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REPORT OF THE NCAA III CHAMPIONSHIPS COMMITTEE JUNE 22, 2021, VIDEOCONFERENCE

ACTION ITEMS.

1. Legislative items.

• None.

2. Nonlegislative items.

• None.

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS.

1. Opening remarks and review of schedule and agenda. Division III Championships Committee Chair Kiki Jacobs welcomed committee members and reviewed the meeting schedule and key discussion items.

2. Recent committee reports. The committee reviewed and approved a combined report from its May 5, 7 and 12 electronic votes as presented.

3. Governance update. NCAA staff reviewed the following key items with the committee: (1) next steps following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Alston case; (2) update on student- athlete name, image and likeness concepts being considered by various groups within the NCAA membership; (3) national office staff support and NCAA website reorganization; (4) Division III budget update; (5) COVID-19 resources and resocialization guidelines; (6) Division III strategic-positioning platform; (7) Division III Football Concussion Task Force; (8) student-athlete enrollment/athletics participation waiver for the 2021-22 academic year; (9) Division III legislative proposals in the cycle for the 2022 NCAA Convention; (10) resources and best practices available to help prevent sexual violence; and (11) LGBTQ recognition awards.

4. Division III Management Council update. Holly Sheilley provided an update from the Management Council’s recent meetings.

5. Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee update. Jaeden Peterson, from the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, sitting in for Bridgett Finn who was unable to attend, provided an update on behalf of the Division III SAAC that included the group’s ongoing review of issues related to student-athlete name, image and likeness, as well as the NCAA gender equity study.

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6. Championships and alliances updates.

a. Spring sport championships review. The committee reviewed the spring sport championships and acknowledged the efforts within the membership to host and conduct preliminary-round competition at predetermined sites. While some operations were challenging given the extraordinary circumstances presented by the pandemic, the committee appreciated all the membership and national office staff did to successfully complete the championships and provide rewarding postseason experiences for student- athletes. The committee noted that any procedures that did not meet expectations – even though they may have been exacerbated by the fallout from the pandemic – should serve as learning opportunities for future hosts, site representatives and staff.

b. Transgender student-athlete participation. Staff updated the committee on state legislation prohibiting transgender participation and the impact on the state's ability to host NCAA events, including championships. Staff anticipates the NCAA Board of Governors will continue discussing the matter during its meeting this August. The Division III Championships Committee remains committed to assuring that Division III championships are conducted in inclusive and safe environments for all student-athletes.

c. Gender equity review. Staff updated the committee on the NCAA gender equity study in championships, and committee members began identifying key areas to explore more in depth during the committee’s September meeting.

7. Playing Rules Oversight Panel update. The committee reviewed reports from recent PROP meetings.

8. Championships budget items.

a. Current fiscal year budget-to-actuals. The committee reviewed budget-to-actuals regarding championships expenses through May 31 of the 2020-21 fiscal year.

b. 2021-24 budget cycle review. The committee reviewed the final 2021-24 championships- related budget items the Division III Strategic Planning and Finance Committee approved in April.

c. Budget priorities. The committee discussed priorities to be considered when weighing future championships budget requests. The committee historically has prioritized championships access (e.g., expansion, field size increases) in accordance with the division’s legislated access ratio as its top priority, followed by initiatives that enhance each championship and allow for aid to be given back to host institutions and participating teams (e.g., per diem and host honorariums). Committee members agreed these priorities remain relevant and noted several others (e.g., squad/travel party/bench size increases, officiating fees, selection criteria) – as well as the need to consider equity implications

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with any budget decision – merit prioritization. The committee agreed to discuss these priorities further during its September meeting and potentially rank them for future consideration and guidance.

9. Sport committee reports.

a. Women’s .

