I suspect Charleston is a great place to recruit students who might be interested in being on the water (and perhaps attend schools that will help them qualify academically).

I heard some college President talk one time about their marketing strategy - one of which was researching where their typical students vacation and then putting regular billboards up between campus and that destination.  They claimed it upped applications by 20%.

Portnoy was definitely the most impressive player for Washington College last year.  Not sure he's going to be a noticeable presence in the NESCAC, but he's solid.

Quote from: lmitzel on Yesterday at 12:17:07 PMPreseason coaches poll came out late last week.

Not a surprise that IWU was heavily favored to win. But you can imagine how giddy I am to see NCC picked to finish 2nd.

Now there can be great speculation about which coach decided not to vote IWU No. 1.

Quote from: nescac1 on October 15, 2026, 09:35:27 PMYeah, I think Trinity probably has the most upside but is also relying on a ton of young (albeit high-end) talent.  To me, Wesleyan is the safest bet, since the guys they lost have obvious replacements on the roster.  I don't see any Nescac teams as pre-season top ten squads this year, more like three closely grouped in the 10-25 range.

I did my ballot last night.  There are not very many strong teams bringing a lot back.  It gets quite speculative after five or six teams.  Anybody's guess at that point.

I went with:

Wesleyan
Tufts
Trinity

But I think they're very close.  I think Wesleyan probably has the fewest changes to make in terms of style and personnel, but they may not end up best by March.

Quote from: stlawus on September 28, 2026, 04:34:15 PMI really don't understand RPI's recent scheduling philosophy.  Another year with a very weak non-conference schedule.  They've won 21 games the past 2 seasons with nothing to show for it because they didn't get any benefit from the non-conference portion of their schedule.

I wouldn't call it VERY weak.  It seems more middle of the road to me.  They get Endicott to open.  They're going to Widener, who wasn't great last year, but is usually pretty good.  Middlebury will definitely be improved.  Not sure that team is at a level where you want to schedule a Top 25 non-conference, especially with how tough the LL is right now.

It might not be the most NPI-maximizing schedule, but it's not bad.  Vassar has an exceptionally strong non-con, but if there's much of any drop-off from last year, that could really hurt them.  It's definitely tough to know how to schedule 18 months out, the way most programs have to do it now.

Quote from: y_jack_lok on September 13, 2026, 08:42:09 PM

Quote from: Macon on September 13, 2026, 06:22:35 PMRMC roster is up, 7 freshmen with some much needed size.  All 6 freshmen from last year return. A very strong looking team.  Go Jackets!!

Well, one freshman is listed as 6'9", one is 6'6", three are 6'4", one at 6'1" and one at 5'10". The only player missing from last season is Ollie Jones, who would be a junior.

I've been told by a pretty reputable source that the 6'9" kid, Andrew Clark is the real deal.

Quote from: CarollFan on September 13, 2026, 04:12:23 PM

Quote from: Ron Boerger on September 12, 2026, 09:49:58 AMBrandeis is a perfect example.  According to their 990s they have lost tens of millions of dollars every year since and including 2020 - anywhere from $20.5M to nearly $60M annually, including a $52M loss in 2025, yet their net assets have increased during that time from $1.23B to $1.52B.  The bulk of their assets are long-term investments (nearly $1.4B) and funds held by trustees or others ($146M), so despite the annual losses on paper they're probably not going anywhere, at least in the near term.  It's probably not one of the 15 he quantifies as at risk, but you don't know - and neither does anyone reading the article that mentions them prominently. 

Let me start by saying I'm no expert. It seems to me reading some of these reviews on  the financial health of a school they distinguish net assets between restricted and unrestricted. Unrestricted being more flexible to use. Earnings from restricted assets are considered restricted also. In Brandeis's case in their last 990 around $1.3 billion of their net assets are restricted. So if you're burning thru your unrestricted net assets what options do you have in leveraging restricted net assets?

My understanding is that this isn't cut and dry.  Often, donors and schools will enter into a legal arrangement, especially for large endowments or gifts - those restrictions are often unbreachable for the school.  We have seen, recently, courts allow schools to access restricted funds, especially in cases of institutional health and survival - no reason to close a school if there are reasonable means to avoid it.  Whether courts would allow this kind of thing just to bridge budget gaps from year to year seem less likely.

