Future of Division III

[y_jack_lok]

Johns Hopkins layoffs.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/johns-hopkins-university-lays-off-over-100-employees-cites-federal-funding-cuts-2026-06-25/

[DagarmanSpartan]

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.

[Gregory Sager]

Interesting 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.

[MCScots2013]

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.