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NESCAC Football and the NCAAs
The players say their No. 1 issue is fairness
Steve Ulrich
February 17, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
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FEBRUARY 17, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH
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Headlines
🏈 NESCAC Football and the NCAAs
💰️ Endowments, Part III
🏊️ Kings, Queens of the Pool
🏈 Empire 8 Adds Flag Football
🤼♂️ Mat Champions
🗓️ What’s Happening. The DIII Interpretations and Legislation Committee meets virtually on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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TOP STORY
1. NESCAC Football and the NCAAs
Vaughn Seelicke, Tufts
by Jimmy Golen, Associated Press
“Since arriving at Tufts, junior Vaughn Seelicke has seen the Jumbos win Division III national championships in men’s lacrosse and women’s rowing. The men’s soccer team at the elite academic school just north of Boston has qualified for each of the last 10 NCAA tournaments, and won the title four times.
Seelicke and his fellow football players have never had the chance.
As a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, the Jumbos can't compete in the Division III football playoffs — the only varsity teams on campus that can't play for a national championship. After watching the Ivy League end its century-old postseason football ban, a group of NESCAC players are hoping to follow its lead.”
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» Field Awareness. “An 11-school consortium that is pretty much what its name says — small New England colleges, plus Hamilton in upstate New York — NESCAC boasts some of the top academic institutions in the country. (Williams and Amherst are Nos. 1 and 2 on the U.S. News and World Report small liberal arts colleges rankings.). So when they say they don’t want football to interfere with their students’ schoolwork, they actually mean it.”
» What They’re Saying. “The Ivy League and the NESCAC, especially for football — the rules have always been the same,” said Seelicke, a placekicker from Little Rock, Arkansas. “This has been something that’s been talked about in NESCAC for a long time. But with the Ivy League changing their rules, there’s been a groundswell of support in the NESCAC.”
» Why It Matters. “The players say their No. 1 issue is fairness: Every other team on campus can participate in its playoffs and compete for a championship except football. Ivy League football coaches made the same argument for years before their conference dropped its 100-year-old postseason ban in December.”
FINANCES
2. Endowments, Part III
College of Wooster
by NACUBO
“Data from the 2024 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments® (NCSE) show that the 658 U.S. colleges and universities and affiliated foundations participating in the Study continue to rely on their endowments to support student financial aid, faculty and staff salaries, operating budgets, and more.
The 658 institutions in this year’s study represented a total of $873.7 billion in endowment assets. The median endowment was $243 million, and nearly 30 percent of study participants had endowments that were $100 million or less."
Endowments 61-70
| Endowments 71-80
| Endowments 81-90
|
» American Rivers. Dubuque ($287K), Luther ($206K), Buena Vista ($159K)
» CCIW. Wheaton ($223K), Elmhurst ($178K),
» Empire 8. Alfred ($172K), St. John Fisher ($151K), Nazareth ($94K), Houghton ($81K)
» Landmark. Catholic ($388K), Scranton ($324K), Goucher ($293K), Susquehanna ($223K), Lycoming ($198K), Elizabethtown ($107K)
» Middle Atlantic. York ($182K), Messiah ($132K), DeSales ($119K), Widener ($117K), Fairleigh Dickinson ($100K), Lebanon Valley ($98K), Misericordia ($74K), Arcadia ($66K)
» Michigan. Saint Mary’s ($311K), Hope ($307K), Kalamazoo ($304K), Calvin ($286K)
» NEWMAC. Wellesley ($3.01B), Smith $2.56B), Mount Holyoke ($1.10B), Babson ($740K), WPI ($683K), Clark ($487K), Wheaton ($273K)
» Presidents. Allegheny ($271K), Grove City ($208K), Westminster ($141K)
SWIMMING
3. Kings, Queens of the Pool
Colorado College
Fourteen conferences crowned champions in the first full weekend of championship swimming in DIII.
Atlantic East | Marymount (M) | St. Mary’s (W)
HCAC | Rose-Hulman (M) | Franklin (W)
Landmark | Catholic (M) | Scranton (W)
Little East | Eastern Connecticut (M) | Keene State (W)
MAC | Stevens (M) | Stevens (W)
NCAC | Denison (M) | Kenyon (W)
NESCAC (W) | Williams
NJAC | TCNJ (M) | Salisbury (W)
NWC | Whitworth (M) | Whitworth (W)
ODAC | Washington and Lee (M/W)
OAC | John Carroll (M/W)
SAA | Rhodes (M) | Centre (W)
SCAC | Colorado College (M) | Trinity (W)
FLAG FOOTBALL
4. Empire 8 Adds Women’s Flag Football in 2025-26; Partners with NFL and RCX Sports
“The Empire 8 is excited to announce the addition of women’s flag football as a conference-sponsored championship sport for the 2025-26 season in collaboration with the National Football League (NFL) and RCX Sports, the official operator of NFL Flag.
Empire 8 becomes the third Division III conference to announce its sponsorship of women’s flag football and the fifth among all NCAA divisions. The league currently will include SUNY Brockport, Elmira College, Hartwick College, SUNY Geneseo, and Russell Sage College in 25-26. Inaugural competition will take place in the spring of 2026 with a championship to be awarded along with individual honors and all-conference selections.”
» Worth Noting. “Local NFL clubs, the Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, and New York Jets, are also supportive of the growth of collegiate women’s flag in the Empire 8/New York State footprint.”
» What They’re Saying. “The Buffalo Bills have been working for years to provide grant support, donate equipment and create a pathway for girls to participate in flag football representing their middle schools and high schools throughout Western and Central New York,” said Preston Teague, Buffalo Bills Sr. Director of Youth Football and Programs. “The Empire 8 Conference’s launch of Women’s Flag Football as a championship sport will provide an amazing opportunity for current and future players to continue their careers.”
WRESTLING
5. Kings of the Mat
Seven DIII conferences crowned team champions at conference meets last weekend.
Allegheny Mountain: Penn College
Centennial | Merchant Marine
CCIW | North Central
ODAC | Washington and Lee
Presidents | Washington & Jefferson
SLIAC | Ozarks
WIAC | La Crosse
NEWS YOU CAN USE
6. Lightning Round ⚡️
📜 House Settlement. “The NCAA clarified that D-II and D-III athletic departments that sponsor a D-I sport — which applies to several college hockey programs — can opt-in only for their D-I sport. The House requirements would only be applied to their D-I sport.”
🗞️ News. “Late Friday night, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) put colleges on notice: stamp out all race-conscious policies and programming immediately or risk losing federal funding.”
TRANSACTIONS
7. Comings and Goings
BEREA - Xavier Tomlin named head men’s soccer coach
MISERICORDIA - Steve Cushing named head football coach
OHIO WESLEYAN - Matt Weiss named head soccer coach
SUNY DELHI - Samantha Schmidt named head women’s soccer coach
UC SANTA CRUZ - Chad Koenegstein named head women’s volleyball coach
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