When I've worked for non-profits (much of my professional life), I've always pushed for official policies that provide some caveats to restricted funds - that the organization could deviate from the express purpose if the need no longer existed, for example - or if there was a broader similar need that could be met - always to put the overall health of the organization above a specific purpose.

Now that's not been tradition in higher education and I'm sure those sorts of things would go over less well in that area, but that's why good schools put a lot of emphasis on donor relations - to make sure the relationships are healthy for times when it's really needed.

Quote from: WUPHF on September 11, 2026, 01:08:45 PM

Quote from: Ralph Turner on September 11, 2026, 12:39:40 PMOkay, let the Board by him out of his contract and hire the person who needs to do the job and get on with it.

100%  15 or so years ago, the local public university hired a retired president for one more retirement job and he ran the institution accordingly.  Then they hired someone who had never been a president before and had something to prove.  She is retiring now, but was a transformative leader in her six years at the helm.

I get the wisdom in not committing to radical change you cannot see through.  That could be bad for the school as well.  The best thing a person in that situation could do, though, is to form the committees and start having the meetings about what uncomfortable change would look like so the next person isn't coming in cold and having to sell a difficult vision.  Colleges take ages to change - there's nothing wrong with starting a visioning process well before most people have any kind of vision.

I do use the Flo app on my tv and it does take a lot of clicks.  Generally, if I'm double-screening, I put any Flo games on my laptop, because it's much easier (although not simple) to navigate via browser.

To be fair, though - I don't find many of the streamers super easy to navigate when it comes to sports.

Quote from: PauldingLightUP on September 08, 2026, 01:30:28 PM

Quote from: ChickenHoops on September 08, 2026, 01:13:33 PM

Quote from: PauldingLightUP on August 25, 2026, 07:05:49 PMKent Dernbach named to NCAA Division III men's basketball national committee.

What does this mean, really?  Heather asked.

Main thing now is bracketing teams, then also administrative stuff to get ready for the championship weekend in Pittsburgh and he would be first in line if there's a relatively close school hosting and UWSP misses the tournament to be the NCAA site rep.

You're one of ten people who oversee the whole process of organizing and running the tournament.  There's a lot of staff help from the NCAA and local organizers, obviously, but there are decisions to be made.  They'll be the group evaluating and proposing NPI changes, selecting future host sites, etc.  It's kind of equivalent to the board of directors for a non-profit.

Quote from: d3boardssearcher on August 29, 2026, 10:26:26 AMThey couldn't do just football only in the HCAC. I believe that new core member requirement rule that passed last year would mean they have to join a league fully as long as that league is not a single sport conference.

I don't think that's true.  The rule was just to force core members to play a conference schedule in every sport they sponsor.  It doesn't effect affiliate members.  I believe you still only need four core members in a sport to get an AQ (as long as you meet the minimum total).

The whole rule was entirely because Johns Hopkins women's tennis team refused to play in the Centennial Conference, trusting they'd get an at-large into the national tournament every year anyway.

Quote from: jknezek on August 28, 2026, 12:58:22 PM

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on August 28, 2026, 12:48:22 PMAsbury makes a lot of sense to me.  It's a decent geographic fit and I'm not sure the CCS will hold together anyway.

HCAC is down to 6 for football after this defection. It's enough, but no margin for error. Asbury doesn't help with that issue.

For smaller conferences these days, I think beggars can't be choosers.  Get the teams in, figure out the AQs later.  This is the UEC model, right?

There are always SLIAC football teams to grab if you get desperate.

Asbury makes a lot of sense to me.  It's a decent geographic fit and I'm not sure the CCS will hold together anyway.

I don't really care how it works out.  I think fewer and fewer students are working on a four year model with each passing year, so keeping everything tied to that doesn't make a ton of sense.

At the same time, I'd be pretty sad if there's no pathway for nontraditional students to play sports.  When I was in college, we had a 28 year old freshman playing for the basketball team.  He was a local guy who'd just never gone to college for whatever reason.  The Coach found him somewhere, offered him a spot.  He commuted, but was on campus all the time, got involved in student life, played four years, and earned a degree he'd not otherwise have had.

I think those stories are generally pretty unique to d3 and I'd hope they'd provide ways for that kind of thing to be preserved.