New College Sports Roster Limits Announced with Expanded Scholarship Numbers

As part of the House Settlement agreement involving the proposed sharing of revenue with NCAA college athletes, the number of scholarship spots available on a program will now be aligned to the roster limit.

·        More than 750 additional scholarship spots available across college sports

·        Scholarship restrictions replaced with roster size limits

·        Men’s and women’s soccer will each have 28 scholarships available

·        New rules come into effect from the start of the 2025-26 academic year

·        Coincides with new model permitting schools to share revenue with athletes

With the new rules, the roster model will permit schools to offer a scholarship to each player on a sport’s roster up to the new roster limit. This will see approximately 790 new scholarships being made available across the 40-plus NCAA sports, taking the total from around 500 to more than 1,200.

As an example, college football will now have a roster limit of 105 with the equivalent number of scholarships available – an increase of 20 on the previous limit. For men’s soccer, the roster limit will be 28, with the number of scholarships increasing from 9.9 to 28, while women’s soccer will double from 14 scholarships available to 28. Schools are not required to give out scholarships to each player, but now do have that option.

The legislation changes are expected to result in a significant increase in scholarships, with a predicted $3 – 7m surge each year. For some of the leading programs, the total cost of additional scholarships and revenue sharing with athletes could amount to $30m annually. To maintain Title IX compliance, any scholarship increases in men’s sport will need to be replicated in women’s sports, driving costs up further.

Certain sports may be impacted by the option to increase scholarships, with some schools in the process of tiering their sports by decreasing investment in selected sports while increasing funding in others, across rosters and coaching staff, especially those sports which generate the lowest revenue.