Twenty sports, one office, and a game notes deadline that doesn't care how many events ran Saturday. Next Play is overflow support or full outsourcing for NAIA, JUCO, and Division III — built and run by someone who sat in that chair. Not a vendor learning your workflow. A colleague who already knows it.
Most departments don't need everything — they need the three things nobody has time for. Take the full scope or scope it to the gap.
The workflow is the one you'd run yourself if you had the hours. Pick a phase to see what ships.
Filed before the bus leaves.
Through the contest, on the clock.
Filed inside the window, every time.
Departments arrive here from two directions — one office covering too many sports, or a vacant position with a season already underway. Both run on the same retainer, scoped to how much of the workflow you're handing over.
Three-month terms exist because most departments arrive here mid-crisis — a vacancy, a season already underway, or a stretch where the volume simply doesn't fit. Scale up, scale down, or end cleanly. Every asset and system we build stays with the department.
Usually the opposite. Most engagements exist because one person is covering eighteen sports and something has to give. We take the volume that doesn't fit — a few sports, or a few functions across all of them — so the work that requires institutional knowledge stays with the person who has it. Full outsourcing is on the table when a position is vacant and the season isn't waiting.
Fair question and the right one to ask. Game notes, AP style, record book maintenance, and a recap filed inside two hours are the job as we learned it at the Division I level. We'll write a live sample off one of your own contests before you sign anything — judge it on the work.
We work inside what you already run rather than asking you to move. Most departments have an athletics CMS, a stats provider, and a broadcast setup that aren't changing — we adapt to them. Where a workflow genuinely isn't working we'll say so, but migration isn't a condition of the engagement.
Stat filing, record keeping, and conference submissions are part of the workflow when they're in scope. Compliance rulings stay with your compliance officer — we don't interpret eligibility or governance, and we'll route anything in that territory back to your office rather than guess.
That's the scoping conversation. We'll tell you what we can hold to before you sign rather than discover it in October. Where volume exceeds what a turnaround window supports, we say so up front and either scope differently or price for the coverage it actually takes.
Then you hire someone. Engagements scale down or end cleanly, and every asset, template, and system we built stays with the department. A number of these start as bridge coverage during a search — that's a legitimate reason to work together and we won't pretend otherwise.