(1) Automatic qualification. The committee approved the following 44 conferences for automatic qualification to the 2022 NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship: Alleghany Mountain Collegiate Conference; American Southwest Conference; ; ; City University of Athletic Conference; Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference (year one grace period); College Conference of and ; Colonial State Athletic Conference; Commonwealth Coast Conference; Conference; Great Northeast Athletic Conference; Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference; Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; ; ; ; Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth; Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom; Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference; Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; ; Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; Collegiate Conference (year one grace period); New England Small College Athletic Conference; New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference; Athletic Conference; North Atlantic Conference; North Coast Athletic Conference; North Eastern Athletic Conference; Northern Athletics Conference; ; Athletic Conference; Old Dominion Athletic Conference; Presidents’ Athletic Conference; ; Southern Athletic Association; Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference; St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; State University of New York Athletic Conference; University Athletic Association; Upper Midwest Conference; USA South Athletic Conference; and Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

(2) Committee chair. The committee approved that Megan Wilson, associate director of athletics and senior woman administrator at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, serve as chair of the Division III Women’s Basketball Committee.

(3) Discussion of gender equity issues. The Championships Committee noted as information that the Division III Women’s Basketball Committee discussed issues regarding gender equity and how they affect Division III women’s basketball. The basketball committee expressed interest in exploring whether some of the registered trademarks currently used only for Division I basketball (i.e., March Madness, Final Four, Sweet Sixteen, and Elite Eight) could be used by any NCAA basketball championship.

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b. .

(1) Automatic qualification. The committee approved the following 16 conferences for automatic qualification to the 2021 NCAA Division III Field Hockey Championship: Centennial Conference; Colonial States Athletic Conference; Commonwealth Coast Conference; Empire 8; Great Northeast Athletic Conference; Landmark Conference; Liberty League; Little East Conference; Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth; Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom; New England Small College Athletic Conference; New England Women’s and Men’s Athletics Conference; New Jersey Athletic Conference; North Coast Athletic Conference; Old Dominion Athletic Conference; and State University of New York Athletic Conference.

(2) Committee chair. The committee approved that Jacqueline Demarco, head field hockey coach and Title IX and equity administrator at , serve as chair of the Division III Field Hockey Committee.

c. Men’s soccer.

(1) Automatic qualification. The committee approved the following 43 conferences for automatic qualification to the 2021 NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Championship: Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference; American Rivers Conference; American Southwest Conference; Atlantic East Conference; Coast to Coast Athletic Conference; Centennial Conference; City University of New York Athletic Conference; College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin; Colonial States Athletic Conference; Commonwealth Coast Conference; Empire 8; Great Northeast Athletic Conference; Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference; Landmark Conference; Liberty League; Little East Conference; Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference; Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth; Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom; Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association; Midwest Conference; Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; New England Collegiate Conference; New England Small College Athletic Conference; New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference; New Jersey Athletic Conference; North Atlantic Conference; North Coast Athletic Conference; North Eastern Athletic Conference; Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference; Northwest Conference; ; Old Dominion Athletic Conference; Presidents’ Athletic Conference; Skyline Conference; St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; Southern Athletic Association; Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference; State University of New York Athletic Conference; University Athletic Association; Upper Midwest Athletic Conference; USA South Athletic Conference..

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(2) Committee chair. The committee approved that Justin Newell, assistant athletics director at Kenyon College, be reappointed as chair of the Division III Men’s Soccer Committee.

d. Women’s soccer.

(1) Automatic qualification. The committee approved the following 44 conferences for automatic qualification to the 2021 NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Championship: Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference; American Rivers Conference; American Southwest Conference; Atlantic East Conference; Coast to Coast Athletic Conference; Centennial Conference; City University of New York Athletic Conference; College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin; Colonial States Athletic Conference; Commonwealth Coast Conference; Empire 8; Great Northeast Athletic Conference; Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference; Landmark Conference; Liberty League; Little East Conference; Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference; Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth; Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom; Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association; Midwest Conference; Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; New England Collegiate Conference; New England Small College Athletic Conference; New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference; New Jersey Athletic Conference; North Atlantic Conference; North Coast Athletic Conference; North Eastern Athletic Conference; Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference; Northwest Conference; Ohio Athletic Conference; Old Dominion Athletic Conference; Presidents’ Athletic Conference; Skyline Conference; St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; Southern Athletic Association; Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference; State University of New York Athletic Conference; University Athletic Association; Upper Midwest Athletic Conference; USA South Athletic Conference; Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletics Conference.

