#10: Elizabethtown Field Hockey HC Michael steps down after 14 seasons. (link) |
#9: Extra Points purveyor Matt Brown pens on the trend of small college athletic departments moving their broadcasts behind paywalls noting that the calculus differs for each league as the quality and volume of broadcasts differ significantly across institutions. As several conferences have made the move, a deal allows conferences to standardize quality and create minimum requirements. Financially, Brown notes a total viewership in the triple digits creates difficulties generating new revenue from free broadcasts and selling advertisements, especially in smaller college towns where audiences are likely to attend local games, adding: “many D-II and D-III schools sell sponsorships and ads as well. But doing so takes a lot of manpower. You have to manually call up brands and pitch them on unique audience fit, and you often have to craft customized campaigns. If you’re a D-III school with, oh, one full-time SID and two grad assistants, you probably don’t have the operational capacity to do all the regular stuff you need to do well, let alone seek outside revenue.” Brown concludes: “All I would say is that there are tradeoffs to each approach. Quality costs money, and if that money isn’t coming from subscription revenue, it needs to come from some other sort of subsidy (or a very creative revenue generation plan). If you don’t want to pay that money, that’s fine too, but there will be a tradeoff somewhere else in the process. I don’t believe it’s greed that has pushed many smaller college conferences to pursue broadcast paywalls. It’s just an economic reality. But that doesn’t mean every other conference has to make the same calculation.” (link)
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#8: The DIII Management Council is recommending the creation of a new DIII philosophy statement and adding STUNT as an emerging women’s sport for the 2024 NCAA Convention, with a membership proposal to alter the amendment-to-amendment deadline for membership-sponsored proposals going to the Interpretations and Legislation Committee for further discussion and review. The council also endorsed the criteria for a mental health hardship waiver. Lastly, the council elected Babson VP for Learner Success/Dean of Campus Life Lawrence Ward and Wisconsin-Eau Claire AD Jason Verdugo as its next chair and vice chair, respectively, starting at the end of the 2024 NCAA Convention. (link)
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#7: Sewanee Women's Basketball HC Brody Curry steps down from his alma mater after one season at the helm. (link) |
#6: Johns Hopkins Football student-athlete Carter Hogg gets the profile treatment in SBJ for his role as Founder/CEO of G8RTech and their product G8RSkin, a ski-mask-like sleeve to be worn under a helmet and shoulder pads that has been shown to have a “59% decrease in absolute risk reduction against peak linear acceleration and peak rotational acceleration.” Hogg: “But what I was trying to do, first and foremost in the development process, was making it something that could be worn not just in practice, but in games. Something that wasn't going to inhibit the player in any way. So you're going to have full range of motion. It's not going to reduce your ability to play at the best of your performance, but something that will add that added layer of protection, and that's where I had the idea for G8RSkin. It’s worn underneath your helmet, underneath your shoulder pads. So it's not an overly visible product. It's not something that can be super invasive to the player, but it's going to have that amazing benefit to you.” After launching this fall, “a couple colleges and high schools” will utilize the product. (link)
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#5: D3Hoopsville’s Dave McHugh breaks down what sources have told him based on similar conversations in other leagues. McHugh reports Landmark members will likely receive $25K-$27K per year, with the streaming entity to control all advertising breaks (“a minimum of two min per hour of broadcasting. I have not found wording as of yet if any advertising revenue is split or all goes to Flo - it appears all goes to Flo.”), have rights to in-venue signage, access to coaches and student-athletes and “lots of data which gives Flo a ‘non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty free license to use the Data.’” While some league sports may stagger when they begin on FloSports, members will almost certainly need more than the one encoder provided by Flo, which cost $3K per unit, due to scheduling conflicts. Logistically, FB will require a two-camera setup to start and move to three, with others allowed to begin at one and Basketball and T&F to move to two cameras by year three. Replay and play-by-play will be required for all sports. More: “Sources in other conference said when SIDs started to crunch the numbers, it was going to be a money losing ‘all the way around.’” (link)
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#4: Lesley names Emmanuel Senior Asst. AD/Director of Athletic Communications, Sports Information & Compliance Dan Campagna as its next AD, starting August 7. VP of Enrollment Initiatives/Search Committee Chair Tom Englehardt: "Dan's nearly two decades of experience and extensive background in athletic administration, student engagement, and coaching will be valuable to our current and future Lesley students. [...] It is an exciting time at Lesley as we embark on the master campus plan to update and align our campus facilities with our mission as an urban university with programs that live at the intersection of education, counseling and psychology, and visual arts." (link)
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#3: The DIII Membership Committee has progressed Asbury, Hartford, Lyon and Warren Wilson to the next stages in their reclassification process. Bob Jones (NCCAA) has withdrawn from the membership process. Of note, “For the 2022-23 academic year, 16 institutions remain in the probationary period and one institution on restricted status.” (link)
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#2: SUNY Morrisville unveils black turf at Drake Field. AD Matt Grawrock: “As we set out to replace our old turf, we wanted to move in a bold, new direction that would give our department and student-athletes a unique identity to rally around. […] Many people may ask why we've put a black field out there. We've asked, why not? We have created a true home-field experience and advantage for our student-athletes. We think they're one-of-a-kind and we wanted to give them a home venue to match. This field is top-notch, and not just because of the color. As we went through the planning process we wanted to make sure the field met the needs of four different sports, and from that we have a turf that is one of the best around to meet those needs. We are confident that each of the teams that compete on Drake, and those other teams that will use it for exercise and conditioning, will come away with a sense of pride in knowing this field is theirs; one that is different from every other field they've been on. As we head into a new athletic year, the enthusiasm from this project has been infectious.” (link)
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#1: Former Geneva Women's Soccer HC Kelsey Morrison relates the story of her departure from Beaver Falls, having been escorted off campus after a pair of Instagram posts in April showing support for LGBTQ individuals. Morrison, who is gay, was approached last year by a student-athlete asking about her orientation. Following that discussion, Morrison went to the AD to relay the conversation and assure him that she upholds the standards of the Christian university, which makes its employees sign a “standards of conduct” statement regarding “sexual immorality.” The AD assured Morrison that her job was secure. Per Morrison: “The premise was like, we’re OK with you working here as long as you never say anything or do anything or act in a certain way or tell anyone.” Two months after her Instagram posts, school officials called a meeting with Morrison and offered her three months severance in exchange for signing an NDA, an offer which she declined. Per a university spokesperson: “In order to maintain its religious character and identity, the College draws its workforce from among those who are willing to model and annually reaffirm their commitment to the truths captured in these documents. The College reserves the right to take appropriate action, up to and including separation from employment, if an employee engages in behavior or expression that contradicts or undermines these views.” Following her dismissal, AC Dave Symmonds resigned in protest. (link)
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