WICHITA, Kan. – Head coach Chris Lamb and the Wichita State volleyball program finalized their 2025 schedule on Monday, including a season-opening home tournament and a home date against in-state rival Kansas.

Among the 12 non-conference teams the Shockers have on the schedule, seven finished the 2024 season in the top 100 of the RPI and three (BYU, Kansas, South Dakota) qualified for the NCAA tournament.

Wichita State will host the Shocker Volleyball Classic to kick off the campaign, marking the first time since the 2007 season that WSU has opened the season at home. The Shockers host Kennesaw State in the season opener on Friday, August 29, then conclude the competition against SEC foe Arkansas on Sunday, August 31.

From there Wichita State heads to Provo, Utah for a tournament hosted by perennial national power BYU. The Shockers will take on Incarnate Word and the host Cougars on Friday, September 5 before battling a familiar opponent in Northern Colorado the following day. WSU has played Northern Colorado each of the last three seasons; the Bears are coming off a program record 28-win season in 2024.

The Shockers travel to Cookeville, Tennessee for a tournament featuring Radford, host Tennessee Tech and Samford on September 11-12, then return to Charles Koch Arena to square off with Kansas on Tuesday, September 16.

The final non-conference tournament takes WSU to Vermillion, South Dakota, where the Shockers take on Drake, South Dakota and Villanova. All three programs finished last season with top-100 RPIs.

The 16-match conference slate begins on September 26 at UAB. The Shockers will host Tulsa, Memphis, UAB, Tulane, North Texas, East Carolina, Charlotte and Rice, with road trips to UAB, Memphis, Tulsa, UTSA, Rice, Florida Atlantic, South Florida and Temple. The American Athletic Conference tournament will be hosted by South Florida and begins November 21 in Tampa, Florida.

The Shockers return 13 players from a team that finished the 2024 season with an 18-14 record, including outside hitters Brooklyn Leggett, Emerson Wilford, Gracie Morrow and Nadia Wasilewski plus middle blockers Maddie Wilson and Allie Paulsen. Katie Galligan and Grace Hett return to the back row, along with Gabi Maas, who missed the entirety of the 2024 season due to injury.

Lamb has added four transfers to the mix, bringing in outside hitter Sydney Dunning (Cal State Bakersfield), middle blocker Elinor Engel (Central Missouri), and setters Hannah Hawkins (High Point) and Jordan Heatherly (Memphis). The veteran head coach enters his 26th season in 2025, with a career record of 526-250.

At his core, Antonio Merlo is a teacher.

Whether he is in a classroom, overseeing a university department or on the pool deck, Drexel’s newest president has found his greatest reward in a single, powerful moment: when understanding dawns.

“There is nothing like looking at a student and seeing them have a lightbulb moment — a sudden flash in understanding of a complicated topic,” he said. “It’s amazing.”

The same spark, he explains, can ignite within a team. As a longtime water polo coach and seasoned higher education leader, Merlo has seen firsthand how transformation happens when ideas click — not just for individuals, but for entire groups.

“When everyone is on the same page, when everything starts to make sense, that is when the magic happens,” he said. “Then, everyone can be empowered, as well as take responsibility.”

Merlo has honed his teaching expertise as an economics professor and administrator at New York University, where he most recently served as the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, as well as at the nearby University of Pennsylvania, Rice University in Houston and at the University of Minnesota. Come July 1, Merlo intends to bring his leadership style — one in which he infuses his passion for collaborative learning with his entrepreneurial spirit — to Drexel as the institution’s 16th president.

Changing tides

Merlo joins Drexel as the University embarks on its Academic Transformation, a blueprint for reimagining the institution’s future through the integration of programs and schools, redesign of curriculum and transition to a semester calendar — offering an improved and more flexible academic experience for students. Since being named president in January, Merlo has emphasized his commitment to the initiative and his strong belief that it is giving Drexel an advantage to outshine the rest, especially when combined with the University’s expertise in experiential education.

