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 opportunities at Fort Lewis, Lawrence Tech (NAIA), MSU Denver, Northeastern State (x2) and West Texas A&M, 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) 

Featured Opportunity...

The DII Management Council has sponsored six proposals for the 2026 NCAA Convention, most notably a shift to give student-athletes five seasons of competition, which would include a trio of other changes: “1. Specifies that any competition, regardless of timing, counts as a season of competition unless a student-athlete is transferring from a non-Division II school and does not use a season according to the non-Division II school, or is a Division III transfer who is charged a season of participation for practice only under Division III legislation. 2. Eliminates the currently legislated exceptions and waivers associated with the seasons of competition legislation, including current exceptions such as participation during the nonchampionship segment and in an alumni game. 3. Amends the current waivers and exceptions for the period of eligibility (10 semesters/15 quarters) to permit waivers in extenuating circumstances and the following exceptions: service exception (armed services, religious missions or foreign aid services of the U.S. government); academic study abroad exception; internship or cooperative educational work experience program; pregnancy; injury/illness; and Olympic training.” The decision comes after the DII Academic Performance Census found that 30% of 2022-23 degree-earners took between four and five years and 7% took longer. Council Chair/Slippery Rock AD Roberta Page: “This proposal reflects our commitment to modernizing eligibility rules in a way that prioritizes both academic success and student-athlete well-being. By aligning our legislation with how long a large percentage of our student-athletes are actually in school, we're giving them more flexibility to compete and complete their degrees.” (link)

Other governance-sponsored proposals include the implementation of NPI in 2026-27, the addition of a DII Women’s Bowling Championship and National Collegiate Championships for Acrobatics & Tumbling and STUNT, and adding Women’s Flag Football as an emerging sport for women. The Council also voted against the Championships Committee’s recommendation to push the DII Football Championship to January, approved in concept a new playing rules structure, amended sports wagering guidelines to no longer withhold student-athletes who gamble on professional sports from competition and extended the mental health hardship waiver pilot program. Recommendations to the DII Executive Board include implementing a high-cost city per diem rate of $205, expanding the Men’s Lacrosse bracket from 16 to 18 and sunsetting the DII Championships Festivals. Lastly, the council referred 11 membership proposals to committees. Outside of the nine sport-specific proposals, legislative changes include allowing schools to provide retroactive athletics aid during an academic year and permitting schools in the final year of their provisional membership process to count towards a conference's minimum of six schools. (link)

Two U.S. House of Representatives committees voted to advance the SCORE Act, making it the “most comprehensive measure connected to the industry set to reach the chamber’s floor in decades,” according to USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz, who reports: “After considering nearly a dozen amendments, the Energy and Commerce Committee ultimately voted 30-23 to send the bill to the House floor. It was a straight party line vote in which one vote was not recorded. The Education and Workforce Committee also signed off on the bill later in the afternoon by a margin of 18-17. Barring last-minute intervention from another committee, the bill could receive a vote in September, perhaps within the first two weeks after the House is scheduled to return Sept. 2 from a summer recess that is expected to begin at the close of business July 23.” Senate approval, however, remains unlikely, as Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) notes that Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) will “never support this.” He adds that if it passes the House “it’s dead” in the Senate where it would need 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. Berkowitz notes that a number of changes were made during today’s markup session, including a requirement that the NCAA, and potentially the College Sports Commission, “establish a council to serve as the primary deliberative body” that is “composed of individuals who represent each conference that is a member” of the association. Berkowitz also provides a rundown of the amendments that were rejected or withdrawn, including those seeking to strip out antitrust language and compel universities to reimburse service academies in the event student-athletes transfer. (link, link) 

As the SCORE Act also goes through two House committees, Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger reports that a second and very different bill is being introduced by two House Democrats, one that would “affirm and expand college athletes’ rights to organize, form unions and collectively bargain with their universities and/or conferences.” Both bills face major political obstacles, and while this one is a longshot, it “serves as a reminder of what could transpire in the future as the college sports industry barrels toward a more professionalized model” after the House settlement. Dellenger has more details on opposition to the SCORE Act, with Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell calling it “a power grab by the two biggest conferences that will leave athletes, coaches and small and mid-sized institutions behind.” (link)

