Why I am interested in which DIII schools have the highest percentage of athletes and how fast are they growing

A paid subscriber only post

Thank you to everyone for supporting my research and writing. I do not take lightly your willingness to pay for my thoughts on what I perceive to be important topics at the intersection of college athletics and enrollment on small campuses. The impacts of changes to DI roster limits and NIL are still far from being known, but they will surely create a ripple effect down to the small colleges of DII, DIII, and NAIA. For some universities, that effect could be positive, bringing new students, and tuition revenue, to the campus. For other institutions, the effects may not be as beneficial as the potential costs associated with more sports might outweigh the benefits of greater enrollment.

My interest in researching this space began during my two-year term as Dean of the College of Education and Health Sciences at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. It is a position that no longer exists, a consequence of a $20 million budget deficit disclosed in Fall 2023 that had, apparently, been percolating for a while, but came to a head during my first year on campus. I witnessed first-hand how sports and enrollment were intertwined on a tuition-driven campus.

I also approach this research from the perspective of a parent of a Division III student-athlete and our lived experience of the recruitment process at a number of small campuses. I love DIII athletics and the DIII mission, but I have become acutely aware that not all DIII experiences are the same.

All of that is context to this, my first-ever paid subscriber only post. As you read earlier this week, I found 33 NCAA Division III schools that meet the criteria of both: 1) having a campus enrollment that is 44 percent or greater of athletes and 2) having grown their athlete percentage by greater than 10% since 2019-20. Below is that list. All data is from the Equity in Athletics Data Analysis website and reflects the 2022-23 reporting year.