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Even more from RMAC Interim Commissioner Lexie Vernon’s Small College Conversation on the future of small college athletics, as the league’s position statement can help “continue to empower [NCAA staff] to think boldly and that we support them in thinking outside of the box and being shamelessly supportive of the Division II mission and how we do it. […] But how can we push, as a membership, to untie those hands to be able to make policy and be voices at the table from a division-wide, association-wide perspective to say, ‘This is Division II. This is who we are. This is our story and it’s worth thinking boldly and taking a chance outside of what we would consider within our traditional framework and what’s been existing since the 1970s.’” On the growth of media rights moving behind a paywall as a revenue stream in DII: “I think inevitably from an NCAA championship standpoint we're going to go down that road. It's a sought-after product that people will pay for, and not to take advantage of the consumer, but we are a business and it is an open market in which we have to leverage the work that we do and the opportunity that we have to sell a product and provide a product to our viewers that's quality and be able to reinvest back into that product as any general business model would. So I think anybody in the business world would understand the model that we're working within and how we can continue to develop sustainable programs at our institutions, which all ties back to the student-athlete experience and how we can continue to support from a budget standpoint, from an experience standpoint, from a viewer standpoint, and the experience of our student-athletes.” Full convo on BOSCA. (link)

Southwest Minnesota State AD Travis Whipple The Marshall Independent’s Samantha Davis about his vision for the Mustangs and returning to the NSIC, where he competed as a student-athlete. On his goals for SMSU: “[We want to] boil down our mission pretty simply as creating champions and Mustangs for life. In the classroom, in the community and in competition. That’s what I love about Division II, and our league … You can have that well-rounded, balanced experience. We want student athletes to achieve above a 3.2 GPA. We want to serve thousands of hours of community service, and we want to compete for championships. I feel like we have the infrastructure here where we can do that. [We] really want to collaboratively develop our strategic plan, and really assess our facilities … Those are a few of the things that are really bubbling up to the top, key priorities of where we’d like to be. I think in our league, scholarships, program enhancements and fundraising for those are going to continue to be important initiatives to help us remain as competitive as possible.” As he returns to the NSIC, Whipple calls it a full-circle moment, as he played his last collegiate game at SMSU, adding: “It’s a lot of fun for me to come back to a league that I competed in as a student-athlete … I think there’s great people throughout the league, good camaraderie and outstanding leadership. It’s a phenomenal conference. I feel like if you can have success in the NSIC, you can compete for national championships.” (link)

Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger reports “the 10 non-FBS conferences lobbying to amend the SCORE Act sent Congress a letter in support of its passing. The 10 reached an agreement with power leagues during meetings in Chicago last week over changes in the bill.” From the letter: “Our coalition of ten conferences representing one-third of NCAA Division I, more than 100 universities and over 40K student-athletes write in support of the SCORE Act (H.R. 4312) and its passage in the House. [...] We have consistently supported the key tenets of the SCORE ACT while also seeking important protections for all of Division I. Our coalition is encouraged by the Autonomy Four’s recent commitment to protecting Division I membership standards for all institutions long into the future by requiring a higher threshold to approve future changes. [...] We value the contributions from the student-athletes in the decision-making process, which includes our support for current and recently former student-athletes to have a minimum number of votes on certain intercollegiate athletic associations’ rulemaking bodies.” Full letter. (link)

Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger reports “DI commissioners in Chicago received an update on the long-discussed concept of permitting schools to outfit player jerseys with sponsorship patches. The legislation is expected to be approved in time for patches to be added to uniforms as soon as next fall. There is disagreement, however, on who should set & control standards related to jersey patches - schools, conferences or the national association. Most involved feel strongly in restricting the number of patches as to avoid overexposure (ie NASCAR).” (link)

Indiana (DI) football student-athlete Louis Moore can suit up for the Hoosiers this season after Dallas County Judge Dale Tillery ruled that the NCAA's eligibility rule violates the Texas Antitrust Act. According to Tillery, the temporary injunction order was necessary because of "the immediate need to allow Moore to play football for Indiana for the 2025-26 season, in order to prevent irreparable harm to Moore's career-including development with the team, the opportunity to play with the team, and the opportunity to effectuate his NIL deal." (link)

The GLVC rolls out its new tagline: “Create Your Legacy.” Commissioner Jim Naumovich: “The GLVC has been providing opportunities for thousands of student-athletes to earn their degrees and compete at the highest levels of NCAA Division II intercollegiate competition for the past 47-years. Our new tagline – Create Your Legacy – celebrates the accomplishments of our former student-athletes and encourages our current student-athletes to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity our 15 member institutions provide them during their collegiate careers.” (link)

James Moore Digital President Daniel Shorstein visits with Katie Davis and Ken Kurdziel on the latest episode of News & Brews Sports Biz to discuss AI in college athletics finance and had this to say on practical applications for AI in college athletics: “There’s some … that I think are really valuable when you’re looking at budget management and identifying different paths you might want to take and tradeoffs. One way that AI … is helpful is as a strategic partner, strategic adviser. Let’s say you give it a few different scenarios you’re considering around shifting things around in a budget, given the goals you’re trying to achieve, some of the challenges you’re trying to overcome and some of the stakeholders you’re trying to appease through that process. The generative AI output may be very helpful in giving you some guidance and tips on what direction to go there and how to approach it. You’re still the one driving the ship. You’re going to make the decisions, but it’s almost like this additional partner you can bounce ideas off of. … If you have detailed transactions that you’re not able to understand what they are or how to address them, and the rules engine you’re trying to build using machine learning isn’t working correctly, generative AI, in that sense, can be useful for doing a data cleansing aspect of it. … You can build a prompt or a custom ChatGPT that you can feed in these transactions that have decent, but not good enough, data within it and give it some context and guidance and that can actually enhance your data and clean up your data using intelligence to categorize them or flag them in certain ways that you can then use them a lot better and more efficiently. I think there’s almost endless ways you can use it. … From an athletic standpoint, it’s a lot of strategy things there. A lot of time-saving opportunities. … It can really just give you a leg up as an organization with limited time and limited resources but step it up quite a bit with the help of generative AI. More. (link) 

Deal Digest…
➤ Southern Wesleyan inks a deal with Athletic Solutions to create online NIL storefronts for Warriors student-athletes. (link)
➤ UT Tyler teams up with Podium X to offer career development and personal marketing tools to student-athletes. (link)
➤ Young Harris partners with Athlete Launch, which is founded by YHC alum Hutch Ezell, to provide student-athletes with personal branding and content creation support. (link)
➤ Missouri-St. Louis will work with Lodging Hospitality Management to provide resources and support for student-athletes and fans. (link)

Coaches.wire…
➤ Ferris State Men’s Basketball HC Bobby Pietrack has retired to spend more time with his family as he works through a personal health issue. AC Alex Fodness will serve as Interim HC. (link)
➤ Thomas Jefferson Women's Rowing HC Michiel Bartman departs to become Director of Rowing/Men’s Rowing HC at Saint Joseph’s (DI). (link)
➤ Cross Country/Track & Field leads the way with the most coaching staff changes by a sport in this morning’s edition of Coaches.wire. (link)