Edition #904
October 2, 2026
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Mobile AD Sally Shouppe will retire after two decades with the university and the last five years in the chair. VP for Student Development and Collegiate Athletics Tim Adams: “Sally’s years of faithful service to the University of Mobile have left a great foundation for our search for her successor. She has poured herself into our coaches, student-athletes and athletic programs. As Sally begins this well-earned next chapter, we celebrate her legacy and look forward to building upon the foundation she has helped establish. We are actively searching for our next athletic director and hope to have that person in place in the spring so there is time for Sally to help prepare the new hire for the transition following the end of the academic year.” (link)
North American AD and Track & Field/Cross Country HC Kenneth Apande will depart after six years leading the Stallions. Apande: “This chapter of my career has been filled with challenges, growth, relationships, and memories that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I am thankful for every coach, staff member, administrator, student-athlete, colleague, and supporter who played a role in this journey. Your commitment to NAU and to our student-athletes made these eight years truly unforgettable. I leave with tremendous pride in what we accomplished together and sincere appreciation for everyone who allowed me to be a part of the NAU story.” (link)
Stillman selects former Clark Atlanta (NCAA DII)/former Tigers HC and alum Teddy Keaton as its new AD/Football HC with the upstart football program to kick off in 2027-28. President Yolanda Page: “Coach Keaton's return to Stillman brings together our history and our future. He knows this institution, he understands our students, and he has demonstrated throughout his career that he knows how to build programs. As we bring Tiger football back, we are committed to creating a program that Stillman students, alumni, and this community can stand behind.” (link)
NAIA President/CEO Jim Carr joined The Right Way to Play Podcast to discuss the association’s five seasons of competition proposal. Carr notes the Council of Presidents was nearly unanimous in wanting to expedite the process to vote in November, as opposed to at the NAIA Convention in April, to give the membership a longer runway to implement the changes, if approved. More key takeaways…
➤ On which student-athletes will benefit from the proposal, if passed: “I think the right way to think about it is if any student who has eligibility remaining in the ‘26-’27 academic years, they have one term and one season remaining in ‘26-’27, then they're eligible for that fifth season. So it sounds pretty simple, and I think it is, but I guess maybe to talk a little bit about who's not able to take advantage. If you finished in ‘24-’25 and you used all four seasons, you can't come back and now claim a fifth season.”
➤ With the 20% rule, the proposal would eliminate the rule as it relates to seasons of competition, as student-athletes will have five seasons should they earn 96 credit hours. As for financial aid: “As the rule stands now, if you don't play in 20% of your contests or allowable contests, then your aid as an individual student athlete doesn't count against your school's upper limits. … The current thought process is to leave that rule in place. So schools with large roster sizes now can still allow some participation by students and not have that count against their upper limits. The council basically made a statement that they weren't planning to change that. There really is no action needed because you're not changing a policy, but we want the membership to understand that that's the intent, at least for the next three years to keep that in place.”
➤ The proposal differs from the rules laid out in the Protect College Sports Act and those enacted by NCAA DI and DII. Carr: “We have to figure out a different way to assess transfers coming into our system. So I get that, but I support the flexibility in maintaining a differentiation for the NAIA that is all present under the model that's moving forward. … I think it's been a longstanding quality or value of the NAIA to say while in some places you're getting a lot of restrictions around the time coaches can spend with their student athletes and the time that people can spend in their sport, and I get that to a certain extent. I mean, they're students and it shouldn't get in the way of their academic pursuits, but at the NAIA, we've always said, again, it's a supplement to the overall education process.” (link)
House members are preparing to make what could be significant revisions to the Senate-passed Protect College Sports Act, per Ross Dellenger, who writing for On3, notes such changes threaten to ignite a major procedural battle between the two legislative chambers ahead of Congress’ final day on December 18. There are plenty of “pain points” for House lawmakers, such as the absence of a prohibition against student-athletes being classified as employees, the inclusion of a private-right-of-action concept allowing players to sue institutions and federal oversight caps on conference expansion. Senate leadership insists the current draft is a non-starter for major House amendments, with one “leading voice” in the Senate saying that wholesale House alterations stand to torpedo the bill entirely or trigger retaliatory Senate additions, including salary caps for HCs, ADs and university presidents; mandatory one-year non-compete periods for changing jobs; and potential threats to universities' tax-exempt status. “We are sending it over for adoption as is. It is a final product.” (link)
