SAAC Blog From the NCAA Convention - Update No. 3
Our final day? It can’t be! We are just been getting
started!
We started the day off with a great breakfast for all delegates
and enjoyed speaking with an Athletic Director from Southern Maine!
Unfortunately, after this Richard had to leave to go to a track
meet on Saturday (good luck!!!). Luckily, Rose and Emma were able
to stay and attend the Division III Issues Forum. We even got to
use cool devices to take part in straw votes!!
It was here that we sat at round tables with DIII Athletic
Directors, Faculty Athletic Representatives, and other
administrators from across the country! This was a town-hall style
meeting so after presentations anyone could ask questions, which
made the entre event that much more interesting! At first we
listened to a review of all the proposed legislation, then we heard
presentations on potential directions that DIII may want to pursue
such as Joint Championships and Catastrophic Injury
Reporting. Finally, topics surrounding recruiting were
presented and we had opportunities to engage in round-table
discussions with those who we were sitting! This was awesome
because we were able to share our unique student-athlete
perspectives and people listened to us!
(The entire convention center
and hotel were decked out with everything NCAA!)
After a quick lunch we were lucky enough to be given
permission by the Centennial Conference Executive Director Steve
Ulrich to attend the Centennial Conference business meeting.
Although we had to leave before they discussed specific conference
details, we were able to listen to a great discussion about the
proposed D3 legislation. While we have spent time reviewing this
legislation with SAAC, we heard a lot of great opinions that we had
not even thought of before!
(Emma trying to imitate one of
the many posters of student-athletes that were all over the
place!)
Finally, it was our time to say goodbye to the Convention, but
before we officially did we could not resist making our way over to
the Grapevine Mills to pick up some Texas souvenirs. This was one
of the largest and most interesting malls we have ever been in
– it had a carousel and an ice rink in it! We couldn’t
help but conclude our Texas trip with some true Texan BBQ at a
renowned BBQ pit better known as Hard 8. We upheld a Swarthmore
softball tradition (thanks to Sarina Lowe) by enjoying an amazing
rack of ribs! We can’t possibly explain how great this food
was! There was even a Willie Nelson-esque band playing. For a
couple people who had never been to Texas before, this certainly
was the perfect Texan experience!
(Rose with a buffalo on our way
to get some souvenirs!)
Tomorrow we leave, but we certainly will not stop talking
about everything we have learned. Please come talk with any of us
if you would like to know more about anything we learned! We would
like to once again extend a warm thank you to Adam, Nnenna,
President Chopp, Dean Braun, Steve Ulrich, Jessica Huntley, all the
hospitable people in Texas, and everyone else who helped to make
this trip a huge success!
Thank you!
Rose, Emma, and Richard
