FanWord Assist helps college sports communicators write high-quality, customizable game recaps, feature stories, roster page updates, and other storytelling content more efficiently. 100+ schools all over the country use FanWord Assist to save time and resources without jeopardizing quality or control. Click HERE to learn more.

D3 Jobs on CollegeSports.jobs...  New opportunities at St. Mary's College of Maryland, Thiel and UChicago (x2), 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

Landmark Commissioner Katie Boldvich sits down with SimpleCoach’s Paul Oliu to dive into the future of DIII. Asked what changes she would make to DIII, Boldvich says she would alter the revenue shares DII and DIII receive to make them equal, as opposed to the current split, and allow all student-athletes to have five seasons of eligibility, doing away with all waivers. On the topic of employment, Boldvich believes that while the topic is incredibly significant: “Where DIII and other smaller schools will get relief is perceived control of the students. I think that's the big issue we're seeing at DI because the students are coming and saying, ‘Hey, I'm being told I can't major in certain things because of my practice or game schedule. I'm being told I can't take certain classes or labs because of my practice and game schedule. So therefore, I'm delaying graduation or I'm not really making progress toward degree that I would like to see.’ Those are things we're not really seeing in the DIII space. […] I do think that helps, but I do think we're going to see more guardrails put up about what is and isn't permissive in that space when talking to recruiting and then ultimately retaining those students.” More from Boldvich: “Ultimately, everyone's in agreement that our schools need college athletics to be able to perform the way they want to perform as higher education institutions. Student-athletes comprise a huge portion of the overall population. So, while our schools don't wholly need them to stay open, they're certainly a big part of students' and even just general campus life, like having sports, having something to do, having homecoming. So, all those things are important. Do I think we'll still be playing college sports in a few years in the small college space? Absolutely. Will that be under the NCAA umbrella? Time will certainly tell, but there are certainly models out there for other association-wide governance and leadership. I think folks like me and my peers are going to be challenged to figure it out, but we will figure it out.” (link)

U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have introduced the Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement (SAFE) Act, which aims "to codify athletes’ rights and protections in law, expand revenue for all schools, support women’s and Olympic sports and bring much-needed stability to the college sports system." The bill’s key provisions include: providing federal NIL rights, replacing patchwork state-by-state laws; establishing health and safety standards for heat exertion, brain injury, asthma; protecting scholarships, a 10-year guarantee; providing NIL contracts that outline what athletes must do under the contract and how much they'll be paid; requiring agents cap their fees at 5% and to register with a state; allowing students to transfer twice without having to sit out for a year; and allowing students to transfer without having to sit out for a year if their sport is cut or reduced. The bill also proposes to amend the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA) of 1961 to allow schools to negotiate media rights as a group to increase value without violating antitrust laws. It states schools must use increased media rights revenues to keep the same number of scholarships and roster sports for non-revenue generating and women's sports as provided during 2023-24 academic year. Booker: "In stark contrast to harmful legislation being considered in the House, our bill preserves athletes' rights to advocate for themselves and ensures meaningful avenues for accountability. Playing college football was one of the great gifts of my life – and it instilled in me a lasting conviction to fight for justice and fairness for athletes today and into the future." (link)

NCAA VP of External Affairs Tim Buckley: "Those closest to college sports – including student-athletes and leaders of America's colleges and universities at all levels – have consistently called on Congress to take action and address the actual threats facing college athletics. This includes protecting student-athletes from being forced to become employees, and ensuring academic standards and other commonsense rules can be applied consistently. There has never been more momentum in Congress to address these challenges and the NCAA will continue to work with all lawmakers to maximize opportunities for America's 500,000-plus student-athletes." (link) 

Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger shares more from the SAFE Act, noting that it “would not only amend the SBA, but would create a committee within the NCAA to help pool media rights, maximize revenues and fairly distribute those revenues to assure that schools maintain scholarship and roster levels for women’s and Olympic sports. The SAFE Act also requires broadcast networks make available their football and basketball games on a non-exclusive basis (i.e. no local content behind a paywall). The Act also requires broadcast networks and streaming platforms to reconvey media rights to schools if the entity is not materially using the rights to also broadcast women’s and Olympic sports. (link); Other notable provisions include a prohibition on renegotiating or extending media rights contracts before they expire, permitting the introduction of jersey patch sponsorships, five years of post-eligibility medical coverage for sports-related injuries for DI schools and changes to permit international student-athletes to earn NIL revenue. Full SAFE Act. (link)