“The Drexel community has been willing to engage in this process of Academic Transformation, look under the hood and reinvent, while so many other institutions have been sitting on the sidelines,” Merlo said. “This is the type of action we need to take if we want to be a model university for the next century.”

Aside from Academic Transformation, Merlo was attracted to Drexel because of its longtime dedication to inclusive education. Merlo, the son of working-class parents in Italy, and the first in his family to attend college, is living proof that higher education is an important engine to social mobility.

“In a way, I embody what Drexel has been and can be for so many,” Merlo said, noting that without scholarships, he wouldn’t have had the resources to pursue his doctoral degree in the U.S.

An academic entrepreneur

Merlo attended Bocconi University in Milan for his undergraduate degree in economics and social sciences, where he said he “fell in love with academia.” He attended NYU for his doctoral degree, studying economics, and secured his first job out of college as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota.

“I applied for over 70 jobs, and I was open to moving anywhere,” recalled Merlo. “I ended up at the University of Minnesota and it was an incredible opportunity for me.”

Merlo said he remembers feeling intimidated at first, “working alongside geniuses” at one of the top economics departments in the country. Five of his colleagues would later earn a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

“It was a remarkable experience,” he said. “I learned so much there.”

After six years of growth at the University of Minnesota, and a stint as an adjunct consultant in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Merlo was lured back to NYU for a few years as an associate professor with tenure, where he had a joint position in economics and political science. He landed in Philadelphia and at Penn in 2000, where he earned recognition time and again for his scholarship and teaching, including the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2009, and the Irving B. Kravis Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Teaching in Economics on five separate occasions.

Throughout the years, Merlo’s scholarship has fused economics with politics, with his expertise hovering over political economy, policy analysis, public economics, bargaining theory and applications and empirical microeconomics. A little more than five years ago, after three decades of teaching, Merlo published an undergraduate textbook that focuses on political economy and policy analysis, which is used as an educational resource across the country. His research interests span the gamut, from the economics of crime, voting, the study of the residential housing market, and more, and he has been cited most for his scholarship involving politicians’ career decisions and bargaining theory in a stochastic environment.

“Politics affects economics and economics affects politics on a daily basis,” Merlo said, when asked why he got into this particular field of research. “I felt like I couldn’t study economics alone, and I wasn’t solely interested in politics per se, but I have always been very interested in how the political system and the economic system constantly interact to determine the world we live in.”

It was at Penn, where Merlo worked for 14 years, that he really got a taste of higher education administration and university service, convening conferences, fundraising for new fellowships and establishing global student exchange and research collaborations. He was appointed director of the Penn Institute for Economic Research in addition to his Lawrence R. Klein professorship and was a research associate at the university’s Population Studies Center and a member of the Center for Italian Studies advisory board.

Later at the Ivy League institution, Merlo became the chair of the Economics Department, before he took on the same role at Rice University, where he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming dean of Rice’s School of Social Sciences. As a dean at Rice, Merlo was instrumental in completing a major fundraising effort, which supported the construction of a state-of-the-art academic building, endowed chairs and graduate and undergraduate student fellowships. He also partnered with government agencies and nonprofit groups to establish a public policy research institute.

In 2019, he was recruited back to NYU, where he served as what some call a “super dean” — overseeing its Faculty of Arts & Science, the university’s largest academic unit, comprising of 1,600 faculty and staff members, three schools, dozens of departments, research centers, institutes and cultural houses. In this role, Merlo worked meticulously and strategically to expand the limits of NYU Arts & Science, overseeing the completion of a new, innovative home for the college, NYU’s founding school; establishing new centers and an office of research; growing research and fundraising dollars; and hiring 120 tenure-line faculty.

Coach Merlo

In addition to his academic and administrative duties, Merlo has also served as a beloved head coach for both men’s and women’s water polo teams at NYU, Penn and Rice. Coaching allowed him to connect with students on a deeper, more personal level, all while sharing in the sport he has played since childhood.

