NWAC) President Matt Seimears. The quartet will visit campus this week. (link)
➤ Virginia State receives a $50M donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. (link)

According to a JPMorgan Chase report, real income growth has slowed to near-decade lows with young people getting hit the hardest. Per Axios’ Madison Mills, with a wave of companies such as Amazon and UPS announcing layoffs, the slowdown is “yet one more sign of a softening labor market that could indicate trouble ahead for corporate America.” JPMorgan Chase Institute Research Director George Eckerd notes “companies might increase wages by less because they're trying to shrink staff” and if people don’t leave that’s when layoffs could begin. Mills continues: “Young workers are experiencing the worst income growth since the 2010s as the low-hire, low-fire labor market reduces their pace of job transitions. [...] It remains unclear whether young people will have the opportunity to catch up if and when the labor market reaccelerates.” (link)

Increased reliance on live sports broadcasting to drive revenue growth, rising sports rights fees and shifting monetization models raises operating risks for U.S. media companies and could pressure issuers with weaker financial flexibility, per Fitch Ratings, which notes sports rights fees have reached record levels in recent years. More from Fitch: “Major media companies are also pursuing varied sports strategies across their distribution platforms. [...] Live sports remain the most dependable driver of audience reach amid a challenging environment of rising streaming competition and declining linear TV viewership. They also anchor pricing power across linear and streaming distribution channels. [...] The growing importance of these rights lifts fixed costs and operating leverage, as obligations are spread over contract terms with season-by-season escalators. This may exacerbate margin pressure if revenues fail to keep pace. [...] Issuers with tight leverage headroom and/or existing FCF constraints are most vulnerable to margin pressure, given weaker pricing power and higher earnings sensitivity to escalators. Some may overpay relative to expected yield or ad pricing and see margins deteriorate; others may forgo renewals to preserve flexibility. [...] Large, diversified media companies like Walt Disney and tech-backed platforms such as Amazon and Apple are best positioned, leveraging content across multiple platforms and ecosystems.” (link)