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 South Dakota Mines, 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

D1.dossiers... CSUN is hot off the press. D1.dossiers are also ready for the AD openings at Bucknell, Cal Poly, Delaware, Marshall, Mississippi Valley State, New Mexico State, New Orleans, Rutgers, South Carolina State, South Florida, Stanford and Tampa (DII - also available as a single purchase) and UC San Diego. $349 for an entire year of access to all dossiers. Coming soon: Gardner-Webb, Oklahoma, Southern Utah and Utah State. (link) D2.dossiers... Tampa is available for the single purchase price of $199. (link) 

UAH AD Cade Smith sits down with College.town’s Anthony Grassi at the 2025 NCAA Convention to dive into his transition from coach to AD. After seven seasons as a Volleyball coach, Smith had the opportunity to serve as Interim AD with the desire to get the permanent job. Stepping into the interim role, Smith operated as if it was his job, noting: “I actually think the worst job for anybody in the world is an interim anything because it's not really your job. You're kind of the placeholder, but you need to operate like it is because you can't just sit there and not make decisions for whatever period of time exists there because for one, that's not best for your institution and number two is that's probably not going to get you the job by just sitting there and not doing anything.” On day one as interim AD, he had each staff member write down what they do to compare to their job description to ensure everyone was in the right seat and there were no redundancies in tasks. As he transitions to the role, he made sure his coaches and staff saw him as a “start with yes guy,” adding: “There were a few times where all of a sudden I've been able to pull back the curtain on maybe some reasons that they've been told no in the past, and maybe I can explain, ‘Hey, this is why we couldn't do that, and it actually makes sense to me now.’ Or maybe it's better to say we couldn't do it that way, but let's see if there's another way of getting to what we were trying to do.” During the process, one note Smith recalls telling the staff was about the insides of the role: “When I met with the staff as a candidate as opposed to their Interim AD, I remember one of the things that I told them was, ‘Hey, I want this job and I actually know the good and the bad of it.’ I said, so that should give you a little bit of peace to know that I know the worst part of this job and I still want it. So I remember that being part of our conversation through that when they were interviewing candidates and I still want it today.” More on BOSCA. (link)

House plaintiffs attorneys have sent a letter to NCAA and power conference leaders calling for a retraction of the College Sports Commission's guidance on NIL collective deals issued earlier this week, per Yahoo's Ross Dellenger. Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman plan to bring the issue before Federal Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins, who has been appointed to resolve settlement disputes, writing: “There is nothing in the Settlement Agreement to permit (NCAA and conference) or the CSC, acting on their behalf, to decide that it would not be a valid business purpose for a school’s collective to engage in for-profit promotions of goods or services using paid-for student-athlete NIL. To the extent the NIL payment is for the promotion of a valid business purpose, it is irrelevant whether that payment comes from a NIL collective or any other third party.” A CSC spokesperson responded to Dellenger, stating: “The guidance issued by the College Sports Commission yesterday is entirely consistent with the House settlement and the rules that have been agreed upon with class counsel. The defendants have been in close coordination with class counsel on the key provisions in the memo and will continue to work with them to resolve any concerns they may have.” (link)

HBR On Leadership podcast focuses on insights and inspiration from the world’s top leadership practitioners and experts.

How to succeed in your career when change is constant?

Disruption and transformation are the new normal in nearly every industry. So how do you stay ahead of the curve? Over the past four decades, Bonnie Hammer successfully adapted to massive changes in the media industry, rising from production assistant to leadership roles in broadcast, cable, and streaming. As the former vice chair of NBCUniversal, she has advice on how to get noticed, acquire the right skillsets, make smart decisions, and adjust to shifting corporate and market dynamics.

Hammer has an interesting take on making important decisions. It entails A, B, C...all the way through G, with G being 'Gut" as the last evaluation metric. 🎧 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