(2) Committee chair. The committee approved that Sean Sullivan, associate vice president and director of athletics at Catholic University, be reappointed as chair of the Division III Women’s Soccer Committee.

e. Men’s and women’s soccer.

• Championships date formulas. The Championships Committee noted as information that the NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Soccer Committees during their annual joint meeting continued discussing their previous proposal to move the selection date for the championship one week later to provide more opportunity to spread out the current regular- schedule and allow more recovery time during the year, while providing those programs that currently play fewer games to provide more recovery time to play additional games. The committees developed an approach

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to formalize the proposal before formally resubmitting it to the Championships Committee for consideration.

f. Men’s .

(1) Automatic qualification. The committee approved the following 10 conferences for automatic qualification to the 2022 NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Championship: Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, City University of New York Athletic Conference; Continental Volleyball Conference; Great Northeast Athletic Conference; Middle Atlantic Conferences; Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League; New England Collegiate Conference; Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference; Skyline Conference; United Volleyball Conference.

(2) Committee chair. The committee approved that Mike Zapolski, athletics director at Augustana College (Illinois), be reappointed as chair of the NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Committee.

(3) Regional alignment. The committee approved that the Division III men’s volleyball regions be adjusted from what was approved last year as follows:

• Place the Skyline Conference in Region 1 (from Region 2), and • Place Lancaster Bible College in Region 2 (from Region 1).

The Men’s Volleyball Committee proposed the adjustments to balance the four principles the Division III Commissioners Association used in its recommendations (geography, relative strength, equal numbers in each region and conference affiliation). The adjustments allow for 35 teams in Region 1, 36 teams in Region 2 and 41 teams in Region 3, as opposed to 28 teams in Region 1, 43 teams in Region 2 and 41 teams in Region 3.

(4) 2022 championship site. The Championships Committee took under advisement that the Men’s Volleyball Committee is concerned about the venue being proposed for the 2022 championship to be conducted in Canton, Ohio. Canton’s bid six years ago was for a state-of-the-art facility that is not yet completed, and the alternate facility Canton proposes is a high school facility, which the volleyball committee does not believe would offer a championship-caliber experience. The Championships Committee agreed and advised staff to explore alternative options for future consideration.

10. Championships topics for feedback.

a. / resolution. The revisited a resolution adopted at the 2020 NCAA Convention directing the Division III Baseball and Softball Committees to evaluate potential changes to the championship date formulas for those two sports to mitigate

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concerns regarding poor playing conditions due to inclement weather, missed class time due to rescheduled contests that then overlap with final exams or graduation ceremonies, and equity concerns between spring sport and fall sport student-athletes. In June 2020 the Championships Committee asked staff to survey other spring sports about their championship dates and if the same sentiments would cause any other spring sports to consider similar solutions. Due to all the issues that have had to be addressed since then because of the pandemic, that review has not yet happened, but the Championships Committee continues to support that approach as a way to move forward. Staff will update the group accordingly at a future meeting.

b. Regional alignment and rankings protocol. The committee reviewed a contemporary record of the regional realignment as a result of the Division III Commissioners Association recommendations and subsequent adjustments from sport committees, which also was shared with the commissioners last week during their summer meetings. The document reflects the 2020-21 conference composition and will be updated this summer for 2021-22. The Championships Committee is required to review regional alignment at least every five years, but also if any region’s membership expands such that it exceeds that of the current largest region or drops below that of the current smallest region. The realignment also resulted in new rankings protocols that require sport committees to rank 20 percent of teams per region. Those protocols go into effect September 1.

11. Atlantic East Conference waiver requests. The committee considered but tabled two waiver requests from the Atlantic East Conference, one pertaining to field hockey and one to soccer, and both coming as a result of Wesley College closing and affecting the conference’s ability to meet the seven-member sponsorship requirement for automatic qualification. The committee chose to table the requests until its August videoconference to allow staff to conduct additional research on how case precedent factors into these requests.

