NORTHFIELD, Vt.- The New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) announced its 2024–25 All-Academic Team for women’s ice hockey on Wednesday. Fifteen players on the Norwich Women’s Ice Hockey team earned recognition for their academic performance and commitment to excellence in the classroom.

To qualify for the NEHC All-Academic Team, a student-athlete must carry a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 and have completed at least one full academic year at their institution.

 

As graduate students, Archambault and Clark receive All-Academic team recognition for the fourth time, while Girouard receives it for the third time as the lone senior. Of the 15 honorees, six are sophomores in their first year of eligibility for the All-Academic Team.

In the final season of NEHC competition, the Cadets finished with a berth in the conference title game. The maroon and gold look to continue their excellent tradition in the Little East Conference (LEC) under new Head Coach Justin Simpson.

 

 

DENVER – The University of Denver gymnastics team has added Mary Rice as an assistant coach, Joy S. Burns Head Women’s Gymnastics Coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart announced on Thursday.
 
“We’re incredibly excited to have Mary Rice join the Denver Gymnastics family,” Kutcher-Rinehart said. “She’s experienced, accomplished and knowledgeable, and will bring her passion and enthusiasm for the sport to our program. She is a dedicated, hardworking and thoughtful coach who can teach from the basics all the way to the highest level. She’ll complement (fellow new assistant coach) Megan Haught wonderfully as both of them know how to balance technical coaching with compassion, collaboration and communication, and will embrace our philosophy of character, teamwork and excellence. Together, Mary and Megan have fostered connections that will continue to move Denver Gymnastics forward.”
 
Rice has spent more than a decade coaching professionally, most recently serving as a full-time team coach for Level 9 and 10 gymnasts at Brandy Johnson’s Gymnastics in Clermont, Fla., since June 2020. She began her coaching career at Sun Country Gymnastics in Gainesville, Fla., in 2012, teaching athletes from beginner levels up to Level 10. In total, she has seen nearly 50 of her athletes compete at the USA Gymnastics Development Program National Championships and seven of them qualify for the prestigious Nastia Liukin Cup – including two all-around silver medalists. Fifteen of her gymnasts received Division I athletic scholarships as well.
 
Additionally, Rice is a USAG Level 10-rated judge, has served as a beam and floor choreographer, and developed conditioning programs at both Brandy Johnson’s and Sun Country.
 
“I am so excited and grateful to be joining the DU family,” Rice said. “To have the opportunity to be a part of such a historically successful program led by one of the most tenured head coaches in the NCAA was something I could not pass up. I am thrilled to be able to contribute my knowledge, passion and energy to Pioneers gymnastics, and I can’t wait to get started.”
 
Rice twice graduated from the University of Florida, first with a bachelor’s degree in applied physiology and kinesiology in 2011 before receiving her master’s degree in exercise physiology in 2014.
 
Rice will join Megan Haught as the newest members of the Denver gymnastics coaching staff ahead of the 2025-26 academic year.
 
The University of Denver gymnastics team finished the 2025 season ranked No. 13 nationally and reached its sixth consecutive NCAA Regional Final after tying with No. 4 Utah for first place and upsetting then-No. 13 Stanford in the NCAA Second Round. Denver was just three tenths from a team berth to the NCAA National Championships, placing behind only eventual NCAA runner-up UCLA and NCAA finalist Utah.
 
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Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest effort by Congress to regulate college sports generated predictable partisan outrage on Thursday, with Democrats saying Republican-led draft legislation would claw back freedoms won by athletes through years of litigation against the NCAA.

Three House committees are considering legislation that would create a national standard for name, image and likeness payments to athletes and protect the NCAA against future lawsuits. Last week, a federal judge approved a $2.8 billion settlement that will lead to schools paying athletes directly, and NCAA President Charlie Baker said now that his organization is implementing those major changes, Congress needs to step in and stabilize college sports.

Baker said he supports the draft legislation that was the subject of Thursday’s hearing by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, but there was little indication that any bill advanced by the House would generate enough Democratic support to surpass the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

“I’m deeply disappointed for the second year in a row, Republicans on this committee are advancing a partisan college sports bill that protects the power brokers of college athletics at the expense of the athletes themselves,” said Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass.

Trahan noted that if the NCAA or conferences establish unfair rules, athletes can challenge them in court, with the settlement of the House v. NCAA antitrust case the latest example of athletes winning rights that they had been denied historically.

“This bill rewrites that process to guarantee the people in power always win, and the athletes who fuel this multibillion-dollar industry always lose,” said Trahan, who played volleyball at Georgetown.

The NCAA argues that it needs a limited antitrust exemption in order to set its own rules and preserve a college sports system that provides billions of dollars in scholarships and helps train future U.S. Olympians. Several athletes are suing the NCAA over its rule that athletes are only eligible to play four seasons in a five-year period, and on Tuesday, a group of female athletes filed an appeal of the House settlement, saying it discriminated against women in violation of federal law.

