Sources: NCAA to increase scholarships for sports, with football getting roster limit of 105 players

[Jason Svoboda]

Power conference commissioners have finalized roster limits for Football (105), Men’s and Women’s Basketball (15), Baseball (34), Softball (25) and Volleyball (18) starting in 2025-26, pending approval of the House settlement, per Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, who adds: “The details around roster sizes of other sports — many of which will see increases in scholarship slots — are expected in the document. No sport will see a reduction in scholarship spots, according to plaintiff attorneys. As part of the agreement, roster limits must be set at or more than current scholarship restriction for each sport. Another key change to the scholarship structure: All sports will be considered ‘equivalency sports,’ meaning partial scholarships can be distributed to players.” Dellenger goes on to note that the added scholarship costs for power conference schools are expected to total between $3-7M, with as much as $2.5M to count towards the revenue sharing cap, and “Some administrators are in the process of ‘tiering’ their sports by decreasing investment on certain programs and increasing investment in others. This includes staff and salary cuts as well as the reduction in scholarships from Olympic sports, especially those that generate little to no revenue.”

Sources: NCAA to increase scholarships for sports, with football getting roster limit of 105 players

As part of the new revenue-sharing model, by-sport scholarship restrictions will be eliminated, and schools are permitted to offer scholarships to the entirety of their rosters.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[Jason Svoboda]

Talent dilution incoming at lower levels unless you decide to sponsor sports fully.

 

[treeman]

NFL rosters have 53 spots + 16 for practice squad. Kind of crazy they are upping these numbers.

Also does it mean that baseball can now give 34 "full rides"? If that is the case SEC/ACC are going to have a complete monopoly on the sport, even more than they have right now.

But at the end of the day, available playing time isn't changing. The bench just got longer. Kids still want/need to play. It just is going to cost more to field teams for the top guys

 

[MovingScreenOfDeath]

Also does it mean that baseball can now give 34 "full rides"? If that is the case SEC/ACC are going to have a complete monopoly on the sport, even more than they have right now.

My counterpoint would be that making a coach decide how to award a dozen scholarships to a full baseball roster is/was an awful position for any coach/player to be in, and that's something that needed changed years ago.

Like you said, you still start the games with the same nine-man lineup. There's going to be guys that will decide that getting meaningful playtime is more important than a full-ride to sit on the bench at Arkansas or LSU.

 

[4Q_iu]

Talent dilution incoming at lower levels unless you decide to sponsor sports fully.

True... this is "return" to the days of 125 scholarship teams... when the "big teams" would ink a kid just to KEEP them from inking with a conference rival...

 

[treeman]

Useful chart with all sports:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1816944819731882068

If my math is correct that is a possibility for Indiana State to add 158.7 scholarships amongst all it's sports. That total number does NOT include football. If FCS has the same +20 increase the P4 are doing that is a total of 178.7 scholarships for the trees across all sponsored sports.

I know these scholarship aren't a requirement to give out, but hot damn this looks like a financial disaster.

The craziest scholarship uptick I think has to be for the cross country and track and field teams. For the men their was a total of 17.6 total scholarship given out and that number ballooned too 62. The kicker is for conference meets you can only bring around 34 athletes...

 

[4Q_iu]

Useful chart with all sports:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1816944819731882068

If my math is correct that is a possibility for Indiana State to add 158.7 scholarships amongst all it's sports. That total number does NOT include football. If FCS has the same +20 increase the P4 are doing that is a total of 178.7 scholarships for the trees across all sponsored sports.

I know these scholarship aren't a requirement to give out, but hot damn this looks like a financial disaster.

The craziest scholarship uptick I think has to be for the cross country and track and field teams. For the men their was a total of 17.6 total scholarship given out and that number ballooned too 62. The kicker is for conference meets you can only bring around 34 athletes...

can ISU afford to add 15 additional scholies, much less your 159?

i'll wager the P2, `p3 will add scholies just to 'stockpile' talent

not sure what 'problem' is solved with this increase

 

[DyedBlue]

The Power conference problem of embarrassing losses to second to fourth tier schools. After the 18 Big 10 teams suck up 400 more scholarship baseball players, there won't be enough quality pitching left to compete in the Midwest.