Is the scholarship limit 105 this season?

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

I believe it's still pending a final approval, but supposing that goes through and the limit goes up to 105 for this season (the 2025-2026 academic year), what exactly happens in 2025? Do we just take what we can get out of the portal, give some scholarships to current walk-ons who we want to keep, and then take a way bigger high school class than usual (the majority of whom won't be on scholarship until 2026)?

Have to think this has a trickle-down effect on FCS, D2, and D3 if most FBS teams do come close to that 105 limits. That's 2,680 more benchwarmers the big leagues will be harboring.

Anyway, I assume we have to remain at or under 85 for now, but I'm just curious if this creates a larger Spring portal surge than usual. I believe May 1st in the deadline to enter; not sure if this is expected to be approved by then. I haven't really been keeping up with this stuff.

 

[pittdan77]

I believe it's still pending a final approval, but supposing that goes through and the limit goes up to 105 for this season (the 2025-2026 academic year), what exactly happens in 2025? Do we just take what we can get out of the portal, give some scholarships to current walk-ons who we want to keep, and then take a way bigger high school class than usual (the majority of whom won't be on scholarship until 2026)?

Have to think this has a trickle-down effect on FCS, D2, and D3 if most FBS teams do come close to that 105 limits. That's 2,680 more benchwarmers the big leagues will be harboring.

Anyway, I assume we have to remain at or under 85 for now, but I'm just curious if this creates a larger Spring portal surge than usual. I believe May 1st in the deadline to enter; not sure if this is expected to be approved by then. I haven't really been keeping up with this stuff.

Nobody says you have to give that many scholarships, but.....

The dirty little secret is that most schools were kinda doing big numbers under the table. Gray shirts with "academic scholarships", or something. Probably another way the SEC will get hurt by everyone having the same rules.

 

[mlvnsmly]

I believe it's still pending a final approval, but supposing that goes through and the limit goes up to 105 for this season (the 2025-2026 academic year), what exactly happens in 2025? Do we just take what we can get out of the portal, give some scholarships to current walk-ons who we want to keep, and then take a way bigger high school class than usual (the majority of whom won't be on scholarship until 2026)?

Have to think this has a trickle-down effect on FCS, D2, and D3 if most FBS teams do come close to that 105 limits. That's 2,680 more benchwarmers the big leagues will be harboring.

Anyway, I assume we have to remain at or under 85 for now, but I'm just curious if this creates a larger Spring portal surge than usual. I believe May 1st in the deadline to enter; not sure if this is expected to be approved by then. I haven't really been keeping up with this stuff.

The way I understand it, the scholarship limit will be going away. There will now be a roster limit of 105. So, you can give 105 scholarships, but cannot have walk-ons beyond that.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

Nobody says you have to give that many scholarships, but.....

The dirty little secret is that most schools were kinda doing big numbers under the table. Gray shirts with "academic scholarships", or something. Probably another way the SEC will get hurt by everyone having the same rules.

Are gray shirts that common? I know Ohio State asked Sibley to do it and he bailed. I can't imagine most guys being able to afford that, since they're not there to play school anyway.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

The way I understand it, the scholarship limit will be going away. There will now be a roster limit of 105. So, you can give 105 scholarships, but cannot have walk-ons beyond that.

Yeah, 105 is a hard limit and also the scholarship limit. Not sure if that means walk-ons will still exist (e.g. 90 scholarships and 15 walk-ons or something).

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Yeah, 105 is a hard limit and also the scholarship limit. Not sure if that means walk-ons will still exist (e.g. 90 scholarships and 15 walk-ons or something).

Walk ons will be allowed, but it will be interesting to see if most teams have more than just a few of them. Like they know they are "only" going to have 100 guys on scholarship this year, so they bring in five walk ons just to fill out the numbers because they can.

 

[pittdan77]

Are gray shirts that common? I know Ohio State asked Sibley to do it and he bailed. I can't imagine most guys being able to afford that, since they're not there to play school anyway.

Probably not now but before NIL that's what schools did with kids if they could. They ended up only being loosely associated with the program and got to participate in off-season workouts during the spring of their freshman year. Didn't always turn into a scholarship but it was a way to stockpile talent without breaking any rules. Just bending them.

 

[jtownknowitall]

As a coach why would you even want to have 105 players on your roster? There are D3 schools that have considerably more. How do you run a practice with 135 players?

 

[pittdan77]

As a coach why would you even want to have 105 players on your roster? There are D3 schools that have considerably more. How do you run a practice with 135 players?

It's chaotic. Schools have someone who "manages" practice from a formal practice plan. There are a lot of players with every unit that are just there to get beat on.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

As a coach why would you even want to have 105 players on your roster? There are D3 schools that have considerably more. How do you run a practice with 135 players?

I'm not going to search for the quote, but I'm pretty sure Narduzzi has complained about having to whittle it down to 105. I tend to agree that even 105 seems excessive, but I want to say we've had like 120 in the not-so-distant past.

Meanwhile, the NFL is the exact opposite and it's almost hilarious that five guys on the 53-man roster can't dress each week. Like, why?

 

[MorningCoffee13]

Can’t wait for someone to say “why don’t we take a look at the 7th string qb for the next game.

 

[pafootballguy]

The average FBS roster has 128 players

 

[steelcurtain55.]