On the Senate side, a bipartisan group including Republican Ted Cruz of Texas has been negotiating a college sports reform bill for months, but those talks are moving more slowly than Cruz had hoped at the beginning of this Congress.

The draft bill in the House would create a national standard for NIL, overriding the state laws that critics say have led to a chaotic recruiting environment. That, too, was criticized by Democrats and by their key witness at the hearing, Ramogi Huma, executive director of the National College Players Association.

Huma argued that the NCAA wants to get rid of booster-funded NIL collectives that another witness, Southeastern Conference associate commissioner William King, characterized as “fake NIL” or “pay for play.”

Instead, Huma said the collectives are examples of the free market at work, noting that before players won NIL rights through a court case, boosters could only donate to athletic departments.

Tom McMillen, a former Democratic congressman who played in the NBA after an All-America basketball career at Maryland, took a dim view of the bill’s prospects.

“I think they’re trying to come up with something and pull in some Democrats. I just don’t know if that’s going to succeed or not,” said McMillen, who for several years led an association of Division I athletic directors. “There’s a real philosophical divide, so that’s the hard part. It’s hard to bridge. And there’s a zillion other issues.”

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said the draft legislation already had some bipartisan support and he was open to changes that would get more Democrats on board.

“I will consider some of the suggestions, the legitimate suggestions that were made,” Bilirakis said, “and I will be happy to talk to lawmakers that truly want to get a big bill across the finish line.”

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Rice just took its first step toward sharing revenue with athletes. The approval of the House v. NCAA settlement last Friday put an end to the NCAA’s amateurism model, requiring that members of the Power 4 conferences share up to $20.5 million of their revenue with college athletes, while also establishing a clearinghouse for outside NIL deals. 

But schools outside of the Power 4 have until June 30 to decide if they will opt into the terms of the settlement—that includes Rice. Since all members of the American Athletic Conference opted into the settlement, the conference announced a minimum spending requirement of at least $10 million over a three-year period on its athletes, including scholarships, Alston rewards and revenue.

To help with that, Rice has hired Tasha Moser as its Associate Athletic Director of Name, Image and Likeness and General Manager. Moser (formerly Schwikert), has served as the principal attorney at Munck, Wilson Mandala LLP in Houston, helping spearhead the firm’s “WeAreNIL,” practice, offering consulting services for collectives, athletes and brands and in the NIL space. It also posts fun educational videos to help guide athletes through contract language and enable them to lean into their strengths to maximize earning potential.

Moser also knows what it’s like to be an elite athlete. A former collegiate gymnast at UCLA, Moser was a member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic gymnastics team that earned a team bronze medal in the Sydney Olympics. She earned six NCAA championship medals during her time with the Bruins, winning gold in both the 2005 and 2008 all-around competition, as well as the uneven bars in 2008. She’s been inducted into both the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame and UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame. 

“It was essential that we find a leader with both experience and passion to guide our NIL efforts—someone who genuinely understands and champions the student-athlete experience,” Rice Athletic Director Tommy McClelland said in a release. “Tasha’s journey—from excelling as a world-class gymnast to becoming a highly successful attorney with deep experience in the NIL space—perfectly positions her for this moment. She will play a leading role in building a new and essential unit within our athletics department.”

Moser has not only helped athletes receive the education and tools they need to succeed, but also testified before Congress on behalf of survivors of Larry Nassar’s abuse and serves on the USA Gymnastics Board of Directors. 

In her new position with Rice, Moser will not only serve as the primary resource for the department in determining how it shares revenue with athletes, but also act as a liaison to third-party entities hoping to strike NIL deals with student athletes. She’ll also assist coaches with roster management. 

Moser’s position is something schools across the nation have begun adding since 2021, when college athletes first received permission to earn money off their name, image and likeness. But it’s about to get more complicated for athletic departments once the House v. NCAA Settlement goes into effect on July 1. As a private institution, Rice’s athletic budget is not public record. However, Collegiate Consulting published a study in partnership with the institution this year finding that over the past three years, game day and event economic impact of Rice athletic events, camps and non-athletic events held in athletic venues amounted to $115.72 million, while the impact of athletic staff and student athletes was $97.6 million and direct revenue impact of $63.68 million.

“Rice has long been a national leader in academic excellence, and now it is leading the way in NIL innovation,” Moser said in a release. “I am thrilled to help support and elevate our remarkable student-athletes, both on the field and in the classroom, and to build on the incredible momentum that Tommy and [Eric George, Assistant VP & Deputy Athletic Director of Rice Athletics] have already established. There’s never been a more exciting time to be an Owl!”