The effective scholarship limits for football and other college sports are about to go way up. And that’s about to lead to more questions for schools and how many hard financial decisions have to be made.
The power conference commissioners have decided on roster limits that will be filed this week as part of the settlement in the House vs. NCAA case, which has to be approved by the court. Scholarship limits are being eliminated as part of the settlement, replaced by a roster limit system in which each team can choose to scholarship as many or as few athletes as it wants.
The football roster limit, as reported last week, will be 105, two sources briefed on the numbers confirmed. That’s an increase from the 85-player scholarship limit that has existed for decades but below the previous roster limit, which was 120 as of the start of the season.
The limit will be effective for the 2025-26 season, along with other aspects of the settlement, including revenue sharing, expected to be around $20 million per school to each school’s athletes.
Baseball, meanwhile, is seeing its number essentially triple: 34 will be the roster/scholarship limit, up from the 11.7 scholarship limit that has existed for decades. But the roster limit had been 40 during the season, so with the freedom to hand out more scholarships will come fewer overall roster spots.
There could still be some wiggle room for teams. The roster limits for teams (football, baseball and otherwise) may apply only when the season begins, letting teams carry more players in the preseason and offseason, if they choose.
Another twist, the sources confirmed, is all sports being allowed to split scholarships among players, the way baseball and other sports have done. For instance, a football team could use 105 roster spots, while having 85 on full scholarship and giving the other 20 half-scholarships or something along those lines.
The numbers in basketball are staying similar: Men’s and women’s teams will have a roster limit of 15. The current scholarship limit is 13.
Softball, much like baseball, is going way up, from a scholarship limit of 12 to a roster limit of 25. Volleyball is going to a roster limit of 18; its previous scholarship limits were 4.5 for men’s teams and 12 for women’s teams.
Of course, there are myriad open questions, especially with schools set to have around $20 million in revenue-sharing payments. How much cost-cutting will happen, and will that lead to sports being cut? How close to the limit will schools pay in scholarships?
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“I think it will differ school by school — ultimately, everyone faces the same financial challenge with revenue vs. 20 million in revenue share, plus increased scholarships,” an administrator at a power conference school said. “From what I’ve heard, schools are going to be hesitant to immediately go up to new scholarship limits until the revenue share shakes out. Football might be an outlier (because of pressure from coaches and donors), but a lot of schools will not go up to scholarship limits right off the bat.”
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(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Seth Emerson is a senior writer for The Athletic covering Georgia and the SEC. Seth joined The Athletic in 2018 from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and also covered the Bulldogs and the SEC for The Albany Herald from 2002-05. Seth also covered South Carolina for The State from 2005-10. Follow Seth on Twitter @SethWEmerson
