Should the NCAA change the FBS scholarship limit?

[BigRedBuster]

28 minutes ago, sho said:

I think the NCAA is already planning on allowing both additional scholarships and coaches.   The driving force is fear of another lawsuit and limiting right to choose...if the school wants to give player X a scholarship and that player wants to go there, the NCAA shouldn't prevent that as it's limiting opportunities and opens up lawsuits that NCAA believes they would lose.   There is a growing belief among compliance directors is that schools will soon be able to have 100+ kids on scholarship for football, if they'd like and 20+ kids on scholarship for basketball if they'd like.  They would just have to balance the scholarship numbers to the Title IX federal guidelines, which means most likely more scholarships available for female athletes.   The growing belief is scholarships will only be limited by budget constraints at schools and not based on arbitrary caps placed on them by the NCAA.   Some fear this will lead to a power imbalance but the counter argument being made is kids will go where they will play and will transfer out so small schools will still get good/great athletes.  I can see the day where there will be unlimited transfers, scholarships and coaches in the next 5-10 years or so

That might be what they and the courts are thinking. But, I think it’s bs. The NFL limits the number of players that can be on an active roster.  Why can’t a college team?

[sho]

34 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

That might be what they and the courts are thinking. But, I think it’s bs. The NFL limits the number of players that can be on an active roster.  Why can’t a college team?

 

Because that's the rule the players union and owners agreed to, college players didn't agree to a roster limit

 

Edit, also keep in mind most schools are already actively running rosters of 100+ based on walk-ons.  The fear of a lawsuit is large and the NCAA doesn't want this to go to court and is actively looking at changing this/removing this rule to prevent another legal L

[307husker]

3 hours ago, sho said:

I think the NCAA is already planning on allowing both additional scholarships and coaches.   The driving force is fear of another lawsuit and limiting right to choose...if the school wants to give player X a scholarship and that player wants to go there, the NCAA shouldn't prevent that as it's limiting opportunities and opens up lawsuits that NCAA believes they would lose.   There is a growing belief among compliance directors is that schools will soon be able to have 100+ kids on scholarship for football, if they'd like and 20+ kids on scholarship for basketball if they'd like.  They would just have to balance the scholarship numbers to the Title IX federal guidelines, which means most likely more scholarships available for female athletes.   The growing belief is scholarships will only be limited by budget constraints at schools and not based on arbitrary caps placed on them by the NCAA.   Some fear this will lead to a power imbalance but the counter argument being made is kids will go where they will play and will transfer out so small schools will still get good/great athletes.  I can see the day where there will be unlimited transfers, scholarships and coaches in the next 5-10 years or so

Well, then, this might work out pretty well for my daughters  (swimmers).  Should increase the # of female athletic scholarships for Title IX compliance!

 

Woo hoo!

[Hilltop]

14 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

That might be what they and the courts are thinking. But, I think it’s bs. The NFL limits the number of players that can be on an active roster.  Why can’t a college team?

An NFL roster is full of guys ready to play at every position.   A college roster, at any given time,  might have some % injured,  and another large % in major developmental stages.  Every NFL team has way more than their limited # on the active roster.   They can pull players up from their practice squad at the drop of a hat when they have a need.   They are limited but it is similar to a college travel roster type of limitation. 

[BigRedBuster]

8 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

An NFL roster is full of guys ready to play at every position.   A college roster, at any given time,  might have some % injured,  and another large % in major developmental stages.  Every NFL team has way more than their limited # on the active roster.   They can pull players up from their practice squad at the drop of a hat when they have a need.   They are limited but it is similar to a college travel roster type of limitation. 

What does that have to do with college not legally being allowed to have scholarship limits?  They already have a higher scholarship limit than the roster limits in the NFL.  Sure, the NFL has the practice squad.  But, college has walk-ons too.  

 

Almost all professional sports leagues have limits as to the number you can have on your team.  I fail to see how players can then go to the courts and win a case saying college can't have limits too.

[Hilltop]

40 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

What does that have to do with college not legally being allowed to have scholarship limits?  They already have a higher scholarship limit than the roster limits in the NFL.  Sure, the NFL has the practice squad.  But, college has walk-ons too.  

 

Almost all professional sports leagues have limits as to the number you can have on your team.  I fail to see how players can then go to the courts and win a case saying college can't have limits too.

