What athletic directors, coaches, athletic administrators are reading daily.
As well as college presidents and deans
Send tips to [email protected] and/or via DM.

» 🎉 Congratulations to those teams that won a conference championship. You come back to campus to celebrate titles, not NCAA at-large bids.

» Want To Receive D3Playbook Every Day? Read what the decision-makers in DIII athletics are reading. Go to D3Playbook.com/subscribe for more.

A MESSAGE FROM D3PLAYBOOK

A reminder that you will need a premium subscription to be able to continue reading D3Playbook every Tuesday-Friday. Our annual subscription rate is just $79/year - less than 35 cents per edition - while you can try us out for a month at $8. Upgrade today.

» Worth Noting: For those who have asked about multiple subscriptions for an institution or conference, we have a solution. Email us.

TOP STORY
1. Federal Judge’s Ruling Puts Billions At Stake For NCAA

by Steve Berkowitz, USA Today

“A federal judge on Friday night granted class-action status in the damages portion of a lawsuit against the NCAA and major-college athletics conferences that could result in a multi-billion-dollar award to former and current college athletes.

The suit challenges the association’s remaining rules regarding athletes’ ability to make money from their names, images and likenesses and seeks damages based on the share of television-rights money and the social media earnings it claims athletes would have received if the NCAA’s previous limits on name-image-and-likeness (NIL) compensation had not existed.

Attorneys for the NCAA and the conferences had written in legal filings that the athletes are seeking more than $1.4 billion. The filings did not specify whether that figure takes into account the tripling of damages awards that occurs in successful antitrust cases. If it does not, then more than $4.2 billion could be at stake in the case.”

» Court Awareness. “Specifically, the suit claims that football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball players at schools in the Power Five conferences are entitled to damages related to the use of their NIL’s during telecasts of games and that athletes in any sport at a Power Five school are entitled to damages related to social media earnings.”

» Who Is Involved? “Citing an economic expert for the plaintiffs, Friday night's ruling said nearly 6,300 football and men's basketball players would be entitled to damages money, as would more than 850 women's basketball players. Nearly 7,400 athletes in other sports also would be covered, although not for money related to TV broadcast-rights revenue.”

» What’s Next. A jury trial is currently set yo begin in January 2025.

» Continue Reading

SOCCER (M)
2. Next Stop: NCAAs

Forty-one teams have punched their ticket for the NCAA DIII women’s soccer championship with 23 spots remaining to be filled.

The selection show airs on NCAA.com at 2 p.m. ET today.

Four of the top-ranked teams in the latest DIII regional rankings will wait to hear if their names are called, as they were ousted - Connecticut College (Region I), Babson (Region II), Kenyon (Region VII) and Colorado College (Region X). It wasn’t much better for the No. 2’s, as seven will also anxiously wait.

Conference Champions (by Region)

I: GNAC (Johnson & Wales), LEC (W. Connecticut), NAC (SUNY Poly), NESCAC (Amherst)
II: CCC (W. New England), MASCAC (Bridgewater State), NEWMAC (WPI)
III: E8 (Elmira), LL (Hobart), SKY (Manhattanville), SUNYAC (Cortland)
IV: CUNYAC (Baruch), MACF (Stevens), NJAC (Montclair State), UEC (St. Mary’s, Md.)
V: AEC (Neumann), CC (Johns Hopkins), LAND (Catholic), MACC (Messiah)
VI: CCS* (Covenant), ODAC (Lynchburg), SAA (Oglethorpe), USA South (Brevard)
VII: AMCC (Alfred State), HCAC (Rose-Hulman), NCAC (Denison), OAC (Ohio Northern), PAC (Geneva)
VIII: CCIW (Illinois Wesleyan), MIAA (Calvin), NACC (Dominican), SLIAC (Greenville)
IX: ARC (Wartburg), MWC (Lake Forest), MIAC (St. Olaf), UMAC (UW-Superior)
X: ASC (Texas-Dallas), NWC (Pacific Lutheran), SCAC (St. Thomas), SCIAC (Occidental)
Multi: C2C (Mary Washington), UAA (Emory)

*indicates Pool B conference

SOCCER (W)
3. Getting Ready to Dance

Forty-two teams have punched their ticket for the NCAA DIII women’s soccer championship with 22 spots remaining to be filled.

The selection show airs on NCAA.com at 1:30 p.m. ET today.

The weekend’s biggest surprises came in the ASC final, as Hardin-Simmons bested Mary Hardin-Baylor, the top-ranked team in Region X; the NESCAC semis as Bowdoin ousted Williams, ranked second in Region I, in penalties; and the NJAC final as TCNJ took down Rowan, the No. 2 team in Region IV.

Conference Champions (by Region)

I: GNAC (Johnson & Wales), LEC (Southern Maine), NAC (Maine Maritime), NESCAC (Amherst)
II: CCC (Endicott), MASCAC (Westfield State), NEWMAC (MIT)
III: E8 (Nazareth), LL (William Smith), SKY (Mount St. Vincent), SUNYAC (Cortland)
IV: CUNYAC (CCNY), MACF (Misericordia), NJAC (TCNJ), UEC (Penn State Berks)
V: AEC (Marymount), CC (Johns Hopkins), LAND (Scranton), MACC (Messiah)
VI: CCS* (Maryville), ODAC (Virginia Wesleyan), SAA (Sewanee), USA South (Southern Virginia)
VII: AMCC (Penn State Behrend), HCAC (Hanover), NCAC (Denison), OAC (John Carroll), PAC (Grove City)
VIII: CCIW (North Central), MIAA (Calvin), NACC (MSOE), SLIAC (Spalding)
IX: ARC (Loras), MWC (Lake Forest), MIAC (St. Catherine), UMAC (UW-Superior), WIAC (UW-La Crosse)
X: ASC (Hardin-Simmons), NWC (Pacific Lutheran), SCAC (Trinity), SCIAC (Pomona-Pitzer)
Multi: C2C (Christopher Newport), UAA (Washington U.)

