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MARCH 3, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH

News and notes on the largest and best Division in the NCAA. #whyD3
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🏆️ Championship Monday. Congrats to the medal winners and the trophy-holders.

Headlines
🏀 Hoop Recap
🏃 Track and Field Roundup
🤼‍♂️ Regional Wrestling Review
💰️ Funding the NCAA Transgender Ban Lawsuits

🗓️ What’s Happening Today. The NCAA DIII Administrative Committee meets in Indianapolis.

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TOP STORY
1. Hoops! There It Is

Conference championship weekend is over in men’s and women’s basketball. Here are your automatic qualifiers to the 2025 NCAA DIII tournament.

» Tournament Trackers. Men | Women
» Bracket Reveal. Men at noon ET | Women at 2:30 ET

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TRACK AND FIELD
2. Conference Championship Weekend

Two NCAA records fell to highlight conference championship weekend around DIII. UW-La Crosse’s Sam Blaskowski set a national mark in the 60-meter dash in the prelims at the WIAC meet, breaking the tape in 6.60. John Carroll’s Basheer Alramahi established a new standard in the 500-meter dash at the OAC championships in 1:02.64.

Here are the conference champion and links to the results.

WRESTLING (M)
3. Regional Recap

Team and individual champions were crowned at the NCAA DIII Wrestling Regionals last weekend. Here are the top three teams from each of the seven regions.

Region I. Johnson & Wales (192.5), Coast Guard (155.0), Castleton (151.5)
Region II. Stevens (153.0), Ithaca (115.5), Wilkes (112.0)
Region III. TCNJ (174.5), Alvernia (137.5), Messiah (128.5)
Region IV. Baldwin Wallace (180.0), Roanoke (154.5), Ohio Northern (150.5)
Region V. North Central (173.0), UW-Whitewater (142.5), Millikin (118.5)
Region VI. Wartburg (169.0), Loras (162.5), Coe (141.0)
Region VII. UW-La Crosse (192.5), Augsburg (186.0), UW-Eau Claire (144.5)

» Selection Release. The NCAA will announce the participants for the 2025 DIII championship at 6 p.m. ET.

NEWS
4. One Group Is Funding the NCAA Transgender Ban Lawsuits

by Amanda Christovich, Front Office Sports

“Throughout the past year, the NCAA, conferences, and schools have been hit with three lawsuits attempting to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s college sports. All target rare-but-high-profile instances of transgender athletes competing at the Division I NCAA level.

All three are being funded by the same organization: the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), a little-known nonprofit that describes itself as “not political.”

» Background. “ICONS’s cofounders, Marshi Smith and Kim Jones, have no professional political advocacy or media background, unlike many other activists working on the issue of transgender sports participation. The group has never reported more than six figures in revenue: In 2022, ICONS reported just about $100,000 in total revenues, according to publicly available nonprofit tax forms reviewed by Front Office Sports. The following year, the organization had jumped to $400,000. (Smith did not disclose how much the organization is earning now, asserting almost all donations are grassroots.)”

» Why It Matters. “Over the summer, ICONS partnered with several other organizations to “Take Back Title IX,” a multicity bus tour with rallies protesting the participation of trans athletes in women’s sports. The group entered a coalition called “Our Bodies, Our Sports,” which includes organizations whose advocacy spans beyond sports issues. Concerned Women for America, for example, “protects and promotes Biblical values and Constitutional principles through prayer, education, and advocacy,” according to its website. Among its agenda items are reversing the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage and banning abortion without exception.”

» What They’re Saying. “It’s an anti-trans piece of legislation that does nothing to address the real struggles that girls face,” she says. “The real issues that girls and women in sport face are institutions … that continue to discriminate against women athletes, the schools that fail to provide equal resources, and the policymakers who ignore the enforcement of Title IX.” - Stef Strack, founder, Voice in Sport

» Go Deeper

NEWS YOU CAN USE
5. Lightning Round ⚡️ 

🗞️ News. “The University of Findlay won’t move forward with its planned merger with Bluffton University after a Wednesday vote by Findlay’s board. Findlay is terminating its memorandum of understanding with Bluffton, signed last March, according to a news release.”

🗞️ News. “NCAA revenue jumped to a record $1.38 billion in fiscal 2024, according to a copy of the organization’s most recent audited financial statement, but was offset by a tenfold increase in its liabilities.” | Complete Audit

🗞️ News. “Keystone College has received notification from its accreditor, Middle States Commission on Higher Education, that the school remains accredited. That allows the school to remain open, though financial challenges remain and an ownership change is pending.”

🏒 Ice Hockey (W). Augsburg defeated Saint Mary’s, 3-2, in a MIAC semifinal that lasted four overtimes, 128:56 of playing time and 4 hours and 50 minutes total. Aunna Schulte finally ended it 8:06 into the fourth OT period. It was the longest game in DIII women’s ice hockey history. Franklin Pierce and Saint Anselm played a five-OT game that lasted 147:24 in 2020.

🎾 Tennis (W). Chicago downed Claremont-M-S, 4-1, to capture the ITA DIII National Women’s Indoor team title. The Maroons took two of the three doubles matches and earned the singles points at Nos. 1-2-4 for the championship.

TRANSACTIONS
6. Comings and Goings

BETHANY - Announced addition of women’s flag football as a club sport with hopes of transitioning to varsity in 2026-27
BLUFFTON - Jane Wood resigned as president. J. Alexander Sider named acting president
COLBY-SAWYER - Dean McCurdy named president
HENDRIX - David Castillo named head men’s soccer coach

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