Good morning!  

  

Last week, I took a week off writing The Bold Type, as The Big West staff was conducting The Big West Basketball Championships in Henderson, Nev., and prepared for the national postseason. Did you miss the weekly update?  

It was great to see many fans, friends and Big West administrators at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson. The energy in the arena was outstanding, and it took a while for my voice to recover from having to talk over the crowd noise, pep bands and our DJ.  What a great week, but more on that in a moment.  

  
   WELCOME TO CALIFORNIA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY!   

It was with great excitement on Wednesday that The Big West proudly announced that California Baptist University (CBU) will join the conference as a full member beginning in the 2026-27 academic year. Read more >>>  

On Thursday, CBU President Dr. Ronald Ellis, Director of Athletics Dr. Micah Parker and I conducted a press conference answering questions for the media.  The press conference is available via this link. 

The positive response received from fans and media on CBU’s addition was received very well, and the membership looks forward to a new conference rival joining The Big West.   

On continued rumors related to other institutions potentially joining our membership, The Big West continues discussions with additional Division I institutions that have shown interest in joining The Big West.  At this time, however, we are focused on CBU’s addition to the conference.  

Music of the week is dedicated to CBU – ”Welcome” from the movie Brother Bear.  The music of Phil Collins is always a great way to start a day 

  

Let’s get to The Bold Type! 

   GOOD LUCK!   

To UC Irvine men’s basketball who beat (Jacksonville State in the second round of the NIT on Suday, 66-61 to advance to the quarterfinal round! The Anteaters will host UAB on Wednesday March 26 at 6 p.m. PT on ESPN2+. The winner heads to historic Hinkle Fieldhouse for the semifinals on April 1! 

To Hawai’i swimmer Karol Ostrowski, who will take to the pool in the 50-meter freestyle on Thursday, March 27 in Federal Way, Wash. Read more >>>  

   CONGRATULATIONS    

• To Chloe Braun from UC San Diego who broke a school record and finished 20th at the NCAA Women’s Swimming Diving Championships in the 100-meter breaststroke. Read more >>> 
• To our 2024-25 All-Big West women’s basketball teams and individual award winners! Read more >>>  
• To UC San Diego women’s basketball for winning The Big West Basketball Championship title in Henderson! Read more >>> And for representing the conference in the NCAA Championship First Four against Southern. 
• To our 2024-25 All-Big West men’s basketball teams and individual award winners! Read more >>> 
• To UC San Diego men’s basketball for winning The Big West Men’s Basketball Championship title in Henderson! Read more >>> And for the near-upset win against No. 5 seed Michigan in Denver – what a game! Read more >>> 
• To our other men’s and women’s basketball postseason participants: Hawai’i women’s basketball (WBIT), CSUN and UC Riverside men’s basketball (NIT), and No. 1 seed UC Irvine, still dancing into the third round of the NIT bracket! 
• To Cal Poly beach volleyball, who hosted a successful Big West Challenge this weekend and extended their winning streak to 16 matches! Read more >>> 
• To UC Santa Barbara baseball who is ranked: No. 15 by NCBWA, No. 20 by Perfect Game, No. 21 by D1Baseball, No. 21 by USA Today Coaches! 
• To UC Irvine baseball who is ranked: No. 20 by Baseball America, RV by NCBWA, RV by USA Today Coaches! 
• To Big West men’s basketball, who landed FOUR student-athletes on the NABC All-Pacific District Teams! And to UC San Diego Coach Eric Olen, who was named NABC District Coach of the Year! Read more >>> 
• To all six Big West men’s volleyball teams who are ranked in the AVCA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Poll: No. 1 Long Beach State, No. 4 Hawai‘i, No. 5 UC Irvine, No. 7 CSUN, No. 12 UC San Diego, No. 18 UC Santa Barbara! 
• To the seven Big West women’s water polo teams ranked in the CWPA Women's Varsity Poll: No. 3 Hawai‘i, No. 6 Long Beach State, No. 8 UC Irvine, No. 11 UC San Diego, No. 16 UC Davis, No. 19 UC Santa Barbara, No. 23 CSUN! 
• To the three Big West beach volleyball teams ranked in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll: No. 6 Cal Poly, No. 8 Long Beach State and No. 17 Hawai’i! 
• To the two Big West men’s tennis programs ranked in the latest ITA Team Rankings: No. 43 UC Santa Barbara and No. 45 UC Irvine! 
• To the three Big West women’s tennis programs ranked in the latest ITA Team Rankings: No. 55 UC Santa Barbara, No. 59 Long Beach State and No. 65 Cal Poly! 
• To Cal Poly baseball for their Big Win on Saturday, walking off No. 6 Oregon State, 7-6!

