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The DII Executive Board has elected UT Permian Basin President Sandra Woodley and Walsh President Tim Collins as the board’s next chair and vice chair and approved Cal State San Marcos FAR Ben Cherry and Georgian Court Asst. AD for Compliance & Student Welfare/SWA Kristina Ortiz to serve as the next chair and vice chair of the DII Management Council. All moves are effective after the 2026 NCAA Convention. The board also re-elected five members and approved five new members to serve on the board, as well as six new members to the Management Council. Also of note, the board approved the six-year operating plan and long-range budget. (link)

The DI Board of Directors on Tuesday voted to delay the effective date of a rules change to allow student-athletes and athletics department staff members to permissibly bet on professional sports, thus enacting the same pause for DII. The rule change now will not take effect until November 22. The DI legislative process allows a rule change to be rescinded within 30 days of becoming final if two-thirds of the division's members submit an electronic request supporting rescission. Because that rescission window extends to November 21, the board determined an effective date after that window was appropriate. (link)

New Mexico Highlands has released its new $85.5M athletics master plan that, if approved, would be almost entirely funded by the state. Highlights include a $28.7M three-phase Football stadium reimagination, $14M for an indoor practice facility, $12.1M for basketball arena renovations, $10.7M for the Stu Clark Center and more. President Neil Woolf on his push with the state legislature, which would be the largest athletic expenditure in state history: “Politicians don’t want wish lists; they want an attack plan for a finished product and an analysis of how much it will cost to get it done. The more prepared you are and the more thought you put into any proposal, the better off you’ll be.” NMHU has the $5.1M in funding for phase one of the Football stadium renovation, which is set to begin this spring and include a new field, track, scoreboard and lights, along with the demolition of the east stands. Ampere Sports Design assisted with the planning and renderings. More from The Santa Fe New Mexican. (link); In a promo video for the push, NMHU states: “These current athletic facilities have negatively defined our department and university for decades. No more, they say! We begin now with a commitment to higher standards, a bolder vision and elevated expectations.” More renderings included. (link) 

Check out the initial regional rankings for Field Hockey (link), Men’s Soccer (link) and Women’s Soccer (link).

U.S. Congressman Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) has introduced a bill that would provide a limited antitrust exemption to cap college football coaching salaries. A release from the Baumgartner camp breaks down the fine points of the COACH Act, as it’s called: “The Mechanics: Amends Title IV of the Higher Education Act and provides a limited, targeted antitrust exemption so schools can collectively set a reasonable compensation ceiling for athletics department employees. The Cap: As a condition of participating in federal student-aid programs, institutions agree to limit total compensation of any athletics department employee to 10x the institution's tuition and required fees for a first-time, full-time undergraduate for the most recent year. … No loopholes: ‘Total compensation’ is defined broadly to include salary, bonuses, deferred compensation, severance/buyouts, in-kind support, housing/mortgage or debt relief, personal-services contracts, and other remuneration-from the university or any affiliated or controlled booster organization. Why it matters: A single season's buyout can mirror a full year of operating revenue at many programs and rival top-tier budgets. Instead of paying coaches not to coach, resources should be used to control costs, limit financial liabilities of federally subsidized programs, and preserve scholarships and Olympic sports.” (link)

Conference Carolinas will move its championships behind the paywall. Commissioner Chris Colvin: “As we have evaluated the landscape of intercollegiate athletics broadcasting, we determined that this was the appropriate time to move to a fee-based model. The majority of Division II conferences use a fee-based model for the regular season and for championships. As we evaluated our product, the consensus decision was to keep regular season contests free for now and to move the championship broadcasts to this model. All championship broadcasts will be of a high quality and have on-air talent giving fans a great viewing experience.” (link)

Deal Digest…
➤ The Peach Belt is the latest to partner with Athletic Solutions to launch individual NIL Locker Rooms for student-athletes. (link)
➤ Wayne State (MI) teams up with Athlete’s Thread to offer customized NIL merchandise. (link)

Coaches.wire…
➤ Ashland Men’s and Women’s Tennis HC Eric Gibson departs for the same role at Juniata (DIII). (link)
➤ Chowan selects alum/club HC Lucas Pels as its Men’s and Women’s Swimming HC. (link)
➤ These changes and more can be found in this morning’s edition of Coaches.wire. (link)

Gametimes for the NCAA Men’s Final Four, NIT semifinals and championship game and Division II and III title match-ups have been announced with action at three Indianapolis venues scheduled to take place over April 2-6. Action begins on Thurs., April 2 with the NIT national semis contested at Hinkle Fieldhouse at 7 and 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN2, respectively. The Men’s Final Four is set for Sat., April 4 with match-ups slated for 6 and 8:30 p.m. ET, while the title game will be held on Mon., April 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET. On Sun., April 5, three champions will be crowned via a tripleheader consisting of the Division II national championship (1 p.m. ET - CBS), the Division III title tilt (4:30 p.m. ET - ESPN+) and the NIT championship contest (8 p.m ET - ESPN2). More. (link) 

The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday. The second such cut in as many meetings puts the benchmark in a range between 3.75%-4.00%. Despite the rate cuts, markets fell after Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggested this could be the final rate cut of the year. “In the committee’s discussions at this meeting, there were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December. A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone conclusion. Far from it.” (link, link)

Here’s the latest edition of CRO.ticker, which hit inboxes yesterday, featured an in-depth look at how mixed-use developments are becoming core revenue drivers by offering year-round programming. Also included is a McKinsey & Co. study on the growing percentage of Latino sports viewers in the U.S., branding insights from VaynerMedia’s Gary Vaynerchuk, and the latest news and analysis on how AI is impacting workforce size. Check out the full edition! (link)

More Higher Ed…
➤ Alaska Anchorage Interim Chancellor Cheryl Siemers will remain in the role through next summer, as the university pauses its search for a full-time leader after having four finalists on campus last month. (link)
➤ Current international student visa issues might be just a precursor to greater turmoil ahead in international enrollments writes The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Karin Fischer, who notes some colleges have reported drops in new overseas enrollments of 10 to 15% while the number of foreign students arriving in the U.S. in August fell by 20%, the largest decline outside the COVID-19 pandemic. Fischer continues: “The number of international students in the United States has doubled over the past 20 years. At many institutions, students from abroad have helped offset declining numbers of high-school graduates. In the next few years, foreign students could be even more critical as a countervailing force, thanks to a looming demographic cliff and growing disillusionment among many Americans about the value of a college degree. [...] The university counts on their tuition, which can be double that of Arizona residents. Last year, foreign-student revenue underwrote about $360M, or 12%, of the operating budget. [...] In fact, ASU gets about the same amount in general-fund appropriations from the State of Arizona as it does from overseas tuition. [...] With taxpayer support lagging — funding per student in Arizona remains 40 percent below pre-recession levels — that revenue could become more important, not less, to public institutions like Arizona State.” More. (link)