USA Today’s Matt Hayes reports that a person close to the White House indicated to him today that the Democrat-authored SAFE Act aligns more closely with President Trump's vision for college sports. Hayes adds: “It is nearly polar opposite from the (GOP-authored) SCORE bill, which seeks antitrust exemptions from the federal government to make and enforce rules on NIL, player movement and eligibility. (link) 

FloSports SVP of Global Rights Acquisition Mike Levy joins the DIII Baseball Podcast to dive into the growth of FloCollege and his vision for the platform, on which he notes: “We are trying our best to get FloSports as broadly distributed as we possibly can, both free and behind the paywall. Again, everything is geared towards growing the sport. In the college landscape, one of the things that I'm passionate about that might take a little bit longer is ultimately want to be this comprehensive destination for DIII athletics. […] I want us to be the home for DII and DIII athletes that when old men like me have kids and say, ‘Hey, I did something when I was younger.’ They can come to FloCollege and there are their statistics, there’s some video of them playing, there are some highlights and it becomes this sticky destination that people want to return to.” Asked about the production quality, Levy states: “Year one of any of these deals is the worst. It’s going to be the hardest year in every single one of these deals.” Beyond year one, Levy notes deals are structured to incrementally improve quality through equipment upgrades, professional play-by-play, graphics, etc. On Flo’s position in small college athletics more broadly: “It's fundamental that to get the growth that we believe exists, that we believe Division III needs, the feedback that we're getting is that Division III needs to find financial growth. Flo, at the moment, is the biggest investor in Division III athletics in America. And we don't want to lose any fans, certainly not. We are trying to price this in such a way that we can continue investing and build those fans. […] The only way to grow sport in America, from our hypothesis, it's our position is that there has to be a way to drive some sort of economic value in media equity in those rights and our ask of Division III baseball fans, partners, schools and presidents is that if you don't start believing that your rights are worth investment, are worth somebody paying for, then nobody also believe it's worth paying for either. If DI someday decides to break off from the NCAA, the concern that I would have is how does DIII continue to exist? Like, it's kind of dark, right? I don't mean to be dark, but if DI was to decide to split from the NCAA for whatever reason, I don't know what funds DIII athletics anymore. Flo is trying to do its part.” More. (link)

In news from across the NCAA universe, Front Office Sports’ Amanda Christovich reports “multiple major power conference collectives are giving up on trying to work through the NIL Go clearinghouse and within the bounds of the new rules set up by the House v. NCAA settlement.” She adds: “At least two collectives have begun to pay players before the submitted deals have been approved, and are aware of instances where players haven’t logged deals at all, sources tell FOS. The inefficiencies of the system have created an unsustainable landscape.” Specifically, Christovich reports that two SEC collectives “have begun to compensate players for NIL deals that have been submitted to NIL Go but not yet approved. … The source from the ACC NIL collective said that they were nearly ready to circumvent the NIL Go system and were preparing to pay players for deals that had been submitted but not approved.” The first SEC source indicates that out of nearly 70 agreements sent to football players in August, only about 20 had been submitted to NIL Go as of October 1. (link)

Fundraising Developments…
➤ St. Lawrence brought in a record $754K+ during its “Here We Go Saints” challenge from 2,990 donors. (link)
➤ Connecticut College raised over $380K from its All In To Win campaign. (link) 

Cornell College will add Women’s Flag Football starting in 2026-27 under the direction of Iowa NFL Flag League Founder/Director Courtney Pennel. (link)

It’s Personnel…
➤ Albertus Magnus President Marc Camille signs a contract extension through 2029-30. (link)
➤ Bryn Mawr taps retired Assoc. Director of Facilities Dawn DiGiovanni as Interim Asst. AD. (link)

Coaches.wire, hoops…
➤ Gettysburg selects York (PA) Men’s Basketball HC Matt Hunter as the Bullets’ next HC. (link)
➤ Vassar names Rochester AC Carly Assimon as its new Women’s Basketball HC. (link)
➤ York (PA) moves quickly and promotes Men’s Basketball AC Jared Wagner to become the Spartans’ next HC. (link)

Coaches.wire, continued…
➤ MIT Fencing HC Jarek Koniusz will retire at the end of this academic year. (link)
➤ Neumann Men’s Lacrosse HC Marc Poust steps down to focus on his mental and physical health.(link)
➤ SUNY Old Westbury taps former multi-stop AC Lou DeCicco as its Women’s Lacrosse HC. (link)
➤ Thirty-three different sports had changes to coaching staffs in the past few days, check out the full rundown via Coaches.wire. (link)