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• To our outstanding student-athletes who were named a Big West Players of the Week for the last two weeks! 
  • ?Baseball - March 17: Jack Collins, Cal Poly (field player); Cooper Walls, Hawai‘i (pitcher); March 10: Anthony Martinez, UC Irvine (field player); Matthew Dahlquist, UC San Diego (pitcher) 
  • ?Softball - March 17: Alexia Lopez, Cal State Fullerton (field player); Caroline Grimes, UC Davis (pitcher); Alyssa Dethlefson, UC Davis (freshman); March 10: Alexis Chavez, CSUN (field player); Lauryn Carranco, CSUN (pitcher); Nataly Lozano, Cal State Fullerton (freshman) 
  • Men’s Volleyball - March 17: Skyler Varga, Long Beach State (offensive); Nato Dickinson, Long Beach State (defensive); Moni Nikolov, Long Beach State (setter & freshman); March 10: Hilir Henno, UC Irvine (offensive); Nick Rigo, UC San Diego (defensive); Tread Rosenthal, Hawai’i (setter); Kristian Titriyski, Hawai’i (freshman) 
  • Beach Volleyball - March 18: Malia Gementera & Taylor Hagenah, Long Beach State; March 11: Piper Ferch & Erin Inskeep, Cal Poly 
  • Men’s Tennis - March 19: Noah Zamora, UC Irvine; March 12: Andy Nguyen, UC Irvine  
  • Women’s Tennis - March 19: Kennedy Buntrock, Cal Poly; March 12: Kennedy Buntrock, Cal Poly 
  • Track & Field - March 19: Tristyn Flores, Long Beach State (men’s track); Canaan Wharry, Long Beach State (men’s field); Sofia Lavreshina, Long Beach State (women’s track); Kailah McKenzie, UC Irvine (women’s field); March 12: Anthony Flowers, UC San Diego (men’s track); Kyle Jankans, Long Beach State (men’s field); Sylvana Northrup, UC San Diego (women’s track); Kailah McKenzie, UC Irvine (women’s field) 
  • Women’s Water Polo -March 19: Bernadette Doyle, Hawai‘i; March 12: Lauren Hett, UC Irvine 

 

   THE BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS   

What a week in Henderson, Nev. Wow! Outstanding performances by our teams and student-athletes, the excitement generated by the numerous pep bands and spirit squads, the increase in media attention and even better, the growth of attendance at the basketball championships this year.  Here are some highlights: 

Session	% Change from 2024 to 2025
Session 1 (W)	36.8%
Session 2 (M)	35.1%
Session 3 (W)	36.2%
Session 4 (M)	-3.5%
Session 5 (W)	23.8%
Session 6 (M)	4.3%
Session 7	62.2%
TOTAL	31.6%
Men Only	26.3%
Women Only	51.3%

Some additional highlights:  

• 62% increase in championship session attendance 
• 32% overall increase in attendance 
• 15% increase in semifinals attendance 
• Our basketball tickets landing page got 16,380 clicks over the last 28 days. 
• We gave away over $3,000 in cash and prizes all of which was donated by sponsors. 
  • Two fans hit half court shots in halftime contests. One won a prize package from Westgate that included a weekend stay, dinner and tickets to a show. The other won $575 from Credit Union
    • The odds of an average player hitting a half-court shot are 1 in 100 
    • The probability of hitting two half court shots in 10 tries is 0.415% 
      • The odds of winning a small lottery prize at 240-to-1 odds are 0.415%
      • The odds of being struck by a small asteroid are 0.4%, the same as the odds of being dealt a Full House in a hand of 5-card poker 
      • The odds of being struck by lightning are 0.8% 

As you see the boost in attendance for our neutral site at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nev., I was provided this quote from the Big East:  “We didn’t quite sell out in the first year, but in the years that followed, the tournament has just gotten progressively stronger, which speaks to the sellouts now .” (Commissioner Val) Ackerman also notes the league holds numerous events in addition to the games that “have become points of intersection for school personnel and a way for us to engage with writers, fans, and our marketing partners.”  A really interesting article if you are interested. Read more >>>   

The great Championship atmosphere has also been recognized by others who have been in the building at Lee’s Family Forum the last three years, including Justin Shaw of Sports Travel Magazine: 
 

Also quoted in the article is UC San Diego women’s basketball coach Heidi VanDerveer: “I’ve been in a lot of nice arenas and this is a beautiful arena. The people here are not just friendly, but also organized,” she said. “We’ve stayed at a nice hotel and eaten well; this is a first-class venue and a first-class organization. It was a wonderful experience for our scholar athletes. We’re proud to represent the Big West and we’re excited about where we’re going in it.” 

I am very excited about the attendance growth at both basketball championships in 2025, and look forward to even more growth in 2026. We will always need to work collectively to grow championship attendance, in all sports, but the improvement of Big West men’s basketball this season, combined with our collective efforts to grow attendance, the basketball championships was an outstanding environment and experience for our student-athletes. 

