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Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reports “the House Rules Committee has posted an announcement for a meeting Monday to discuss the SCORE Act – a procedural step in the college sports bill reaching the House floor, which is expected as early as next Wednesday. It is believed to have the votes to pass the House.” (link, link - full text); Dellenger adds the SCORE Act “will be met with resistance in the US Senate.” (link)

Northwest Conference Commissioner Shana Levine and Asst. Commissioner Abby Jarvis sit down with College.town’s Anthony Grassi at the 2025 NACDA Convention to discuss the state of the conference, which Jarvis describes as in a “great rebuilding phase,” which included a new mission statement and values – academic centrality, unity and competitive excellence – to modernize the league amidst the current uncertainty in both athletics and higher education. Jarvis on unity as a value: “I think especially as we look at our geographic isolation and the fact that we do really rely heavily on each other, it is not one school against another all the time in our conference. It truly is a team of athletic directors and schools that are working together, recognizing that maybe every situation doesn't put everyone in the absolute best position, but it's bettering our conference as a whole and showing where that value is important.” Levine adds on the geographic isolation: “I think it's a strength in my role. I mean, there's the good and the bad. The good is there aren't other Division III conferences in that space. So if someone gets upset or is unhappy with a direction, there's not a place for them just to say, I'm going to take my ball and go elsewhere. That kind of goes back to that collegiality and unity piece. The downside is there aren't other DIII schools to go out and play against in the non-conference or to go add to the conference. So as a result, you've got to make decisions that work for everyone.” The rebuilding also involved updating the constitution and governance process and the communication system throughout these updates. Updating the governance of the league shifted more control to ADs and will allow the league to be more nimble. Levine: “It is an interesting thing to work through. I think we're also in a place now in higher ed generally where presidents understand that you have to be able to be nimble and make decisions. We don't have a year to sit and go through all the processes. … I would actually say it was better received than we maybe initially thought it would be. And the ADs are the professionals and the practitioners. They're the ones that the presidents are paying to make these tough choices and keep them informed. So we're empowering them to do that.” More on BOSCA. (link)

The Third Circuit Court issued a mandate overturning the lower court's preliminary injunction for Rutgers (DI) safety Jett Elad. Boise State Asst. Professor Sam Ehrlich: “But in doing so, the court overturned their prior ruling (Smith) that NCAA eligibility rules must be noncommercial and not subject to antitrust. The court's decision overturning the district court's decision was based on the lower court's failure to define the relevant market, holding that courts must consider the changes in market circumstances post-Alston. This is a clear pyrrhic victory for the NCAA. They get this injunction overturned. But not until Elad has already played 11/12 of the regular season. And overturning Smith and acknowledging that the market has changed since Alston will hurt the NCAA in the long run big time.” (link, link)

In a guest column for Extra Points, Boise State Asst. Professor Sam Ehrlich examines the long reach of Vanderbilt (DI) Football student-athlete Diego Pavia’s eligibility case, noting that Pavia’s victory (sort of) in his appeal and a move toward class-action litigation have brought added confusion — for athletes, administrators, journalists and pretty much everyone paying attention. Ehrlich: “A few weeks after Pavia’s attorney foreshadowed another preliminary injunction, Front Office Sports’ Amanda Christovich reported that [Pavia’s attorney Ryan] Downton would be filing an amended complaint, adding new players, that would … seek to ‘kill NCAA JUCO eligibility rules for good.’ … The ‘another preliminary injunction’ he’d referred to was probably the new amended complaint filed on Friday that added 14 new football player plaintiffs. And the move also mirrors the strategy of a case Downton filed in September: Patterson v. NCAA.” Ehrlich notes the Patterson case is interesting in that it was filed alongside nine other individuals and added ten more in November. Further, the case is being positioned as a class action with two groups of plaintiffs: those former athletes seeking compensation after being denied a fifth year of eligibility and an injunctive class seeking to prevent the NCAA from enforcing these rules against DI student-athletes. More from Ehrlich: “Of course, neither Patterson nor Pavia tackles the five-year clock itself. Cases like the challenge filed by West Virginia (DI) players (currently before the Fourth Circuit) and Memphis (DI) wide receiver Cortez Braham Jr. (now in the Ninth Circuit) may ultimately speak to that issue, though because neither is a class action, they apply only to the individual athletes — at least for now. Still, in the immediate term, the cases to watch are in Tennessee. And the next domino will fall on Dec. 15, when the court hears Patterson’s motion for a preliminary injunction, limited for now to the football players in the case because of the fast-approaching transfer-portal window.” More. (link) 

Facility Features…
➤ Howard Payne receives a $4M lead gift from alumni Ronnie and Teri Andrews to fund a new $6M tennis center that will include two new courts, a 3,300 square-foot clubhouse with locker rooms and more. (link)
➤ Hampden-Sydney will add club squash in 2026-27 and build a new facility thanks to a donation from alum John Corey. The five-court, 7,500-square-foot facility will include seating for 120 spectators and new locker rooms. Virginia AC Grant White will serve as the team's inaugural HC, with the goal of the program progressing to varsity status by 2028-29. (link)
➤ McMurry will rename the court at the Phillips Family Student Activities Center after former Women’s Basketball HC Sam Nichols. (link)

Luther brought in over $592K from its One Team Day, a record for the Norse. (link) 

Washington & Lee partners with Teamworks to implement Teamworks Elite. (link)

It’s Personnel…
➤ Centenary (NJ) names trustee Bishop John Schol as its 16th president for a two-year term. (link)
➤ Simpson removes the interim tag from President Susan Stuebner, who will become the college’s 26th president. (link)
➤ Howard Payne Assoc. AD for Operations/Men’s and Women’s Golf HC Troy Drummond is no longer in the role. (link)

Coaches.wire…
➤ SUNY Fredonia removes the interim tag from Baseball HC Frank Jagoda III. (link)
➤ SUNY Morrisville selects Pitt-Bradford Women’s Lacrosse HC Vic Goeller for the same role leading the Mustangs. (link)
➤ Ursinus names Babson Men’s Lacrosse AC Ryan Burke as the Bears’ new HC. (link)
➤ This morning’s Coaches.wire shows coaching staff movement in 24 sports this week. (link)

Over half of 183 employers surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers rate next spring’s Class of 2026 graduate-hiring job market as poor or fair, per The Wall Street Journal’s Lindsay Ellis, who notes the outlook rates as the “most pessimistic” since the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cooling job market and companies tracking an uncertain economic outlook has led to mass layoffs and more conservative hiring practices while the growth of artificial intelligence portends the potential for deep job cuts. Ellis: “For college seniors, that means they are also competing against junior workers who have been recently laid off. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 4.8% in June, greater than overall unemployment that month and the highest June level for recent graduates in four years. … Overall, employers say they expect a 1.6% increase in hiring for the Class of 2026, down considerably from their plans for the Class of 2025 last fall. … Christine Cruzvergara, Handshake’s chief education strategy officer, said employers are falling into three buckets. Some have paused hiring amid economic uncertainty, some have laid off staff in the name of efficiency and some are growing modestly.” Former Automation Anywhere Entry-Level Recruiter and Internship Program Director Giavanna Vega described the hiring environment as at a standstill. ‘Because we’re in a state of uncertainty, they don’t know where to invest,’ she said of companies’ recruiting strategies amid tariffs and AI developments. That is coming down harder on new graduates: ‘They don’t have the training.’” More. (link)