12. Sport committee appointments.

a. Term extensions. The committee approved one-year term extensions for the following:

(1) NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Committee – Johan Dulfer, head volleyball coach, , Liberty League; and Susan Hozak, associate athletics director/senior woman administrator/head volleyball coach, Saint Vincent College, Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

(2) NCAA Division III Committee – Scott Hoenecker, head wrestling coach, Williams College, New England Small College Athletic Conference.

b. New appointments. The committee approved the following appointments for sport and playing rules committees, effective September 1, 2021, unless otherwise noted:

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(1) NCAA Division III Field Hockey Committee – Region V: Victor Brady, head field hockey coach, , Centennial Conference.

(2) NCAA Division III Men’s Committee – Region IV: Peter Rosaschi, assistant athletics director/head lacrosse coach, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

(3) NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse Committee – Region III: Tucker Glass, assistant athletic director/head women's lacrosse coach, , Liberty League; Region IV: Janice Luck, director of athletics, Albright College, Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth.

(4) NCAA Division III Women’s Rowing Committee – Bethany Ellis, director of athletics, , New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference.

(5) NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Committee – Region I: Brianne Smithson, head women’s soccer coach, Bowdoin College, New England Small College Athletic Conference; Region IV: Jess Huda, assistant athletics director, King’s College (), Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom.

(6) NCAA Division III Softball Committee – Region II: Donna Koczajowski, associate athletics director/senior woman administrator, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference; Region III: Courtney Wormuth, associate athletics director/senior woman administrator, State University of New York at Cortland, State University of New York Athletic Conference; Region V: Wes Landrum, head softball coach, Alvernia University, Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth; Region VI: Tim Sceggel, director of athletics, Covenant College, USA South Athletic Conference; and Region X: Jessica Hollen, head softball coach, , Northwest Conference.

(7) NCAA Softball Rules Committee – Trisha Senyo, associate athletics director/head softball coach, Whittier College, Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

(8) NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s and Committee (immediate vacancy replacing Donna Hodgert, who resigned) – Ben Delia, head coach, Franklin & Marshall College, Centennial Conference.

(9) NCAA Division III Men’s Committee – Region II: Catherine Alves, deputy director of athletics/senior woman administrator, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York Athletic Conference; Region III: Eric Spangler, head coach, , Landmark Conference; Region IV: John Hirte, assistant director of athletics/head tennis coach, Covenant College, USA South Athletic

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Conference; and Region VII: Ryun Ferrell, head tennis coach, Central College (Iowa), American Rivers Conference.

(10) NCAA Division III Women’s Volleyball Committee – Region II: Marni Friedman, associate athletics director, Wellesley College, New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference; and Region IV: Sam Atkinson, associate athletics director/sports information director, , North Eastern Athletic Conference.

(11) NCAA Women’s Water Polo Committee – Rachel Roche, associate director of athletics/senior woman administrator, University of Redlands, Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

(12) NCAA Division III Wrestling Committee – Central region: Todd Hibbs, director of athletics, , North Atlantic Conference.

13. Future videoconferences.

• August 17, 2021, 2-3 p.m. Eastern time. • September 13-14, 2021 (quarterly meeting).

Committee Chair: Kiki Jacobs, Roger Williams University Staff Liaisons: Laura Peterson-Mlynski, Championships and Alliances J.P. Williams, Championships and Alliances Julie Zike, Academic and Membership Affairs

Division III Championships Committee June 22, 2021, Videoconference Attendees: Robin Baker, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Jason Fein, Bates College. Kiki Jacobs, Roger Williams University. Chuck Mitrano, Empire 8. Michelle Morgan, John . John Neese, Hardin-Simmons University. Jaeden Peterson, (Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative substituting for Bridgett Finn). Holly Sheilley, . Penny Siqueiros, Wesleyan College (Georgia). Absentees: Bridgett Finn, Lebanon Valley College. Guests in Attendance:

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Gary Brown, NCAA Contractor. NCAA Staff Support in Attendance: Laura Peterson-Mlynski, Championships and Alliances. J.P. Williams, Championships and Alliances. Other NCAA Staff Members in Attendance: Mark Aiken, Joni Comstock, Lauren Frost, Laura Klee, Louise McCleary, Jeff Myers, Liz Suscha, Jeremy Villanueva and Demetria Woodard.

NCAA/06_22_2021/LPM:lck