“Being a coach just allows you to interact with students at a different level, which I really enjoyed,” Merlo said. “I have huge respect and admiration for student athletes. You want to see leadership in action? Go visit with a sports team at a college.”

Sure, it was a lot, balancing his regular work with coaching, admitted Merlo. But it was worth it.

“The students juggle so many things, and I was like, if they can do it, I can do it,” he said. “It was always a joy to be a coach.”

Merlo brings his coaching mindset into every facet of his work — motivating, mentoring and always aiming for excellence. As he prepares to step into his new role at Drexel, his enthusiasm is unmistakable.

“Go Team Drexel,” he said. “Now it’s our time to win championships.”

Drexel’s bright future

A proud “city person,” Merlo has officially moved back to Philadelphia and is comfortably settling in, relishing long walks (his ideal mode of transportation) and the food and cultural scene he’s always adored. He has also embarked on his “listening tour,” meeting with folks from across the University with the goal of having a boost on Day 1 to “hit the ground running.”

“I want to meet everyone I possibly can, hear their concerns, understand what their pain points are, what their aspirations are, and really start putting all these pieces together with a strong team to continue moving Drexel forward,” he said.

Drexel’s Academic Transformation, which is at the top of Merlo’s priorities, will make the institution more attractive to students, better support scholars, build innovative programs and ultimately increase the institution’s impact on society. He has other big plans, for instance, to uplift Drexel’s alumni network and ramp up fundraising, with more details to be unveiled in the coming months. An inauguration celebration is expected to take place next spring.

“One of my goals is for Drexel to be discussed at dinner tables around the country,” said Merlo. “I want our concept of experiential learning to shine, and for everyone — whether you are in Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Pennsylvania or beyond — to say, ‘How about Drexel?’”

Duke Football picked up a commitment from South Carolina wideout Jayden Boyd during an official visit taken by the prospect over the weekend.

Boyd, a 5-foot-11, 170 pound WR/DB out of Fairfield-Central High in Winnsboro, SC, becomes the 11th player from the class of 2026 to commit to head coach Manny Diaz and the Blue Devils in the class of 2026, and the first from South Carolina in this cycle.

“The coaches just told me they all work together as one,” said Boyd. “Duke isn’t just a school of athletics or academics, it’s the best of both. I went into this weekend’s visit with an open mind about everything, and I enjoyed how together everyone was from players to coaches.”

(This story has been updated to add excerpts from an interview with Elle Potter.)

NBA player Micah Potter and his wife Elle Potter, a D1 volleyball standout, on Monday kicked off a four-day opportunity for rising athletes on Guam to learn more about their sport.

Harvest Christian Academy brought the Potters to Guam.

The 6’9” Micah Potter is a power forward and center for the Utah Jazz, while his wife Elle Potter is a Division 1 college volleyball standout from Loyola University Chicago.

The couple is hosting the Potter NBA x D1 Next LVL Sports Camp for grades third through 12th at Harvest Christian Academy from June 23 to 26.

Planning for the sport camp started in January when one of Harvest Christian Academy’s assistant basketball coaches, Titus Baugus, reached out to Micah Potter.

At the same time, Potter’s father, Tim Potter, a pastor speaking at a Harvest church event, introduced the idea to the school’s pastors.

“I’ve known Titus for years, and he brought up the idea of my wife and I coming out here and running some sports camps,” Micah Potter told the Pacific Daily News on Monday. “When he told me about it, it was during the season, so I was more focused on the season.”

But once the season ended, “things came to fruition,” the NBA player said.

“And within about two weeks, all the details came together. We prayed about it, and we decided to commit to it, and here we are, and we’re really excited,” Micah Potter said.

‘Talent only gets you so far’

The main goal is for the participants to leave with a winning mindset they can use outside of sports.

