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 Adams State and Florida Gulf Coast (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

Alaska Anchorage AD Ryan Swartwood will depart to become the AD at CSUN (DI). Prior to joining the Seawolves, Swartwood served as Assoc. AD for Administration for the Matadors. Swartwood will begin in Northridge on November 15. (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)

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)

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) 

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…
➤ Drury brought in a record $463K+ from 1,003 donors through its Champions Challenge Presented by Thompson Sales Company. (link)
➤ Montevallo raised $152K from 1,342 donors during its Falcons Victory Campaign. (link) 

Deal Digest…
➤ Fort Hays State inks a multi-year deal with FanWord to support its written content creation efforts. (link)
➤ West Virginia State signs an extension with Influxer. (link)

It’s Personnel…
➤ Truman State promotes Asst. AD for Compliance and Student-Athlete Services Geoff Bruder to Assoc. AD. (link)
➤ CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams Parker will chair the new NCAA Committee on Access, Opportunity and Impact. (link)

Coaches.wire…
➤ Alaska Fairbanks promotes Nordic Skiing AC Ben Buck to Interim 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)

More Higher Ed…
➤ UC Merced selects Georgia College President Dorothy Leland as its next chancellor. (link)
➤ Lenoir-Rhyne will now offer free tuition to North Carolina and South Carolina families earning less than $100K. (link)