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 Fairleigh Dickinson (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

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

Slippery Rock AD/DII Management Council Chair Roberta Page sits down with College.town’s Anthony Grassi at the 2025 NACDA Convention to dive into a number of topics around the division. Page loves the position of DII right now, adding: “I believe in our leadership there. We have our operating plan right now set to go out until 2032, but what I love about the division is every so many years, we'll go back and see if what we thought we wanted out of something like regionalization, after it's been implemented for so many years, we go back to the membership and ask the questions: Is it still meeting what it is that we wanted it to meet? We ask the membership for a lot of feedback. […] We're at 293 schools right now. I think we have 11 schools in the membership process that we're looking at now. We're going to lose a couple that maybe are closing or merging or reclassifying, but I think our number at about 303-305 is where we want to be and we're right there. So I feel really good about where we are.” Asked about the biggest opportunities for DII, Page points to the potential benefits stemming from the House settlement and cautions against always following DI. “I think we need to stay our course. Like I said earlier, sometimes it's okay to pump the brakes a little bit and not be so reactive. […] I just think we need to stay our course, go with our operating plan, stay where we are with our budget, where we are financially, and I think we'll continue to be successful.” Another area of opportunity Page is interested in is technology within sports, such as advances in replay or sideline communications, and the business. “What is AI going to do for us? What does AI look like to our sports communication directors? Does that help them? Does that hurt? I think we're going to be looking at technology where, as we live stream and we use Hudl, can they do our stating for us? Does that ease the burden for my sports communication folks? Does it help them with writing their stories or social media? You could ask me that in five years, and I don't think some of these jobs have even been created yet with just where technology is going. I just don't want us to go so fast that we burden ourselves budget-wise.” More on BOSCA. (link)

Mary announces its commitment to fully fund its 18 DII programs to the maximum scholarship limit. This comes on the heels of the Marauders breaking ground on the $45M Marauders Athletics Complex back in April. President James Shea: “Athletics brings a vitality to campus in which we all can share—from the star quarterback or All-American swimmer to a freshman nursing major far from home who is looking to cheer on a classmate and spend time with newly made friends. Sports provide the University of Mary an opportunity for connection with our community, while showcasing future engineers, business leaders, and educators. Our investment in athletics is not about simply competing at the highest level or winning today, but about developing servant leaders for tomorrow as we assist our scholar-athletes in becoming who they were created to be.” AD Marcus Wagner adds: “The university's stance is abundantly clear: We are here to build champions on and off the field, to create opportunities for young people to pursue their life's calling, and to help them embrace becoming who they were created to be. This commitment is yet another affirmation of that mission. It truly is a great day to be a Marauder.” (link)

@1QLeadership Question: How can student-athlete development programs be effectively built and measured within collegiate athletics?

Dr. Marissa Nichols, Sr. Associate AD for Student-Athlete Experience and Director of the Cameron Institute at Cal, shares her approach to creating measurable student-athlete development initiatives—from conducting needs assessments and aligning with institutional strategic goals to setting clear metrics for measuring program outcomes like career placement, mental well-being, and alumni engagement. She also talks about the three skill sets she brings as a college athletics executive:

• Program building

• Engaging stakeholder to get resources

• Measuring outcomes

Nichols, a future TEDx speaker, believes the direction of college athletics should be refocused on the student-athlete experience, and is willing to share her thoughts on how it can be done. 🎧 on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Athletics Admin’s KC Smurthwaite chats with DII and DIII schools that have opted in about their decision and what that will look like for their multidivisional programs. Colorado College (DIII) AD Lesley Irvine: “We obviously have a lot of flexibility with the cap because we've only got those two Division I sports to think about. So, in theory — again, in theory — we could, between those two sports, be fielding a [$20.5 million] team. On paper, the rules would allow it. Do I see that being something the market would call for? And would we do anything that flies in the face of the values of the college? No. What's fun is we talk about the value of the Colorado College education and everything else we offer as part of the package we put together for student-athletes. […] We're trying to get a sense of how all this is going to impact the marketplace truly. It's going to take at least a year to settle down. But we want to and will chase championships here.” On the other side, Alaska Anchorage AD Ryan Swartwood notes the Seawolves decided to not opt in for now, pointing to the roster limits as the key concern. Elsewhere, the rules around multidivisional programs and sports with National Collegiate championships create a challenge for certain schools and programs that may want and be able to opt in, as Lewis AD John Ashaolu tells Smurthwaite: “Men's volleyball is our flagship program. We know we can compete at the Division I level, but we aren't officially classified as Division I in that sport, which means we weren't eligible to opt in. […] We have the donors, financial, institutional and community support to make the move. Our brand is already associated with championships, and we know that we can continue with our volleyball program at the D-I level. We are in a great spot and know we can get there.” More. (link)