Statistically, very few athletes continue to play college sports and fewer advance to professional leagues.

Micah Potter’s focus instead is to help participants understand the value of hard work.

“You can have a lot of talent, but talent only gets you so far, and then once you get to that point, you have to make sure your work backs up your talent,” he said. “[We want] to instill the detailed mindset that it takes, the drive that it takes, the sacrifice that it takes. I’m not saying every one of these kids are going to make it to that level, because, statistically, it’s just not gonna happen.”

But in any aspect of life, he said, that mindset will help them.

“Whether it’s their regular job, helping raise their kids, or treating their wife, husband, boss, or coworker with respect, all of those attributes apply to every aspect of life, so we’d love to be able to help these kids understand that,” Micah Potter said.

Faith at the core

Besides skill, technique, and the proper mentality, Micah Potter’s greatest hope for the camp is instilling faith at the core of athletic training.

“We don’t want this camp to be a drag, or too hard that they won’t enjoy the sport that they’re playing,” Micah Potter said. “Elle and I are both excited to teach these kids the love for the game that we had. On top of that, we really want them to know where our true identity comes from and where our true joy comes from, and that’s our relationship with Jesus.”

He continued, “We want them to have fun [and] develop their skills in the sport that they’re coming for, whether it’s volleyball or basketball, [but also] we want them to understand the love that Jesus has for them.”

Integrating sports and ministry in a joint venture has been a long-time goal of the Potters, and this opportunity with Harvest Christian Academy has finally allowed them to fulfill their goal.

Both of them have previous experience working at basketball and volleyball camps during their college careers.

Furthermore, Elle Potter previously traveled with Josiah Venture to Eastern Europe, leading volleyball camps in Moldova, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic. However, the couple has never led a faith-based camp together until now.

“All of that has just prepared us for now, and I’m glad to be here, glad to have kids that are excited to learn stuff, maybe from a different coach or a different viewpoint,” Elle Potter told the PDN. “We’re excited to be here [and] do this camp together, because that’s what we’ve wanted to do for a while, and it’s our first time.”

Goal, purpose

Josh Thaler, the athletic director at Harvest Christian Academy, expanded on this goal and the difference between a person’s goal as an athlete and their purpose as a Christian.

“One of the things I instill in my players is winning is the goal, never the purpose,” Thaler said. “Micah’s career is literally based on trying to win as much as possible, but that’s never his purpose in life, that’s not why God made him. God made him to honor God and to live his life for Christ, but the number of wins or the number of losses is never going to take that away from Micah. Christ is such an important part of our lives that’s going to overflow in every aspect that we do and in every conversation we have.”

In this vein, an important lesson the Potters want participants to remember is that victory in competition should be sought for the collective’s sake and not for personal gain.

Although their primary angle pertains to ministry, this lesson echoes the same team mentality that every coach drills into their athletes.

“We believe that pride comes before you fall,” Elle Potter said. “If the whole motive behind wanting to be the best at a sport or wanting to win is [personal] glory, then it’s all twisted. The kids who are the best at their sport, their end goal [should be] to use their sport to ultimately further the kingdom. At the end of the day, sometimes, you might be the only Bible that somebody reads. They just see you, your actions, and how you treat people.”

As the Potters attribute much of their success to their faith, they want to share what biblical themes they believe have helped them succeed with aspiring athletes.

“The main priority is that it’s a sports camp, but that’s like 1a, and 1b is the Christian themes that go along with applying to sports,” Micah Potter said. “My wife and I, our identity comes from Christ, not from our sport, and the only reason that we were able to make it to the levels that we have is because of our relationship with Jesus.”

“There’s so many biblical principles that apply to doing things the right way — having a good attitude, self control, discipline, work ethic, doing all of that for the glory of God — and we’ll make sure that that is an emphasis,” he added.

More can still join the sports camp

Although the camp is underway, spots are still available for anyone that wants to join.

