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Principia removes the interim tag from AD/Women’s Basketball HC Ramiro Dominguez, who has been leading the Panthers since August. President Meggan Madden: “Coach Ro is a passionate, visionary leader who understands that sports provide opportunities to develop spiritual growth, character, excellence, leadership, and resilience. Under his leadership, Principia Athletics is poised to build on a foundation of teamwork, discipline, and character, fostering a community where every student-athlete can reach their highest potential both on and off the field.” (link)

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 (DII). 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)

Fall Championships…
➤ The Field Hockey bracket is here with Christopher Newport, Johns Hopkins, Babson and Bates as the top four seeds. Williams, Bowdoin, WPI and Amherst were the last four at-large teams in the field. (link - bracket, link - NPI)
➤ Tufts, Augsburg, St. Olaf and Lynchburg are the top four teams in the Men’s Soccer tournament. Denison was the last at-large team in the tourney, edging out Virginia Wesleyan by 0.05 in NPI. (link - bracket, link - NPI)
➤ The Women’s Soccer field is led by WashU, Emory, Tufts, Chicago, Case Western Reserve, Washington & Lee, Williams and Messiah as the top eight teams. The difference in NPI between Rhodes, the last team in, and St. Olaf was 0.018. (link - bracket, link - NPI)
➤ Here are the latest NPI rankings for Football (link) and Women’s Volleyball (link).

After a post-game altercation between Averett and Guilford following Saturday’s Football game, both teams’ seasons have been discontinued. The two will forfeit their final game next weekend in line with conference policy. Commissioner Brad Bankston: “Sportsmanship and respect are essential elements of the ODAC experience. While competition is at the heart of what we do, the integrity with which we compete defines who we are. The actions following Saturday’s contest did not reflect those values, and this decision underscores our commitment to maintaining the standards our conference represents.” Roanoke and Bridgewater, who were scheduled to play Averett and Guilford, respectively, will also end their seasons and receive forfeit wins in the conference standings. (link); Bridgewater will host a Crimson and White game this weekend to honor its seniors. (link)

Albright will add Men’s Ice Hockey as its newest varsity sport next year under new HC Jeff German, who previously served as ACHA HC at Denison. (link)

The NCAA Elite 90 award is being rebranded as the Elite Scholar-Athlete award starting this academic year to “better accommodate the growing landscape of NCAA Championships.” NCAA SVP of Championships Lynda Tealer: “By aligning the Elite Scholar-Athlete award with this movement, the NCAA can continue to highlight the amazing accomplishments of our student-athletes as sport sponsorship among the membership grows.” (link)

It’s Personnel…
➤ Rutgers-Camden hires Raritan Valley (NJCAA) AD Joe Pavlow as Assoc. AD. (link)
➤ Geneva Men’s Basketball HC Jeff Santarsiero will retire at the end of this season after 30 seasons leading the Golden Tornadoes. (link) 
➤ While 22 sports had at least one coaching staff change noted from the past few days, the carousel is slowing down ever so slightly this time of year. Check out all the moves in this morning’s edition of Coaches.wire. (link)

FOX 32’s Terrence Lee and Nicholas Stroman find an investigation into racist behavior against former Aurora Football student-athlete Brook Williams found two teammates created a hostile environment based on race, with the two initially being suspended and placed on probation for the remainder of the year. After an appeal and the introduction of attorneys, the two student-athletes “were required to complete racial sensitivity training and were allowed to return to the team in January.” More. (link) 

More Higher Ed…
➤ Hartwick promotes Provost/VP for Academic Affairs Laurel Bongiorno to become the college’s 13th president. (link)
➤ Hampden-Sydney receives a record $50M donation from alum Rob Citrone and his wife, Cindy, to create the Citrone Scholars Program, which will be a full-tuition, merit-based scholarship program. (link)
➤ The College Board released its 2025 Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid report that shows sticker prices for four-year public and private tuition and fees increased 2.9% and 4.0%, respectively, before adjusting for inflation. Net tuition for both increased by 1.3% and 3.7% year-over-year for first-time, full-time students. Grant aid jumped 5.4% in 2024-25, driven by a 19% increase in Pell Grant funding as recipients also grew by 14%. More. (link)

According to TIFF Investment Management analysis, U.S. University endowments worth more than $1B, that have reported earnings thus far, have secured average returns of 11.5% in FY25, marking their second straight year of double-digit gains. Per Higher Ed Dive’s Ben Unglesbee, of colleges reporting endowment earnings, Wisconsin registered the highest return rate at 16.2%, followed by one of the University of California’s fund pools (15.8%) and Michigan (15.5%). Unglesbee: “For now, endowments have enjoyed strong returns and minimal, if any, federal taxes. [...] Endowment returns will face new pressure in 2026. The massive spending bill signed by President Donald Trump this summer is set to raise taxes next year on the richest private university endowments by multiple percentage points. The current endowment tax — a flat rate of 1.4% enacted in 2017 — only applies to the wealthiest few dozen endowments in the country. The spending bill creates a tiered tax system for colleges with 3,000 or more tuition-paying students that starts at 1.4% on returns for endowments valued at $500K to $749,999 per student. It then jumps to 4% and 8% based on endowment assets per student. For the largest endowments, that translates into a tax bill of many millions of dollars per year. [...] Even universities with smaller tax bills are also anticipating financial pain.” More. (link)