More DII membership details from this month's Membership Committee meeting, as the committee approved waivers from Jessup and Vanguard to advance to active membership and waive its third provisional year, while denying the same requests from Roosevelt and Sul Ross State. The group did direct NCAA staff to work on draft language to create a more flexible approach to creating a new DII league, as it relates to the application deadlines and the need for at least 10 active/provisional members. (link)

It’s Personnel…
+ West Texas A&M selects Wayne State (MI) Asst. AD of Compliance Josh Roberson as its new Senior Assoc. AD for Championship Integrity and Student-Athlete Experience. (link)
+ St. Cloud State Assoc. AD for Internal Operations Connor Kern departs to become Assoc. AD for Budget and Compliance at St. Olaf (DIII). (link)
+ Women Leaders has announced its annual award recipients for 2025. CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams Parker has been named a Nike Executive of the Year. (link)

Deal Digest…
+ East Central expands its partnership with The Clinic to provide athletic training care beginning this fall. (link)
+ The LSC teams up with Hour-A-Thon on a multi-year agreement to support members’ fundraising efforts. (link)

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel has approved the use of real-time underwater camera video, when available, for officials to make violation calls in men’s and women’s swimming starting in 2025-26. The group also authorized the use of video review to determine whether the starter’s call for a false start is accurate in individual events at championship or invitational competitions governed by a meet or games committee composed of multiple school reps. In addition to those changes, the committee also approved rule alterations allowing the order of consolation and championship finals to be determined by the respective championship committee, clarified that changing lanes for any reason, while other swimmers are still competing, will result in disqualification, aligned diving technical rules and diving referee duties and responsibilities with USA Swimming and World Aquatics standards and confirmed that 50-yard stroke events are allowed in all championship events. (link) 

Coaches.wire…
+ Dominican (NY) Field Hockey HC Kelsie Stefkovich is no longer leading the Chargers. (link)
+ Frostburg State Softball HC Bill Vasko departs for the same position at Saint Francis (DI). (link)
+ Saginaw Valley State selects Grace (NAIA) Women's Tennis HC Emily Ackerman for the same role. (link)
+ West Virginia State Women’s Soccer HC Brandon Slews steps down after two seasons to become a DI AC. (link)
+ Wheeling names La Roche (DIII) Cross Country HC Greg Schmitt as its new Cross Country/Track & Field HC. (link)
+ This morning’s edition of Coaches.wire shows moves on coaching staffs across 27 different sports. Check it out. (link)

More Higher Ed…
+ Saint Augustine’s is reportedly seeking $1M in donations from alumni to file a lawsuit against SACSCOC, which officially removed the university’s accreditation last week. INDY Week’s Chloe Courtney Bohl adds: “According to [Interim President Marcus] Burgess, SAU’s current debts exceed $47 million. (That figure does not include a $20 million default judgement that the school is contesting.)” (link)
+ Higher Ed Dive’s Natalie Schwartz reports that operating margins at private nonprofit colleges have shrunk to their lowest level in more than a decade as a result of challenges including “continued inflation, threats to federal funding and an expected decline in the number of high school graduates starting next year.” Per the Fitch Ratings analysis, the median adjusted operating margin, that includes endowment in funds for operations, dropped to -2.0% for FY24 for 56 private nonprofit colleges in the Fitch portfolio. According to Schwarz, positive operating margins were still enjoyed by higher-rated institutions, but “Fitch analysts expect the credit environment for the U.S. higher education sector to deteriorate in 2025 year over year, with federal policy shifts likely to increase pressure on operations and revenue.” She continues on to note that many major research universities have highlighted that they will likely have to turn to layoffs to deal with funding declines.” (link)