NACDA CEO Pat Manak stopped by the College.town set during last month’s 2025 NACDA Convention in Orlando. Manak’s perspective on the annual convention & his career with the association: “If you think about it, we're at the end of the academic year, so a lot of folks are coming and they're saying to themselves, ‘Okay, I can really take a breath. I don't really have to worry about racing back to campus and dealing with the next event, the next game, the next production that I need to take care of.’ So it's an annual gathering of people in our industry at this time of the year where they can really come together and say, ‘you know what? This is what I celebrated this year, or maybe this is something that we didn't do all that well this year. What did you do that could help us on our campus do a better job at it?’ The unique thing about our industry is that everybody competes really hard, but at the end of the day, we're all in the same business together to try to help the student-athlete growth and development. And that's the nice thing about it is that when everybody comes together, it's really just sharing of best practices, professional development, and networking. [...] I'm extremely blessed and fortunate to be where I'm at. And like you said, I did start my career as an intern with the association, and back then I had a dream of becoming an athletic director at one point in time. But the more time I spent at NACDA, the more time I felt like, ‘you know what? I don't think I'm necessarily cut out to be an athletic director, but I love the industry. I want to stay in it.’ And NACDA is a great place to be because we can touch all people at all divisions and all levels, and that's what keeps it fresh and exciting. So 30 years later, here I am, and I mean, I can't believe it. I pinch myself every day. I'm extremely fortunate to be at a great organization. But I have to say that our team is the best in the business, and I don't just say that. I mean, I've come up and I've seen the folks grow in their positions and whatnot, and I would put our team up against anybody's when it comes to putting on events and doing what we do. They're just phenomenal.” Full interview on Collegiate Sports Connect. (link)

Sportico’s Daniel Libit pens on the history between Acrobatics & Tumbling and Stunt, which have now both been recommended by the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics to get full championship status, which would take effect across all three divisions by Spring 2027. Libit sums up the rivalry: “For much of their history, acrobatics & tumbling—a gymnastics-inspired outgrowth of early competitive cheer—and stunt—Varsity Brands’ effort to retool its all-star cheer model into an NCAA-friendly format—saw each other as direct competitors in a heads-up, zero-sum race for college admission.” National Collegiate Acrobatics & Rumbling Association Executive Dir. Janell Cook observes: “The sentiment we received so often from administrators and experienced people within college athletics is that only one will make it.” Lots more. (link)

It’s Personnel…
+ Lubbock Christian names Lynn Asst. AD for Compliance Austin Weyant as Deputy AD/Director of Compliance. (link)
+ The CIAA hires Claflin Senior Assoc. AD/SWA Matisse Lee as its new Assoc. Commissioner for External Partnerships & Special Projects. (link)
+ Minnesota State promotes Academic Advisor Morgan Goedken to Assoc. AD of Compliance and Student Engagement/SWA. (link)

We offer our deepest condolences to the UC Merced community following the passing of Men’s Soccer student-athlete Isaias Ruiz. (link)

UC Merced Men’s Basketball HC Kevin Pham is no longer leading the Bobcats, per HoopDirt’s Adam Nelson. (link)

Coaches.wire…
+ Henderson State hires Our Lady of the Lake (NAIA) Cross Country/Track & Field HC Brett Charlton for the same role in Arkadelphia. (link)
+ Jessup selects former Academy of Art Tennis HC Nicole Briceño as its new Men’s and Women’s Tennis HC. (link)
+ Southeastern Oklahoma State Men’s and Women’s Tennis HC Brian Nelson departs for the same role at Texas A&M-Texarkana (NAIA). (link)
+ Wheeling promotes GA Max Hamilton to Men’s Rugby HC. (link)
+ Want to know about any other moves in the coaching world over the weekend? This morning’s edition of Coaches.wire has you covered. (link)

Young alumni are increasingly opting for premium experiences at a higher rate than their older peers, according to a new report from Elevate, which, per SBJ’s Joe Lemire, “draws on data from 250M consumers in its new data system, EPIC (Elevate Performance and Insights Cloud), and from a nationwide survey of 6,331 fans conducted in collaboration with The Harris Poll.” Elevate Chief Innovation Officer Jim Caruso explains the goal of the research is to help inform the development of new amenities and other offerings as college athletic departments reckon with a changing landscape: “The thesis for us here was, let’s take a look and understand and unpack these audiences in a way that can help these clients to understand [how to build] when they’re thinking about offering new amenities, when they’re thinking about creating different experiences, when it’s not just, ‘Here’s a ticket to the game.’ We dive a little bit into the psychology, both from observable data – a behavioral standpoint – as well as from a qualitative standpoint.” The study found that 44% of young alumni – defined as those between the ages of 22 and 32 – are purchasing premium experiences such as exclusive hospitality or access to behind-the-scenes tours or athlete meet-and-greets. That figure is more than double that of fans aged 35 and up. According to Lemire, young alumni said “in-venue amenities were twice as important (60%) as game action (29%) in driving gameday satisfaction. That group also scored higher than older college fans in: buying tickets to live events, traveling to away games, joining fan clubs and loyalty programs, and contributing to athletic departments.” (link)