AUGUST 14, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH

We cover DIII lacrosse like no other publication. #d3lax #whyD3

🎒  Back to Work. They’re almost here.

🗞️ In Today’s Edition. DIII members face antitrust lawsuit on early admission policies. Can NCAA slow eligibility lawsuits? Transferring from DIII to DI and DI to DIII. Sticky summer.

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TOP STORY

1. DIII Colleges Accused of Using Early Decision to Drive Up Costs

by Laura Spitalniak, Higher Ed Dive

“Almost three dozen selective colleges, including 21 NCAA Division III members, are facing an antitrust lawsuit that alleges they use early decision admissions to reduce competition and financial aid packages for students.

The lawsuit, filed last Friday, argues that early decision admissions — a college application option that ostensibly binds a prospective student to enroll if they receive an acceptance offer — allows colleges to artificially decrease competition, charge higher tuition rates and offer less financial aid.

Friday’s filings also named as defendants two college application platforms, Common App and Scoir, as well as the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, a coalition of selective liberal arts colleges that share information. All 32 defendant colleges either are or have been members of CFHE, according to the lawsuit.”

» Background. “Early decision is often marketed as a way to give students a better chance at acceptance to a highly selective college. But the process has come under significant scrutiny, with critics labeling it a form of affirmative action for wealthy students, who can afford to attend college even without competitive financial aid offers.”

» Why It Matters. “Students applying under early admissions lose out on the benefits of market competition, the complaint alleges. They apply to one college early and receive their acceptance offer — one they believe they are legally obligated to accept — before seeing their financial aid package. Therefore, they cannot compare their financial aid package against offers from other institutions.”

» The Bottom Line. “The lawsuit is seeking class action status to include current and former early decision students who attended one of the 32 colleges in the past four years and did not have their education covered by grants. It estimates the class would encompass tens of thousands of members, at minimum.”

» Of Note. The DIII institutions named are Amherst, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Carleton, Chicago, Emory, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Macalester, Middlebury, Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Pomona, Rochester, Smith, Swarthmore, Trinity (Conn.), Vassar, Washington U., Wellesley, Wesleyan (Conn.), and Williams.

» Read More

LEGAL
2. NCAA’s Recent Wins May Not Be Enough to Stop Flood of Eligibility Lawsuits

by Amanda Christovich, Front Office Sports

“Since 2024, the NCAA has been hit with 33 lawsuits challenging various aspects of its eligibility rules - with the most recent filings coming just last week.

As a result, the fate of the NCAA’s eligibility rules remains unclear just weeks before college football season starts. Across the country, federal judges don’t appear to have found common ground on whether the NCAA can legally enforce rules about when players are eligible for NCAA sports. And even bigger splits may be on the horizon.”

» Field Awareness. “At the beginning of the 2024-25 season, the NCAA’s rules were as follows: Players got four years of eligibility, with some exceptions including the year they “redshirt” (sitting out a season of play in order to extend eligibility) or the year of the COVID pandemic. All four years must be completed within five calendar years. Playing full seasons at non-NCAA institutions, like at the junior college level, still counted toward NCAA eligibility.”

» Where It Began. “In November 2024, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia started the flood of litigation. Within a few weeks, a federal judge in Tennessee granted a preliminary injunction allowing Pavia to suit up this fall for the Commodores. It was an early loss for the NCAA, which then issued a waiver for players like Pavia for the 2025-26 season. But it also spurred dozens of other athletes to file cases of their own.”

» Be Smart. “The NCAA is also appealing three decisions they’ve lost: Pavia v. NCAA, Elad v. NCAA, and Braham v. NCAA - a case brought by football player Cortez Braham Jr. in May challenging the NCAA’s JUCO rule and its five-year completion rule. In order to avoid further confusion, the NCAA has to win all three of these appeals. If it doesn’t, it faces the potential for a “circuit split,” when two different appeals courts issue opposing decisions. Those splits are sometimes resolved at the Supreme Court level.”

» Keep Reading

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NEWS

3. Transfers

Washington and Lee junior face-off specialist Tyler Spano has transferred to Notre Dame. He was fifth in DIII in face-off percentage last season and earned first-team All-America honors from the USILA. Other players transferring from DIII to DI are listed below.

• AJ Apel, Jr., GK, York to Albany

• Jake Brader, Jr., FO, Roanoke to Denver

• Chase Bruno, Sr., M, RIT to Denver

• Braydon Ellis, Sr., M, Colorado College to Yale

• Jake Rainero, Soph., FO, Drew to Rutgers

Incoming to DIII

• Randolph Campbell, Soph., A, Providence to Christopher Newport

• Sean Collins, Soph., LSM/D, Maryland to Tufts

• Ben Dale, A, Soph., Providence to Franklin & Marshall

• Connor Fundis, Grad, D, Albany to Nazareth

• Jake Furtado, Soph., D, Jacksonville to Skidmore

• Jesse Royals, Soph., D, Queens to Oneonta

• Matthew Trimmer, Jr., D, Providence to Colby

• Zach Ward, Soph., FO, Jacksonville to Christopher Newport

NEWS YOU CAN USE

4. Lightning Round ⚡️ 

» U20 World Games. “Washington and Lee men's lacrosse rising sophomore, JJ Kim, has been selected to represent South Korea in the upcoming World Lacrosse Men's U20 Championship in Jeju, Korea. Rarihwenote Maracle, an incoming freshman for Clarkson, has been picked to participate for Team Haudenosaunee.

» New Look. “The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) partnered with SKYE, a leader in sports branding, to enhance and elevate the identity of the conference while maintaining traditional core values that were and are still important to the conferences identity heading into its 30th year.”

TRANSACTIONS
5. Comings and Goings 

• CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT - Chazz Woodson named assistant men’s coach

• GROVE CITY - Ben Suchomma named associate head men’s coach

• MARIETTA - Nathan Grover named assistant men’s coach. Lola Duff named assistant women’s coach

• MORAVIAN - Caroline Pape resigned as head women’s coach to take head position at Rider

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1 THING
6. Feel Sticky This Summer?

More than 70 million Americans sweated through the muggiest first two months of summer on record as climate change has noticeably dialed up the Eastern United States’ humidity in recent decades, an Associated Press data analysis shows.

And that meant uncomfortably warm and potentially dangerous nights in many cities the last several weeks, the National Weather Service said.

Parts of 27 states and Washington, D.C., had a record amount of days that meteorologists call uncomfortable — with average daily dew points of 65 degrees Fahrenheit or higher — in June and July, according to data derived from the Copernicus Climate Service.

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