The 105 limit is basically to keep NIL $$$ out of the walk-on's hands. In theory it prevents schools from exceeding the current scholarship limit. Case in point, you have 10 kids who are legit scholarship kids but each of them get an NIL deal that will pay for tuition/board. Now, you've just earned 10 extra scholarships for your team that don't count towards the old 85 total.

 

[jtownknowitall]

I'm not going to search for the quote, but I'm pretty sure Narduzzi has complained about having to whittle it down to 105. I tend to agree that even 105 seems excessive, but I want to say we've had like 120 in the not-so-distant past.

Meanwhile, the NFL is the exact opposite and it's almost hilarious that five guys on the 53-man roster can't dress each week. Like, why?

What’s great about the NFL too is that when a team needs to sign a player midseason they go to Walmart and get a guy stocking shelves.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

no football programs are going to have 105 scholarship players, even the 10 or so blue blood programs that can afford too if they wanted.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

As a coach why would you even want to have 105 players on your roster?

And yet nearly every coach who has offered an opinion publicly has complained that 105 isn't nearly enough.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

And yet nearly every coach who has offered an opinion publicly has complained that 105 isn't nearly enough.

have they? I havent heard one coach begging for the scholarship limit to increase. i'll admit, i dont get out much. if they did, i'd love to see some examples.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

have they? I havent heard one coach begging for the scholarship limit to increase. i'll admit, i dont get out much. if they did, i'd love to see some examples.

It's not that they want more than 105 scholarships, it's that they want more than 105 roster spots.


"I can't imagine my life if I hadn't played for Joe Paterno and gotten my butt kicked by those guys every day," Rhule said. "I'm probably waxing too poetic. This Saturday — there's kids that love this place, that this will be the last time they put their pads on to go be a Husker. All settled in a courtroom somewhere. It's a shame. It's a real shame. That's why, for me, this is one of the biggest weeks of my coaching career. I want to honor all those kids."

"Obviously we have to cut a lot of guys this year," Swinney said Tuesday. "It's terrible. It's the worst thing in my whole coaching career in what's going on. But we've got to cut a bunch of kids that have been in our program."

Greg Schiano: I'm really disappointed. I think it's just awful because you look at walk-on football players. They've been such a critical part of the game of college football, and there are so many great traditions." "Our roster is somewhere in the low 130s, so you do the math. It's 28, 29 guys who will not have the opportunity to be at Rutgers and play Rutgers football. That, to me, is... I just am sad about it."

“I do think this transition to 105 players is going to be a very difficult one and I think that, in my opinion, there’s going to be a ton of things that need to be defined,” Napier said on the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday. “I think, for example, we have 131 players and we’ve gotta get to 105, you’re looking at 26 players, potentially — if you don’t have any seniors, and obviously we have some seniors — that’s 26 guys that aren’t playing college football at Florida that have had a once-in-a-lifetime experience and are a huge part of our team. So I think that there — and look, every part of the offseason is different. What does that look like in the spring? What does that look like in the summer? What does that look like in training camp and during the fall?

 

[Franb]

It's not that they want more than 105 scholarships, it's that they want more than 105 roster spots.


"I can't imagine my life if I hadn't played for Joe Paterno and gotten my butt kicked by those guys every day," Rhule said. "I'm probably waxing too poetic. This Saturday — there's kids that love this place, that this will be the last time they put their pads on to go be a Husker. All settled in a courtroom somewhere. It's a shame. It's a real shame. That's why, for me, this is one of the biggest weeks of my coaching career. I want to honor all those kids."

"Obviously we have to cut a lot of guys this year," Swinney said Tuesday. "It's terrible. It's the worst thing in my whole coaching career in what's going on. But we've got to cut a bunch of kids that have been in our program."

Greg Schiano: I'm really disappointed. I think it's just awful because you look at walk-on football players. They've been such a critical part of the game of college football, and there are so many great traditions." "Our roster is somewhere in the low 130s, so you do the math. It's 28, 29 guys who will not have the opportunity to be at Rutgers and play Rutgers football. That, to me, is... I just am sad about it."

“I do think this transition to 105 players is going to be a very difficult one and I think that, in my opinion, there’s going to be a ton of things that need to be defined,” Napier said on the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday. “I think, for example, we have 131 players and we’ve gotta get to 105, you’re looking at 26 players, potentially — if you don’t have any seniors, and obviously we have some seniors — that’s 26 guys that aren’t playing college football at Florida that have had a once-in-a-lifetime experience and are a huge part of our team. So I think that there — and look, every part of the offseason is different. What does that look like in the spring? What does that look like in the summer? What does that look like in training camp and during the fall?

I'm shocked that none of those coaches has had a psychotic episode, having to deal with the horror of a roster with fewer than 130 players. Imagine practicing with only 105 players! How can that even be possible?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Saw on social media that Alabama is having walk-on tryouts on Tuesday so they must not be doing 105 scholarships.

I think if I'm Pitt, I only give out 80-85 and then take walk-ons. I'd even consider doing 70 and selling that to recruits that they arent going to get buried on the depth chart of have to wash the other players' balls like PSU's WPIAL recruits have to do. Those guys love nothing more than washing the genitalia of the better players from NJ and the DMV. Maybe they can parlay that into an OnlyFans or something.