NEWS AROUND THE NCAA: Saint Francis (PA) to Transition From D1 to D3, CBU to Join BIG West in 2026 & Texas Bill Could Impact International Recruiting

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I'll admit, we're in a limbo of sorts when it comes to content this Friday. With most of the major meets starting today, all of our scheduled previews have already been published. But at the same time, there aren't any results for us to analyze yet.

However, instead of just shrugging our shoulders and saying, "Welp, no content today," I figured that this would be a good time to get caught up on a handful of NCAA-related headlines.

Here a few things happening around the NCAA that you may not have caught...

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St. Francis (PA) to Transition from Division One to Division Three Starting in 2026

Saint Francis, a small university in Pennsylvania with a fall 2024 enrollment of 1,962 students, has announced that they will be transitioning from Division One to Division Three starting in the summer of 2026. The Red Flash will soon join the Presidents Athletic Conference upon their move to Division Three.

The move between divisions came just days after their men's basketball program was selected to play in the NCAA's March Madness tournament for the first time in 30 years. The Red Flash men ended their season by taking a loss to Alabama State in the "First Four" round.

St. Francis (PA) Chairman Joseph Lehman noted that, "realities like the transfer portal, pay-for-play, and other shifts," contributed to the university's decision. CBS News also explained that, "the wide geographic footprint of the NEC (Northeast Conference)," also played a role in the move.

When it comes to cross country, the St. Francis (PA) men last cracked the top-three of the team standings at the NEC XC Championships in 2018 (finishing 2nd overall). The Red Flash women, however, have cracked the top-three in the team standings of their conference meet in three out of their last four showings. They last won the NEC team title in the fall of 2016.

California Baptist to Join BIG West Conference at Beginning of 2026-2027 Academic Calendar

Back in mid-March, California Baptist University (CBU) announced that they will be joining the BIG West Conference starting in the fall of 2026. The Lancers currently reside in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

Since their transition to the Division One level, the Lancers have largely dominated the WAC during the cross country season. The CBU men have won the last five WAC cross country team titles while their women's team have won four conference team titles since 2018.

The departure of CBU from the WAC now opens the door for other programs like Utah Valley and Southern Utah to establish a greater stronghold on the conference (at least during the fall months). The Utah Valley women have won the last two WAC cross country team titles over CBU and have emerged as a nationally competitive team. Meanwhile, Southern Utah's men's program has a history of success on the grass.

CBU venturing to the BIG West also has implications for the conference's premiere cross country program: Cal Poly. Since 1998, the Mustang men have won 20 team titles at the BIG West XC Championships (including the last three). The Mustang women have won eight of the last 12 conference titles (including the last three).

On the outdoor oval (across all events), the BIG West men's and women's team titles have been split up between Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State, at least in recent years.

With this move, the Cal Poly men and women will likely begin to see greater challenges on the grass. CBU, after all, has established themselves as formidable, national-caliber threats. And more importantly, the head-to-head matchups that we'll see between these two programs could also impact Kolas point scoring -- which is used to determine which programs will qualify for the NCAA XC Championships -- in the future.

Pair of Proposed Bills in Texas Legislature Could Limit Scholarship Allocation to Foreign Athletes

In March, a pair of identical Texas-based bills were proposed; one by Senator Brandon Creighton and one by House of Representative, Drew Darby. If passed, the proposed legislation would ultimately limit the amount of, "athletic scholarships, grants, or similar financial assistances," to a maximum of 25% of an athletic department's aid allocation.

The proposed bill(s) pertain only to Texas schools. Should the proposed bills pass, they would be enacted on September 1st, 2025.

A potential limitation on foreign athletic aid could result in significant recruiting changes for programs like Texas Tech and the University of Texas. For years, those two powerhouse programs have leaned on international talents as core pieces of their track and field rosters.

However, per Cory Mull in an article for Forbes, Texas Tech's 2024 indoor track and field roster (which won the national title that season) featured 14 international athletes on a 59-person roster, equating to roughly 23%.