Post by AlaCowboy on Jul 27, 2024 8:48:12 GMT -5
If you think the big conference changes and the expanded Playoffs this season will change things in college sports, wait until 2025 and see some major changes. The top schools and conferences will get bigger and richer, and the smaller schools and conferences will get even smaller.
www.al.com/sports/2024/07/roster-limits-massive-scholarship-increases-expected-as-part-of-lawsuit-settlement.html
Roster limits, massive scholarship increases expected as part of lawsuit settlement
Updated: Jul. 26, 2024, 1:27 p.m.|Published: Jul. 26, 2024, 12:50 p.m.
By Creg Stephenson | cstephenson@al.com
A settlement in three anti-trust lawsuits against the NCAA is expected to be filed in California late Friday, leading to widespread changes to roster sizes and makeup in several college sports.
According to multiple reports, power-conference (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC) football rosters will be capped at 105, with men’s and women’s basketball set at 15, baseball at 34 and softball at 25. However, all athletes on those rosters may be awarded scholarships, which could largely do away with the concept of walk-ons at major programs.
Football rosters are currently capped at 125 players, 85 of whom may be on scholarship. That second number would increase by 20 under the new rules, disrupting college athletic budgets across the country.
The increases would take effect with the 2025-26 athletic year, meaning it’s likely that a flood of players from FCS and Group of 5 schools would transfer to power-conference programs. Power-conference walk-ons in turn would likely transfer down in order to keep playing.
Many coaches are displeased at the idea of eliminating walk-ons, including Clemson’s Dabo Swinney. A walk-on himself at Alabama in the late 1980s, Swinney said Thursday at ACC Media Days that his career would not have happened without the opportunity given to him as a non-scholarship player with the Crimson Tide.
Swinney played wide receiver on Alabama’s 1992 national championship team, and was later a graduate assistant under coach Gene Stallings. He was elevated to a full-time assistant in 1996, and became Clemson’s head coach in 2008.
“That doesn’t happen if [Stallings] hadn’t seen me,” Swinney said, via ESPN. “I can’t even imagine how different things would’ve been.”
Not every school would do away with walk-ons, as many are not expected to field rosters entirely of scholarship players in all five affected sports. Baseball in particular has the sharpest increase in nearly tripling its numbers, going from a maximum of 11.7 scholarships (which are often broken up and divided among several players) to 34.
The lawsuit filing is also expected to include details on more than $2.5 billion in back pay that will be awarded to former college athletes. A new revenue-sharing model is also likely to be unveiled, with details on how schools will distribute more than $20 million annual to current athletes.
www.al.com/sports/2024/07/roster-limits-massive-scholarship-increases-expected-as-part-of-lawsuit-settlement.html
Roster limits, massive scholarship increases expected as part of lawsuit settlement
Updated: Jul. 26, 2024, 1:27 p.m.|Published: Jul. 26, 2024, 12:50 p.m.
By Creg Stephenson | cstephenson@al.com
A settlement in three anti-trust lawsuits against the NCAA is expected to be filed in California late Friday, leading to widespread changes to roster sizes and makeup in several college sports.
According to multiple reports, power-conference (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC) football rosters will be capped at 105, with men’s and women’s basketball set at 15, baseball at 34 and softball at 25. However, all athletes on those rosters may be awarded scholarships, which could largely do away with the concept of walk-ons at major programs.
Football rosters are currently capped at 125 players, 85 of whom may be on scholarship. That second number would increase by 20 under the new rules, disrupting college athletic budgets across the country.
The increases would take effect with the 2025-26 athletic year, meaning it’s likely that a flood of players from FCS and Group of 5 schools would transfer to power-conference programs. Power-conference walk-ons in turn would likely transfer down in order to keep playing.
Many coaches are displeased at the idea of eliminating walk-ons, including Clemson’s Dabo Swinney. A walk-on himself at Alabama in the late 1980s, Swinney said Thursday at ACC Media Days that his career would not have happened without the opportunity given to him as a non-scholarship player with the Crimson Tide.
Swinney played wide receiver on Alabama’s 1992 national championship team, and was later a graduate assistant under coach Gene Stallings. He was elevated to a full-time assistant in 1996, and became Clemson’s head coach in 2008.
“That doesn’t happen if [Stallings] hadn’t seen me,” Swinney said, via ESPN. “I can’t even imagine how different things would’ve been.”
Not every school would do away with walk-ons, as many are not expected to field rosters entirely of scholarship players in all five affected sports. Baseball in particular has the sharpest increase in nearly tripling its numbers, going from a maximum of 11.7 scholarships (which are often broken up and divided among several players) to 34.
The lawsuit filing is also expected to include details on more than $2.5 billion in back pay that will be awarded to former college athletes. A new revenue-sharing model is also likely to be unveiled, with details on how schools will distribute more than $20 million annual to current athletes.