*indicates Pool B conference

FIELD HOCKEY
4. Middlebury Tops 26-Team Field

The 26-team field is set for the 2023 NCAA DIII field hockey championship, highlighted by top-ranked Middlebury.

The Panthers will look for their sixth consecutive championship over the next two weeks. The opening round is Wednesday, while the second and third rounds are scheduled for Nov. 11-12. The semifinals and final will take place at Christopher Newport the following weekend.

Eighteen teams received automatic berths to the field as Pool A selections. Christopher Newport earned the Pool B slot, while Bates, Ithaca, Kean, Salisbury, Tufts, Williams, York garnered at-large berths.

Conference Champions (by Region)

I: CCC (Endicott), GNAC (Johnson & Wales), NEWMAC (Babson)
II: LEC (Southern Maine), MASCAC (Worcester State), NAC* (Husson), NESCAC (Middlebury)
III: E8 (Hartwick), LL (William Smith), SUNYAC (Cortland)
IV: AEC (St. Mary’s, Md.), MACF (Stevens), NJAC (Rowan), UEC (Keystone)
V: CC (Johns Hopkins), LAND (Susquehanna), MACC (Messiah)
VI: C2C* (Christopher Newport), NCAC (Denison), ODAC (Lynchburg), SAA* (Rhodes)

*indicates Pool B conference

» First-Round Matches. St. Mary’s, Md. at Kean; Keystone at Lynchburg; Denison at York, Pa.; Ithaca at Endicott; Worcester State at Williams; Johnson and Wales at Bates; Southern Maine at Tufts; Hartwick at Rowan; Susquehanna at William Smith; Stevens at Cortland.

» Complete Bracket

FOOTBALL
5. The Penultimate Weekend

One week left in the regular season for DIII football and things are beginning to shake out. Fourteen teams have claimed berths in the 32-team field with another 13 conference championships at stake. Five at-large slots are available for the rest of the country with the field to be announced next weekend.

1. North Central, Ill. (25), 9-0

2. Mount Union, 9-0

3. Wartburg, 10-0

4. UW-La Crosse, 8-1

5. UW-Whitewater, 8-1

6. Trinity, Texas, 8-1

7. Johns Hopkins, 9-0

8. Linfield, 8-0

9. Randolph-Macon, 9-0

10. Susquehanna, 9-0

» Who’s Clinched. ARC (Wartburg), ASC (Hardin-Simmons), CC (Johns Hopkins), CCC (Endicott), E8 (Cortland), LL (Ithaca), MAC (Delaware Valley), MIAA (Alma), NEWMAC (Springfield), OAC (Mount Union), ODAC (Randolph-Macon), PAC (Grove City), SAA (Trinity), WIAC (La Crosse).

» Games to Watch. #1 North Central (9-0) v. Augustana (8-1); #8 Linfield (8-0) v. Whitworth (8-0); #13 Aurora (9-0) v. Concordia, Wis. (7-2); Mount St. Joseph (8-1) v. Rose-Hulman (7-2); DePauw (9-0) vs. Wabash (7-2); Bethel (7-2) v. Gustavus Adolphus (6-3); Minnesota-Morris (6-3) v. Northwestern (6-3).

» Notable. Basketball season starts this week, but not if you look at some of the weekend scores - Muskingum 64, Wilmington 63; Rose-Hulman 78, Defiance 54. Illinois College QB Destin Chance threw for 546 yards with eight TD passes in a 76-34 win against Cornell College. Loras QB Evan England accounted for 498 yards and eight TDs, including five to Da’Mani Brown - in an 82-16 win vs. Simpson. Waynesburg RB Zayne Cawley ran for 336 yards and four TDs in a 35-26 win vs. Bethany. Franklin & Marshall WR Gary Lewis caught five scoring passes in a 48-45 loss to Muhlenberg.

» Complete Poll

NEWS
6. Lightning Round

🗞 News. Nine Republican governors (Ark., Miss., Mo., Mont., Nev., Okla., Texas, S.D., Wyo.) sent a letter to the NCAA’s Committee of Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CMAS), urging the association to ban transgender athletes whose biological sex at birth was male from competing on collegiate women’s sports teams.

» 🏀 Basketball. More preseason conference favorites: SAA (W): Rhodes. (M) Berry. OAC (W): Ohio Northern. (M) John Carroll/Mount Union.

TRANSACTIONS
7. Comings and Goings

• BARD - Reed Williams named head cross country/track and field coach

• HARTFORD - Elizabeth Morrison named head women’s lacrosse coach

• KENYON - Stan Johnson named interim diving coach

• LINFIELD - Miles Davis will step down as president in early 2024

• SAGE - Matt Johnson named head women’s lacrosse coach

• WENTWORTH - Ciara Morley named head women’s lacrosse coach

📬 Thanks for starting your day with us. Tell your friends and subscribe today

Please invite your friends to sign up for D3Playbook

Copyright © 2023, D3Playbook.com All rights reserved