College football roster sizes may be drastically lowered as part of a recent proposal about athlete compensation.
According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, the presidents of the power conferences are debating a proposal that would restrict rosters to as little as 85 to 95 players.
Dellenger pointed out that settlement agreements for the three antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA suggested that the idea was raised as “part of what could be a sweeping and historic transformation” within collegiate sports.
“Any settlement of these cases—House, Hubbard and Carter—is expected to feature as much as $2.9 billion in back damages for former players, a future revenue sharing model with current athletes and an overhaul of the NCAA scholarship and roster structure,” said Dellenger.
Dellenger claims that settlement negotiations are “deep enough” for college administrators and NCAA officials to be “socialising plans of a new compensation model,” which would see universities start giving athletes more than $20 million a year in 2025.
There is no hard limit on the number of players a football team can have on its roster under the present regulations. A game can have no more than 70 participants participating at once. There are only 85 full scholarship players available to FBS schools each year. Each year, FCS programmes are permitted to have up to 63 athletes on full scholarships.
In any one year, an FBS roster may consist of 115 players or more. The new regulation would essentially cap the quantity of walk-on players that a team might have on their roster.
A potentially significant aspect of the proposal, according to Dellenger, is “scholarship restrictions by permitting schools to expand financial aid to the entirety of a sport’s roster positions.”
This might make more full scholarships available for other sports. Dellenger used baseball as an example, where there are currently 11.7 scholarships available year according to NCAA regulations. If the school so desires, the new model might award full scholarships to each of the 32 roster positions on a team.