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FEBRUARY 3, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH

News and notes on the largest and best Division in the NCAA. #whyD3
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👋 Hello, February. Damn you Phil and your six more weeks of winter.

Headlines
📜 Tufts Releases Report on Lax Training Workout
🏒 Albertus Magnus Ends Hobart Record Unbeaten Streak
🏛️ NCAA Settles Lawsuit With States Over NIL Rules For Recruits
🐋 A Whale of An Experience
↔️ Comings and Goings
🎦 Plays of the Weekend

📆 What’s Happening Today. The DIII Championships Committee begins a two-day virtual meeting Monday.

🥍 Get Ready For Lacrosse Season. Our D3Lacrosse newsletter and website is live. In today’s edition, take a look at news from the CCIW, NEWMAC and OAC.

📰 Help Support Our Work. Subscribe to D3Playbook for the month of February or for the spring semester. We appreciate your support.

TOP STORY
1. Navy SEAL Who Led Workout That Hospitalized Tufts Players Lacked Expertise, Report Says

by Patrick Whittle, New York Times

“A third-party Navy SEAL instructor who led a strenuous training session that led to the hospitalization of lacrosse players at Tufts University appeared to lack credentials to supervise group exercise, and the university should enact stricter procedures for workouts, according to an independent review released Friday.

The Tufts men's lacrosse team and two other students participated in the workout led by a recent graduate of the Boston-area university who was a former lacrosse team equipment manager and current Navy SEAL, the review noted. The September 2024 workout was “unusually intense,” and resulted in 24 of the 61 participants developing rhabdomyolysis, a serious and uncommon muscle injury, it stated.

Nine of the students had to be hospitalized, according to the review, which was prepared by sports medicine consultant Rod Walters and attorney Randy Aliment. The review states that the Navy SEAL's lack of proper credentials and Tufts’ lack of a plan for transportation of students to hospitals led to a dangerous scenario that could have been avoided.

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» Situational Awareness. “Students who participated in the workout were not informed of the exercises or amounts of repetitions they would be required to perform, the review states. Some accounts of the workout said students “performed about 250 burpees and other exercises over the approximately 75-minute workout,” and students who struggled with it were taken out to lower their heart rates with slower exercises, it states.”

» What They’re Saying. “The Navy SEAL Workout did not follow principles of acclimatization that are necessary to avoid injury during training,” the report states. “The Navy SEAL Workout was not exercise-science based, physiologically sport-specific, or tailored to the individual sport of lacrosse.”

» Of Note. “All students have recovered and returned to normal activity, Tufts president Sunil Kumar and athletics director John Morris said in a statement.”

» Executive Summary of Report
» Read More

ICE HOCKEY (M)
2. Albertus Magnus Ends Hobart Streak

Zane Kindrachuk scored two minutes into overtime to lift Albertus Magnus past top-ranked Hobart, 3-2, ending the Statesmen’s NCAA-record 42-game unbeaten streak.

Hobart had not lost since Nov. 11, 2023 and had won 31 consecutive matches.

Chace Hale made 45 saves for the Falcons, who dropped a 4-2 decision to the Statesmen the following night.

» In the Midwest. #3 Aurora (18-3) took two on home ice from #4 Trine (16-4-1). The Spartans scored three times in the third period to win, 6-3, on Friday night, and Landry Schmuck’s third-period tally gave AU a 4-3 win on Saturday.

» Continue Reading

NEWS
3. NCAA Settles Lawsuit With States Over NIL Rules For Recruits

Associated Press

“The NCAA has settled the lawsuit with the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia and other states over its rules prohibiting name, image and likeness compensation for recruits.

Notice that a settlement has been reached in principle with a term sheet signed was filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, in Greeneville. A status report had been due Friday. The settlement will be finalized along with a request for a permanent injunction by March 17, according to the filing.”

» Court Awareness. “This settles the antitrust lawsuit filed exactly a year ago by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia challenging the NCAA's ban on the use of name, image and likeness compensation in the recruitment of college athletes. That lawsuit was a response to the NCAA's investigation of University of Tennessee athletics for potential recruiting infractions.”

» Why It Matters. “U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker issued a preliminary injunction last February that undercut what had been a fundamental principle of the NCAA's model of amateurism for decades: Third parties cannot pay recruits to attend a particular school. Corker's injunction barred the organization from enforcing its rules prohibiting name, image and likeness compensation for recruits by granting a preliminary injunction demanded by the states of Tennessee and Virginia.”

» Worth Noting. “It was another blow to the NCAA's ability to govern college sports and more than 500,000 athletes.”

» Read More

STUDENTS
4. A Whale of An Experience

courtesy of St. Olaf

“At St. Olaf College, student athletes start their day before the sun is up with biweekly strength training. For Sophia Kormann ’25, a current senior on the women’s basketball team, early morning weightlifting was more than just preparation for the upcoming game — it helped her get a job researching gray whales in Oregon.

Last summer, Kormann joined a decade-long research project studying gray whale foraging ecology with Oregon State University as part of the Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Her days would start at 5:30 a.m. in a kayak, where she took water samples at various sites along the Port Orford waterways. Back in the laboratory, the team filtered out captured prey species from the water samples to be analyzed microscopically. When she wasn’t in a kayak, Kormann visited a cliff site to monitor an instrument used to map the movement of gray whales in the water below.”

» Court Awareness. “Back on campus, Kormann studies biology with concentrations in statistics and data analysis and public health. Her academic excellence has been noted by the Athletics Department with her induction into Chi Alpha Sigma, a nonprofit organization that recognizes college student-athletes who excel both on and off the court who maintain a grade point average of 3.4 or higher on a 4-point scale. She credits her time playing on the women’s basketball team for her ability to excel in the fast-paced research environment.”

» Quotable. “The skills you gain as an athlete are applicable to all different types of work,” Kormann says. “My off season training can look like kayaking every day. During the interview, they asked what experience I have with getting up early and doing a full day of work. The experience of being an athlete here — where we’re waking up at 6 a.m. for lifts and working within a team — is a type of commitment that was part of what helped me get this experience.”

» Go Deeper

NEWS YOU CAN USE
5. Lightning Round ⚡️ 

🏀 Basketball (W). St. Joseph’s (L.I.) set a NCAA all-divisions record, taking 85 three-point field goal attempts in its 73-26 victory over Old Westbury. The Golden Eagles made 21 triples and was just 5 of 16 from inside the arc.

🏊️ Swimming. The Baruch men and the Hunter women extended their streaks in winning the CUNYAC championships on Sunday. The Bearcats won their seventh straight men’s title, while the Hawks came from behind to win their fifth consecutive women’s crown.

💰️ Endowment. “Babson College graduate, entrepreneur, executive and former men's ice hockey player Greg Boxer '07 is providing a transformative gift to endow the program's head coach position.”

🏈 Football. Eleven football players have formed the NESCAC Football Players Association. Their goal is to petition the conference and its presidents to allow NCAA postseason play in football beginning with the 2025 season.

TRANSACTIONS
6. Comings and Goings

ALVERNIA - Alexis Schwenk named head women’s bowling coach
CEDAR CREST - Susana Martinez named head swimming coach
NEW ENGLAND VOLLEYBALL CONFERENCE - Announced addition of Curry as a member beginning in 2026
WITTENBERG - Brian McGee resigned as head baseball coach. Mitchell Griffiths named interim head coach

HIGHLIGHTS
7. Plays of the Weekend 

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