   

   ARTICLES OF INTEREST   

• New York Times:  “A UC San Diego Transfer Watches the NCAA Tournament He Left: “Is the Grass Greener?”  (LINK) 
• A California federal judge has “certified a class of potentially thousands of former NCAA Division I volunteer coaches who allege the athletic organization’s now-repealed bylaw illegally suppressed their wages in violation of antitrust laws, and the judge also refused to exclude the class’s damages report by a Princeton University professor.” More behind the Law360 fortress. (link) 
• NCAA President Charlie Baker joins CBS Evening News to discuss the House settlement and says: “I do believe the settlement will create a much saner way of doing this than the way it works now, and I hope what we get out of it is an NIL program that’s more transparent, more accountable, and one that actually works on this idea that this is still a development exercise for young people.” Baker also says of the NCAA’s efforts to combat gambling-related harassment of players: “Part of the way we’re fixing it is by nudging state gaming authorities. We now have about half of them where you can’t prop bet on college sports, and we’ve got to work the other half. It’s a bad situation.” (link) 
• NCAA Settlement Update:  Pending final court approval of the proposed settlement in the House case, the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, Southeastern Conference and NCAA are gearing up to implement a new model focused on stability and fairness in college sports. 
• Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger & Kerryhertz Perry attorney Mit Winter had some play-by-play on March 11th House Judiciary hearing on NIL & a possible NCAA antitrust exemption. Notables from Dellenger: “House Judiciary chair Jim Jordan says that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has told him that, under an employment model, he anticipates that schools will drop to the NCAA minimum of 16 sports. Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh replies, ‘I think that is an accurate portrayal.’ [...] House Judiciary chair Jim Jordan sorts thru the ways college athletes get compensation: (1) scholarship + benefits; (2) House rev-share; (3) market NIL; (4) booster collective NIL. Jordan: (link, link) 
• A group of 18 Power 4 Track & Field HC’s have joined together to draft an open letter entitled “Call to Action for Track & Field,” per Venable LLP Partner/Sports Law & NIL Attorney Philip Sheng, seeking to protect their sport’s future against consequences of the House settlement, including roster limits, budget cuts, growing program costs and program eliminations. (link) 
• Cal Poly AD Don Oberhelman talks to KSBY’s Dylan Foreman about the impact of the House settlement, which recently included the Mustangs discontinuing its Swim & Dive programs: “Cal Poly is having to pay for the transgressions of others. [...] I think we're going to eliminate people from the (beach volleyball) roster just because somebody told us we had to do that. I don't think that's right. I don't think that's fair.” Beach Volleyball HC Todd Rogers: “I think it's not a good thing for mid-majors particularly. It's great for power four conferences because they got a lot of money, but for mid-majors, I don't know where you're going to get that money.” (link) 
• Former Department of Education Office of Civil Rights senior program analyst Valerie Bonnette, “who authored the agency’s 1990 Title IX Athletics Investigator’s Manual,” per Sportico’s Daniel Libit, pushes back on the recent interpretation by the current OCR on the impact of NIL deals & revenue sharing on Title IX laws. Bonnette via a letter: “OCR’s policy on revenues and outside funding—including compensation paid directly to students—has been abundantly clear for 50 years. This approach represents a fundamental principle that is central to all civil rights laws, not just Title IX. Allowing outside funding to circumvent an institution’s obligation to ensure equity is nothing less than condoning rampant discrimination, financed by the highest bidder.” (link) 
• On3’s Jamie Shaw gets insight from coaches on NIL and the transfer portal, answering the question of how much does it cost to build a top-25 college basketball roster. One ACC coach: “In this portal, I think you’ll need a minimum of 4.5 million. And that’s if you do a hell of a job evaluating. To be safe, it’ll be about 6 million to be a top-25 team.” An SEC coach: “To be a top-25 caliber team, you’re going to have to be around 4 to 5 million.” A former coach in the Big 12 shared the same thought, “It’ll be no less than 5 million to be in the top 25.” while a current Big 12 coach offered: “It will take nothing less than 5 million after rev share.” (link) 
• The NCAA has issued new guidance concerning eligibility for former JUCO and non-NCAA student-athletes, which “essentially” states that “all players who'd be otherwise out of eligibility but played JUCO/NAIA/etc. can play in 2025-26 EXCEPT those whose only season of non-NCAA competition was 2020-21 (COVID year),” according to Sports Illustrated’s Kevin Sweeney, who adds: “That means guys like (Iowa State’s) Curtis Jones, (Auburn’s) Denver Jones, (Bradley’s) Duke Deen and (Clemson’s) Jaeden Zackery are done. Most others, like (Auburn’s) Chad Baker-Mazara, (Vanderbilt’s) Jason Edwards, (UAB’s) Yaxel Lendeborg and many other high-level names will have another year.” (link) 
• Terms have been released in the NCAA’s settlement with Tennessee and other states over an injunction preventing the NCAA from enforcing rules around booster-athlete NIL negotiations. Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger: “Of note: Though the injunction will continue, it will not impact the House settlement.” Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti: “We fought hard to protect the rights of Tennessee’s student-athletes and this settlement locks in the victory for them. With a multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry rising from the foundation of college sports, the kids who make it all happen should not be the only people denied an opportunity to prosper. This settlement benefits generations of student-athletes, protects Tennessee universities from NCAA retaliation, and pushes college sports toward a new equilibrium that acknowledges financial reality while preserving competitive integrity. I’m glad to see the NCAA give up on defending a world that no longer exists. I hope the association’s laudable change of position marks a transition from acting as the worst kind of HOA toward cultivating a new era of great college sports for athletes, schools, and fans. We all dream of a future when you can keep up with college sports without having to learn the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.” (link, link); ESPN’s Dan Murphy explains the settlement means the “NCAA has agreed to permanently drop its rule prohibiting athletes from negotiating the terms of name, image and likeness payments until after they enroll in school,” and an NCAA spokesperson says: "This agreement continues the progress we have made over the last few years in allowing prospective and transferring student-athletes to seek out NIL opportunities. This judgment is fully consistent with the House settlement and underscores our support for student-athletes benefiting from their NIL and our commitment to provide increased benefits to student-athletes at every stage in their collegiate experience, creating a sustainable model for the future of college sports." (link) 