The attorneys general from Tennessee, Washington, D.C., New York, Florida and Ohio have sent a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House Education and Workforce, Judiciary, and Energy and Commerce committees detailing their opposition to the SCORE Act. They write, in part: “Simply put, the SCORE Act consolidates too much power in the hands of the NCAA. The NCAA is a cartel that has consistently abused its monopolistic control even in the absence of a legislative blank check to do so. The Founders of our great nation recognized that the concentration of power inevitably corrupts and that only a system constrained by checks and balances and accountable to the people can endure over time. By eliminating any serious checks on NCAA authority, we expect the SCORE Act will ultimately deliver arbitrary and unaccountable enforcement by an NCAA fully empowered to be more overbearing than it has ever been before. … In addition to statutorily blessing the NCAA’s monopolistic abuses and anticompetitive behavior, the SCORE Act would federalize the NCAA’s private, non-transparent rulemaking process, giving legal imprimatur to rules drafted in the shadows by stakeholders whose primary interest is preserving control. This would freeze in place a governance structure that does not work; it has historically produced irrational policies such as the nutrition restrictions that left college athletes starving and a notoriously ticky-tack enforcement regime. Worse, the NCAA could continue modifying these rules behind closed doors, now backed by federal preemption and beyond the reach of state reform or meaningful judicial review. The Act would subject student-athletes, schools, and even state legislatures to a rigid, top-down framework administered by an unaccountable private cartel.” Full letter. (link)

Settlement Within A Settlement…
+ House plaintiffs attorneys and NCAA and Power conference officials have reached an agreement to allow NIL collective deals to be treated in a similar fashion as other third-party deals, per Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, who adds: “The resolution creates what administrators term more of a ‘soft cap’ as opposed to a hard cap, as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey described it last week in an interview with Yahoo Sports. The expectation is that collectives will create legal ways to provide additional compensation, as Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti described Monday in an interview with Yahoo Sports. […] The change also, at least for now, prevents a legal challenge from leaders of a group of NIL collectives who began drafting a lawsuit against the CSC’s approach.” More: “The resolution may not completely end what will likely be continuous negotiations over particular enforcement rules between the power leagues controlling the CSC and the House plaintiff attorneys, who hold authority and veto powers over various aspects of the settlement. […] The guidance change may also not prevent future legal challenges over other enforcement aspects, including Deloitte’s compensation range concept or the appeals arbitration system that athletes can use for deals denied a second time.” (link)
+ The Athletic trio of Justin Williams, Stewart Mandel and Ralph Russo add that “the deal reached Tuesday avoids going to the magistrate. Instead, a clarification of the guidance is expected to be handed down by the CSC that clarifies collectives can offer goods and services for profit in the form of NIL payments, and they can send those deals through the clearinghouse for approval. … The collectives’ deals, as with all third-party businesses, will still be subject to a ‘range of compensation’ limit that will be evaluated through a service run by the accounting firm Deloitte.” (link)

We offer our deepest condolences to the Saint Leo community following the passing of Men’s Basketball AC Daniel Waln. (link)

Deal Digest…
+ Missouri Southern launches the MOSO NIL Exchange in partnership with Teamworks Influencer. (link)
+ Dominican (NY) and Virginia Union have signed multi-year partnerships with Spry to help enhance their operations. (link, link)
+ Northwest Nazarene inks a multi-year extension with Spry. (link)
+ Edinboro partners with Influxer to provide NIL merchandise opportunities with Fighting Scots student-athletes. (link)
+ Northern State links up with vivenu to handle ticketing for home events. (link)

It’s Personnel…
+ West Virginia Wesleyan President James Moore signs a contract extension through June 2032. (link)
+ Barton Assoc. AD for Compliance and Internal Operations Justin Bates is headed to Johnson & Wales Charlotte (DIII) as Asst. AD. (link)
+ Gannon hires Salem Men’s Basketball AC Tanner Winand as Asst. AD for Internal Operations. (link)
+ Thomas Jefferson promotes Coordinator of Equipment and Recreation Rob Nelson to Asst. AD. (link)

Coaches.wire…
+ Bluefield State removes the interim tag from Men’s and Women’s Tennis HC Tim Dunford. (link)
+ Davenport announces a pair of HC hires from Siena Heights (NAIA): Women’s Lacrosse HC Frank Rogers and Cheer/STUNT HC Liz Teague for the same roles in Grand Rapids. (link, link)
+ Palm Beach Atlantic taps Palm Beach County IT Technician Joshua Petree as Esports HC. (link)
+ St. Edward’s names former Tarleton State (DI) Cross Country HC Chase Rathke as Cross Country/Track & Field HC. (link)
+ Virginia State Cross Country/Track & Field HC Frank Hyland is headed to Fayetteville State as the Broncos’ new Assoc. HC. (link)
+ West Virginia State selects Illinois Springfield Women’s Soccer AC Jacob Edwards as the Yellow Jackets’ new HC. (link)
+ To keep track of movement across coaching staffs of any and all collegiate sports, check out this morning’s edition of Coaches.wire. (link)