The Washington Sun’s Reese Gorman and Jesse Dougherty report the major sticking point House Republicans have with the legislation is its failure to prevent student-athletes from gaining employee status. The House-backed SCORE Act, which stalled out and ultimately died in the legislative body earlier this year, barred college athletes from becoming employees. The PCSA, however, is neutral on employment, even if labor advocates believe its antitrust protections for the NCAA and conferences would stunt future organizing efforts. “If House Republicans insist on adding an employment ban to this bill, that could affect support among Democrats in the Senate. [Sen. Maria Cantwell] fought hard for the PCSA to avoid the employment question. … To support the bill, those Democrats all broke with the AFL-CIO, which vehemently opposes the legislation. A full-on employment restriction, though, would conceivably be a no-go for many Democratic backers.” In addition, the bill’s failure to impose limits on athletic scholarships for international student-athletes and provisions on conference expansion and realignment have raised concern. (link)
Oklahoma Panhandle State AD Ashley Walyuchow sat down with Athletic Communications Assistant Hew Brown to lay out his vision for the department two months into his tenure leading the Aggies. Key takeaways…
➤ What drew him to OPSU: “Our scholarship levels are pretty good here and the facilities are really good. … But one thing that I think is really cool here is everybody helps everybody. … Those are the things that you can build on. Then, I think it's just a matter of let's see what we're doing. I think there are a few things that I think we can kind of turn a little bit as far as how we message to recruits. We're in no man's land; we're in the panhandle of Oklahoma, but it's as much a positive as it can be described as a negative. … When you have those things, the relationships and the family and the belonging in the community, then I think you can start building a winner. It changes things. People don't want to just come here for a year and take off. They want to be part of something that's lasting and impactful in their lives and I think we’re on the cusp here.”
➤ On facility projects: “We do have some aging facilities that I'm looking at trying to enhance and maybe replace in some cases. In other cases, building a practice field that all teams can use outside that would take wear and tear off of the game fields that they're using and extend the life of those and reduce the maintenance on them. … This institution's well over a hundred years old. It's not going anywhere, but sometimes these facilities almost feel that old. They're not, but they feel it a little bit. I'd like to see some improvements to Anchor D Stadium and the seating because it's very much bleacher seating and not very comfortable. The press box is old. So there are some things that I'm looking at, but it's going to take the community and our alumni who have had success after they left here.” (link)
The NAIA and NACE are partnering to launch the NAIA Esports Cup this spring, exclusively for NAIA members. NAIA President/CEO Jim Carr: “Since the NAIA founded NACE ten years ago, we have watched collegiate esports expand rapidly. We are excited to partner with NACE to offer this unique opportunity for NAIA members to compete against their peers on a national stage.” Details: “To compete, institutions must abide by NACE’s bylaws, which state that schools must provide an esports lab (or otherwise designated space) for competition, compete from said esports lab during all NACE varsity competition, and competition must be supervised by a campus official. Additionally, competing students must be certified through the NACE Eligibility Center.” (link)
The Frontier partners with Box Out Sports as its social media graphics provider. (link)
People & Places…
➤ Dordt Assoc. AD of Facilities and Operations Trent Roose will depart after eight years with the university. (link)
➤ Georgia Gwinnett Women’s Soccer HC Mike Giuliano will retire at the end of this season, his 10th leading the Grizzlies. (link)
➤ UHSP promotes Men’s Volleyball AC Brian Schwendemann to HC. (link)
Brookings Institution senior fellow Phillip Levine contends the recent surge in colleges offering free tuition based on household income serves as an effective messaging tool to prevent prospective students from being deterred by high sticker prices, and Inside Higher Ed's Olivia Sanchez notes that schools that report these transparent pricing models successfully drive enrollment interest among lower- and middle-income demographics. Rice (DI) VP for Enrollment Yvonne Romero explains that students previously excluded themselves without realizing they qualified for aid against the school's $97K cost of attendance. Rice now covers full tuition and living expenses for families earning under $100K, while Colby (DIII) caps family contributions at $20K for households earning between $150K and $200K. Levine emphasized that simplified financial models are critical for maintaining socioeconomic diversity following the Supreme Court's restriction on affirmative action: "Their main contribution is a one-sentence communication device to get across the point that college might be less expensive than you think. For many students, it’s just communicated to them the assistance of financial aid that already existed. They already would have gotten free tuition—they just didn’t know it." (link)
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