APRIL 11, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH

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FEATURE
Does Spending Equate to NPI Success?

by Steve Dittmore, D3Lacrosse.net

“The NCAA released the season’s first National Power Index (NPI) this week. A few weeks back I wrote about the average roster size and the average operating expense per participant for D3 men’s and women’s lacrosse teams.

Understanding the lag time that exists in the data, I thought it would be interesting to similarly evaluate this week’s top 20 NPI schools. Using data from the 2023 season (the most recent publicly available data on the EADA website), here is what I can observe about the 2025 top 20 NPI schools.

The average roster size for the 2025 women’s top 20 NPI teams was 31.30 in 2023, a full nine players more than the overall D3 women’s average of 22.01. The observed average roster size for the 2025 men’s top 20 NPI teams was 51.15, 14.5 more athletes than the overall D3 men’s average of 36.56 participants.

Overall program expenses (includes operating, coach salaries, etc.) for the 2025 women’s top 20 NPI teams was $240,483 in 2023 while the overall D3 women’s average was observed at $137,809, more than $100,000 less than the current Top 20.

The difference in overall program expenses between the 2025 men’s top 20 NPI teams and the average D3 program was remarkable. The mean overall program expense for D3 men’s teams in 2023 was observed at $189,891. The 2025 men’s top 20 NPI teams, however, averaged $386,208 in 2023, more than double the overall D3 men’s average.

Elmhurst University on the men’s side was the one prominent statistical outlier with its 33 observed participants in 2023, three fewer than the overall D3 average, and 18 fewer than the current top 20 NPI average. A quick head count of its current roster on the program website identifies 41 players in 2025, above the D3 average, but still 10 fewer than the top 20 NPI average.

Do more participants and expenses equal more wins? Perhaps. The 2024 men’s title game featured Tufts University (55 participants/$662,830) and RIT (56 participants / $725,204), the two men’s programs that reported the most overall expenses in 2023. Both figures were significantly higher than the D3 men’s averages of 36.56 participants and $189,891 in expenses.

The case was similar, although not as pronounced, on the women’s side where the championship teams were Middlebury College (35 participants/$262,506) and Salisbury University (35 participants/$188,856). Both schools reported 13 more participants than the overall D3 women’s average, and more than the D3 average overall expense of $137,809.

While this might be viewed as comparing apples and oranges (the state of higher education and D3 athletics is different in 2025 than it was in 2023), the dataset used is mandated by the Department of Education and should be viewed as reliable.”

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