Additional information and how to register can be found at http://hcaguam.org/summer.

There is also a free admission event for teens on Friday, June 27.

Harvest Christian Academy said it will host an open basketball and volleyball tournament for camp participants and others who want to play and meet the Potters before they leave.

In the wake of U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken granting final approval to the 10-year settlement between the NCAA, power conferences and current and former D-I athletes represented by the House, Carter and Hubbard antitrust litigations, some fear the settlement will encourage schools to cut Division I non-revenue and Olympic sports teams. 

A popular narrative is setting in: It insists the House settlement will impose new costs on schools that make it harder to justify keeping teams that aren’t either money-makers or needed to comply with Title IX’s gender equity requirements. But while the settlement is impactful, don’t fall for the head fake that it is the only or most important factor in schools’ decisions to keep certain sports or cut sports altogether.

It’s true that sports like tennis, track and field, and swimming and diving are more vulnerable in the post-settlement world. American Volleyball Coaches Association CEO Jaime Gordon recently said that 32 Division I Olympic sports teams have been cut since the settlement’s announcement. 

To be sure, the House settlement will place new costs on colleges and up the cost of college sports. Colleges can elect to directly pay athletes a share of up to 22% of the average power conference athletic media, ticket and sponsorship revenue, with $20.5 million pegged as the initial annual cap. Those payments are in addition to athletic scholarships, which cover tuition, housing, health resources and other benefits, and NIL deals athletes with third parties. 

Division I schools that decline to share revenue with athletes will face new costs, too. 

The settlement calls for qualified athletes who played as far back as 2016 to receive about $2.8 billion over the next decade. The money reflects forgone NIL opportunities, denied revenue from broadcasts and potential earnings from video games that were never made on account of NCAA rules.

Both revenue-sharing and non-revenue-sharing schools, including Houston Christian University, which challenged the back pay feature, will see funds withheld. HCU has argued it will essentially pay $300,000 a year over the next 10 years, for a total of $3 million, on account of a settlement that it insists it never approved. Wilken denied that argument, noting HCU is bound by virtue of its NCAA membership. 

But it’s important to remember that House settlement-related costs are not occurring in an intercollegiate sports vacuum. They should be placed in the broader context of higher ed; universities face a multiple budget challenges that aren’t related to athletics but will make it harder to fund athletics.

As a starting point, colleges face the dreaded “enrollment cliff.” A decline in U.S. birthrates beginning in 2008 means that an accompanying drop in the population of U.S. college-age students will hit universities by next year. The drop is expected to be about 15% and last until around 2041. 

This development will have profound impacts on many universities, especially those in states expected to endure the harshest reductions—Illinois, for example, is projected to see a 32% drop in high school graduates between 2023 and 2041. Fewer students will mean decreases in revenue from tuition, dormitory, meal plan and student fees. Universities could mitigate the financial hit by raising prices on students, but that would be unpopular and could undermine recruitment and retention efforts.

Universities will also need to compete aggressively for fewer students. This is likely good news for students, as schools dangle more competitive financial aid packages and bad news for schools as they receive less money. This is particularly worrisome for the numerous colleges that are “tuition-dependent,” meaning most of their operating budget isn’t funded by donors, endowments or grants but instead by tuition dollars. 

The Trump administration’s hostility toward international students is also a key consideration. Trump has attempted—unsuccessfully thus far—to block Harvard University from admitting international students. Also, the State Department has directed embassies to determine if prospective international students of U.S. universities have “hostile attitudes” before student visas are issued.

While these efforts are legally problematic and substantively dubious—the U.S. is strengthened when talented international students study here and join the American workforce—they’ll encourage some international students to head for other countries’ universities. A drop in international students will have sizable economic ramifications. Those students typically pay full tuition. 