  
 

   NATIONAL ATHLETIC TRAINING MONTH   

As we celebrate National Athletic Training Month, it is important to recognize the vital role athletic trainers play in collegiate athletics. As noted in its Statement on Workforce Issues in Collegiate Athletic Training, the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports recognizes that athletic trainers have a significant impact on the student-athlete experience, perhaps second only to coaches. 

In addition to CSMAS’ work on the issue, the NCAA Division III Management Council recently established the Athletic Trainer Working Group to address athletic trainer hiring and retention challenges. After multiple meetings and a membership survey, the group’s final report identified four core areas for consideration: Culture and Communication, Workload, Work-Life Balance, and Compensation. CSMAS supported the working group’s final report and noted that its recommendations could inform efforts to support the athletic training workforce across all divisions. 

On March 26th at 9 a.m. PT, panelists from all three divisions will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the athletic training profession including information found in both the CSMAS statement and Division III report. Panelists will share insights and discuss actionable steps to support and strengthen the athletic training workforce.

This 60-minute session will explore the state of the collegiate athletic training workforce.  REGISTER HERE (LINK) 

  

   UPCOMING BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS   

Spring is here, and we put our focus on upcoming Big West championships: 

	Women's Golf Championship  Championship Central >>>  April 13-15, 2025  Spanish Trail Country Club  Las Vegas
	The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship  Championship Central >>>  | Purchase Tickets >>> April 24-26, 2025  SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center  Honolulu
	Beach Volleyball Championship  Championship Central >>>  April 24-25, 2025  Ocean Park Beach  Santa Monica, Calif.
	Men's & Women's Tennis Championships  April 24-27, 2025  Barnes Tennis Center  San Diego, Calif.
	Women's Water Polo Championship   April 25-27, 2025  Anteater Aquatics Complex  Irvine, Calif.
	Men's Golf Championship  Championship Central >>>  April 27-29, 2025  La Quinta Country Club  La Quinta, Calif.
	Men's & Women’s Track & Field Championship  Championships Central >>>  May 9-10, 2025 (Multis)  May 16-17, 2025 (Championship)  Jack Rose Track  Long Beach, Calif.
	Softball Championship  Championship Central >>> | Purchase Tickets >>> May 7-10, 2025  Anderson Family Field  Fullerton, Calif.
	Baseball Championship  Championship Central >>> | Purchase Tickets >>> May 21-25, 2025  Goodwin Field  Fullerton, Calif.

  

As you will note, from April 24-29, we have SIX championships.  Four championships are being conducted at neutral sites and two on campus.  Thank you to all of the staff of our member institutions and numerous volunteers who will assist The Big West in conducting this gauntlet of championships in a six-day period.  
 

   QUOTES OF THE DAY   

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”  Credited to Helen Keller 

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”  Credited to Henry Ford 

   

   LET’S CLOSE IT OUT   

I have traveled every week since December 16, attending games, meetings, campus visits and championships. At the moment, the week ahead has me at my desk working on upcoming Big West meetings, continued membership discussions, working with staff to prepare for upcoming championships, NCAA and commissioner meetings and preparing to be on the road again heavily from March 31 through the fourth of July week.  

  

Have a great week ahead.  Please thank our athletic trainers for all that they do for our programs and our student-athletes this month of NATM, and every month!  

Dan