Was just replying to what you asked... "The NFL limits the number of players that can be on an active roster.  Why can’t a college team?"  The limits are a fallacy.  Basically the NFL can have their 53 on any given day but have an unlimited number to pull from once you consider their practice squad, free agents, etc.  Colleges do have limits currently but I'm not sure it makes any sense.  I say that because their reasoning is to level the playing field to prevent team A from hoarding players to prevent team B from having them.  Now that transfers and NIL are allowed, the limits don't really matter imo.  Kids aren't locked in to any given school so you will rarely see great players ride the bench for 2-3 years waiting for their opportunity.  Let Alabama waste a gob of money if they want to offer 150 scholarships.  75% of those kids will transfer in the first 18 months.         

[BigRedBuster]

7 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

Was just replying to what you asked... "The NFL limits the number of players that can be on an active roster.  Why can’t a college team?"  The limits are a fallacy.  Basically the NFL can have their 53 on any given day but have an unlimited number to pull from once you consider their practice squad, free agents, etc.  Colleges do have limits currently but I'm not sure it makes any sense.  I say that because their reasoning is to level the playing field to prevent team A from hoarding players to prevent team B from having them.  Now that transfers and NIL are allowed, the limits don't really matter imo.  Kids aren't locked in to any given school so you will rarely see great players ride the bench for 2-3 years waiting for their opportunity.  Let Alabama waste a gob of money if they want to offer 150 scholarships.  75% of those kids will transfer in the first 18 months.         

That's the exact same reasoning the NFL limits active roster spots.  It levels the playing field.  Sure, some guy that could be starting for New Orleans could choose to be on the Chief's practice squad in hopes to be a part of the SB and maybe get called up.  That's no different than some guy who could be starting at Kansas could agree to be a walk-on at Georgia hoping to have his glory moment and be a part of a championship.

 

All that is different than the NFL being able to pay 130 guys 5 million a year to be on the sidelines......or colleges being able to give 130 guys scholarships to sit on the side lines.

 

Like I said very early in this conversation.  The courts might very well not agree with me.  I believe that will just speed up the demise of college football.  It's sad.

[Red Five]

16 hours ago, sho said:

I think the NCAA is already planning on allowing both additional scholarships and coaches.   The driving force is fear of another lawsuit and limiting right to choose...if the school wants to give player X a scholarship and that player wants to go there, the NCAA shouldn't prevent that as it's limiting opportunities and opens up lawsuits that NCAA believes they would lose.   There is a growing belief among compliance directors is that schools will soon be able to have 100+ kids on scholarship for football, if they'd like and 20+ kids on scholarship for basketball if they'd like.  They would just have to balance the scholarship numbers to the Title IX federal guidelines, which means most likely more scholarships available for female athletes.   The growing belief is scholarships will only be limited by budget constraints at schools and not based on arbitrary caps placed on them by the NCAA.   Some fear this will lead to a power imbalance but the counter argument being made is kids will go where they will play and will transfer out so small schools will still get good/great athletes.  I can see the day where there will be unlimited transfers, scholarships and coaches in the next 5-10 years or so

 

I haven't heard about unlimited football scholarships, but the NCAA is considering additional scholarships for the sports that allow partial scholarships (basically every sport that is not football, m/w basketball, and w volleyball) as well as unlimited coaches for all sports.  There would still be scholarship limits to those sports, but each school could choose if they want to fund up to that limit.

 

For example baseball currently only allows 11.7 scholarships.  The NCAA would say we now allow 25 scholarships for baseball.  Then it would be up to each school to decide how many scholarships they want as long as it is not above the limits.

 

This article from last April explains it https://www.si.com/college/2022/04/27/ncaa-new-transformation-committee-changes

[sho]

I just got a reply from my friend who works in compliance for a major university.   He said, it's still a few years down the road, but the tentative plan from the NCAA is to say how many can be on a team.  The numbers he mentioned were for D1 football they are looking at 125, basketball 20, he didn't mention any other sport.  And then with that, each school can then decide how many scholarships they will give out.  They can give full rides to all or half or none, and then mix in partial scholarships as well.  It'll be the discretion of the school as to how to allocate scholarships, but there will be a roster maximum for all sports.   And when giving out scholarships, the only numbers they will have to worry about are Title IX ratios.   He says this is a lot closer to reality then unlimited coaching spots, but both are still years away.   The reason coaching is farther away, is because of lawsuits and the NCAA wants to focus on getting money/awards to the athletes and not focus on getting more coaches paid.