As schools brace for smaller enrollments, they also face the prospect of fewer and downsized federal grants. The Trump Administration has targeted federal assistance to universities for budget cuts. Research grants and Pell grants (which help undergraduate students who have financial needs) have faced, or are expected to face, reductions and more eligibility limitations. As of last month, universities had lost about $11 billion in research grants. Some researchers might leave U.S. schools and head abroad.

Another lifeline for colleges, the federal student loan system, is also in lawmakers’ crosshairs. As part of the ongoing budget debate, Congress is weighing reforms designed to increase the government’s chances for repayment, but critics charge this would lead more borrowers into risk of default. Colleges worry they would be required to reimburse the federal government if their students fail to repay their loans.

In addition, university endowments are eyed by lawmakers as a source of revenue to offset business and income tax cuts and other reforms. Congress is weighing several concepts that would raise, in some instances by high degrees, the excise tax universities pay on their endowment income. Endowments are often portrayed as de facto savings accounts for colleges, but that depiction is off base. Endowment funds are usually restricted for specific purposes, such as a scholarship for a student who meets certain criteria. They can’t be used to address most operational needs. 

Universities’ tax-exempt status on account of their educational missions is also under review. Trump has openly questioned the justification of the tax exemption, particularly for Harvard but more broadly as well. Bloomberg recently reported that the Treasury Department is considering a reform that could revoke a college’s tax-exempt status if the school considered “race in student admissions, scholarships and other areas.”

It’s not just the federal government that could take money away from colleges. Some states are expected to reduce support. For example, in New Hampshire—which is already last among the 50 states for state public education funding as a percentage of revenue receipts—legislators are debating substantial reductions in financial assistance aimed at higher ed and public education.

The challenging landscape that colleges face won’t necessarily be all bad. It could lead universities to innovate, especially as the scope and quality of online education degrees and offerings. Colleges could attract new types of students, including adults who worked for years after high school and are interested in pursuing college as older students. 

Likewise, four-year colleges will be incentivized to identify more students from junior colleges as attractive candidates for enrollment. There is a sports hook to note. The NCAA requires that junior college students have a 2.5 GPA at their school to become Division I eligible at a four-year college, whereas the NCAA usually requires only a 2.0 GPA for an athlete to remain eligible after transferring from one Division I college to another. Some junior college students who are athletes might thus be discouraged from continuing their studies at four-year schools.

This is not an abstract concern. University of Nevada wide receiver Cortez Braham Jr., who is currently suing the NCAA to play another season, has noted he would have transferred to West Virginia University in 2021, but his 2.47 GPA was judged too low. 

The NCAA has maintained the GPA policy is sensible given educational goals.

“Academic achievement remains a priority for Division I members,” an NCAA spokesperson told Sportico. “The NCAA continues to work to find new ways to support student-athletes as they work toward earning their degree.”

Jeff White, the chief legal officer and a senior vice president at the National Junior College Athletic Association, told Sportico the NCAA should modify the GPA requirement for JUCO-to-four-year-college transfers so that it matches that for transfers between four-year schools. 

“That does not mean [the NCAA] should lower the GPA requirements for two-year students,” White said. “We believe raising the standard for four-year students is just as reasonable.”

White added: “Ironically enough, many NCAA members already offer guaranteed transfer opportunities to two-year students at participating two-year colleges. So participants can transfer and attend as a student, but the NCAA will not allow them to participate as a student-athlete. In the face of the enrollment cliff, the NCAA is forcing its members to turn away student-athletes that otherwise academically qualify. Make that make sense.”

This new era of higher ed could also force universities to face hard, but necessary, choices that they’ve punted on for years. Some will decide whether to close a school or program that has become less relevant in an economy that will be shaped by AI and demographic shifts. To that point, given that about 95% of colleges report losing money on athletics, perhaps some should rethink offering varsity athletics or at least certain teams. 

One thing is for certain: The House settlement is merely one of many factors that will reshape the future of college sports in America. Don’t give it more credit or blame than it deserves.

McCann is a professor of law and associate dean at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law and a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School.