Quote from: AndrewB on June 23, 2026, 06:22:13 PMI don't have any social media accounts.  But when I typed in "Kyle Haas football", it showed part of his X account.  It thanks his UW-L teammates and staff, but also said he was entering the transfer portal. Is this true, or is this old and not applicable anymore?

I think you might have misread it. Another La Crosse QB, Joe Cheatham, entered the portal. Haas re-posted it with a very kind "endorsement" of the kid. Hass is all about UW-L. He isn't going anywhere.

With the departure of Ray Cuevas, 2026-2027 could be a tough year for the polar bears. Losing Cuevas definitely hurts but the offense was almost too reliant on Cuevas and his ability to create his own shot. As an outsider, the Polar bears offense seems to rely on isolation play more than any other team in the CAC and I can't say the results of this have paid off for the bears. 

The Polar bears haven't gone above .500 in conference play since 2014-15. The Alex Lloyd regime change has certainly been a breath of fresh air and the recruiting seems to be a strong point for the bears (though I don't think you can count on getting a Ray Cuevas caliber talent every year and talent retention remains a struggle... what happened to Natrell Allen???) 

I expect big things from rising Sophomore Mason Dawkins who has impressed with his defensive prowess and ELITE athleticism. A sizeable jump in his jumpshooting ability could put Dawkins in serious consideration for player of the year. I remain optimistic that the offense will look different (better) next year and that we will see a Bowdoin team without major injuries for the first time in what feels like forever.

Way too early 2026-2027 Record Prediction: 13-12 overall (4-6 in conference play with wins over Colby, Bates, Conn, and Hamilton)

Right, Masters degrees can be shockingly cheap to administer. The lower the rigor, the greater the adjuncts, the better.

Are you sure about that?  I see your point, but tons of schools are adding graduate courses.  Schools that were strictly undergraduate 20 years ago when I was in high school and looking around, now shock me when I see how many graduate programs they have. I'm sure there are a lot of online classes, but graduate nonetheless.

I live in Virginia, so here are some examples in the region: Roanoke, Shenandoah, Averett (seemingly online), Bridgewater, E&H, Guilford, Methodist (now has a medical school), Greensboro, Lynchburg, Piedmont, Pfeiffer--given a few more minutes I can find more.

Let's take Guilford as an example, first.  The Guilford MBA is a 12-month program, tuition is $19,800.  When prompted to go to the "Financial Aid" page, it has an overview of the unsubsidized federal loans--no mention of scholarships. Another avenue for funding is tuition reimbursement as a benefit from employers.  Schools are getting wise to that and adding these programs.  Can't say I fault them, especially if you have the same faculty and you know beforehand the money is coming in.

Here's probably a better example: Roanoke, which has two MBA options. 4+1, and online 2-year self-paced.  Not  a terrible idea.

I'm not saying it's a good idea for every small colleges to rush to do this, but faced with the numbers issues they have to do something.

 

Quote from: MCScots2013 on June 23, 2026, 05:00:47 PMInteresting possibilities if D3 adopted the same 5/5 model:
1. as you mentioned, an increase of good D3 talent transferring to D1 and D2 schools for a graduate year.  Always fun to see that happen. Talent is talent!
2. more undergraduate schools will start graduate programs, or
3. schools with very small graduate enrollment will grow offerings to keep from "passing off" a student to another school for the 5th year.

I think it's extremely unlikely that the vast majority of D3 schools would consider #2 or #3 to be sound policies right now, given demographic challenges and the current economic climate of higher education. Masters-level graduate programs bring in only a fraction of the amount of tuition income that undergraduate programs do, unless you plan to wholesale your school's masters programs (i.e., convert them to online format and then admit remote students by the trainload, a la Liberty and Grand Canyon). This is likely going to be an era of retrenchment in U.S. higher education, not an era of expansion, with lots of schools fighting to stay healthy and lots of others just fighting to survive. And, besides, D3 schools don't prioritize the interests of athletics over the interests of the school's academic aspects in the tail-wags-the-dog fashion of D1. For that reason as well, the idea of D3 following D1 into a five-years-of-eligibility model seems unlikely, unless someone can make an effective argument that five years of athletic eligibility will lift five-year graduation rates above where they stand now under D3's current eligibility rules.

George Fox

I'm not sure whether it is the wonky calendar this year because Labor Day is later in September and there is less preseason time, but I'm seeing some schools reduce their non-conference schedules.  George Fox has scheduled two scrimmages and then only two non-conference games, compared with four last season.  They are traveling this year, however, which may account for the reduction, although they traveled to Boston two years ago to play Emmanuel and Emerson and still played two more non-conference games at home.  This year, they are going down to SoCal to play at La Verne and Cal Tech.  This is the second time in three years they have played at La Verne without La Verne returning the favor.  George Fox did win that game, though, so they may like playing there.  In NWC play, the last 9 games of their season will be played in Oregon.  If they come out of the first half of the NWC season in the upper half of the standings (admittedly a long shot that was 3-8-5 in the NWC last season and loses most of its regular starters), that could be a big advantage to have gotten major travel games out of the way already.

Christopher Newport

CNU's schedule is always fun because it is basically entirely non-conference games. Although they play most of their C2C conference opponents during the regular season, the conference technically only has a conference tournament in which games count for NCAA tournament bid purposes.  This year, they drop Merchant Marines, Redlands, Trinity, and Hardin-Simmons in favor of Moravian, Kean, Mount Union, @Montclair State, and @Methodist.  They also continue to play Dickinson and Washington & Lee, as well as C2C foe Mary Washington.

In the original message you had IWU as A+. The cushion makes sense with more money and less students. I was comparing them to Wheaton since they both were listed as A+ and was like their finances don't seem to compare.

Quote from: TUAngola on June 24, 2026, 06:09:57 PMNo schedule posted yet for Trine MBB in '26-'27 yet, but we do have news that they will be heading to Vegas for one of the Division III in-season Tournaments.

Teams set to compete in the 2026 NABC Division III Tournament – Las Vegas include: Chicago, Elmhurst, Emory, Keene State, Randolph-Macon, Redlands, Trine and Wabash.

2026 NABC Division III Tournament – Las Vegas presented by D3hoops.com!

5 for 5 would be intriguing for CWRU, simply because in recent years, many top jock recruits have been "graduate" students with eligibility remaining.  This might create a larger such pool of potential jock recruits.

IWU got an A- grade, not an A+. Again, Forbes model is quantitative, not subjective. Forbes' 2026 College Financial Grades use roughly ten weighted balance-sheet and operating metrics. Per their own methodology summary: 
-a college's ability to cover debt,
-ability to operate on reserve funds,
-change in net assets,
-endowment per student,
-enrollment growth,
-instruction expenses per student,
-net tuition revenue per student,
-reliance on tuition revenue,
-unrestricted net assets, and
-coverage of educational expenses by tuition, donations and investment revenue.

Operating margin is only one of these criteria. IWU actually moved up from a B previously to an A-. IWU's endowment is 2.5x the size of Carroll and their enrollment is about a third. So IWU has a bigger cushion and less reliance on tuition for income (because they have wealthy and generous alums who contribute) which is likely the reason the grades are different.

Again, I would expect Carroll to trend higher if they stay on the path they are on.