P-4 conference roster cap coming

Any conference and other things about the school? Seeing Louisville cut a program or cut the roster would surprise me less than schools competing for the directors cup

I remember the travel roster being 32 athletes while I was at my P5 school, there were maybe 45 guys total, so only a dozen not on the travel team. So the 'JV' people wouldn't exist anymore. These people aren't on scholarship anyway, and because they don't travel much they aren't consuming the travel budget. So how is this going to save any money??? Those 12 spots are irrelevant to the budgets.

Can you explain why there has to be a cap? Because everyone needs to be paid?

Just as Title IX didn't work out so well for many male walkons, it looks like paying the stars of college sports, isn't going to work well for male or female walkons moving forward.

In terms of fairness, a roster cap does make sense. Right now, some teams win with just way more numbers or way more distance runners. Maybe it wont' be all horrible. The bad teams will get better (or will they just get cut?).

No. Some schools have 6 men's sports, some have 10, some have 15. Cutting roster spots in track is just what your school is deciding to do. Nothing is stopping another school from having 60 on the roster or another from having 20.

Why should there be a cap? Nobody thinks it’s unfair that certain teams get much better talent than others. Should there be equity in that?

I’m going with, didn’t happen for 500 Alex.

This is nothing new. The cap would likely only apply to conference meet entrants. When I was in college thirty years ago, the men’s team had a hard cap, while the women’s team was as large as they could make it. XC roster for men was cut at 10. Women’s was as big as they could make it to help balance out football on the Title IX side. Non-revenue men’s sports have always been on the chopping block.

Have heard 8 for SEC Cross Country roster cap and 14 for ACC Cross Country and 26 for Track and Field. How many cross country runners will get to run track at these power 4 schools?

This is being done because of House vs. NCAA settlement, football making cuts as walk-ons could create more lawsuits. Other sports will cut numbers and put everyone on full scholarship and not have to deal with further litigiation.

nytimes.com

College football's next big change: Could walk-ons be eliminated?

@TheAthletic

What could be next for scholarship limits in college sports? We should know more soon.

Link:www.nytimes.com/athletic/5490658/2024/...

No.

No this is a cap on how many athletes you can have on your roster - period - not how many can travel to conference. This isn't just for track and cross but all (I believe all - but I could be wrong) sports. Football is going to be a hard 85. So you're going to see teams with 15 on their xc roster and that's it. It's purely from a standpoint of: "how can we have these sports but pay our athletes." If you cap this the hope is that you don't have programs that get cut.

Not happening.

True. Every sport in P4 will have a roster max. Schools will not have any scholarship limits. If the roster max is 40 then you can give (but most won't) 40 scholarships. No one really knows the numbers but I would anticipate 35-44 for track and field roster max. A lot is about to change.

this is very likely. people downvoting simply don't know or maybe are just learning the awful repercussions that are coming with all the changes / lawsuits / etc of the last couple years. if athletes want to be paid, the rich will afford it, and the poor will die (competitively). it is going to be an absolutely wild few years ahead.

You are nuts if you think that schools will be allowed to give 32 track scholarships.

Schools will be allowed to do whatever they want up to whatever roster limit ~28 is mandated. Those that can, will. Those that can't won't. It will keep the big schools happy and in the NCAA, since they will be able to afford it and most schools won't, thus limiting the chances of them getting beat by lesser schools, which is what matters most to them. This was actually one of the first rumors over a year ago that now seems closer to reality. Schools will also be able to pay their athletes up to $20 mil per year. And will be able to pay them NLI directly soon, too (see new Virginia state law).

It's clear many of you don't work in DI or your compliance department doesn't understand the settlement. Roster caps are coming for ALL DI sports. No more scholarship limits.

You don't have to believe it, the news will break soon enough.

Maybe hit pause on the guessing, wishing, fearing and loathing and wait for the preliminary settlement approval motion to be filed in House/Hubbard/Carter. That should show some details about what the new framework will be and what choices will face schools across D1. Should be in the next couple weeks.

Speaking of House: he didn’t even qualify for the finals at the swim trials. Yet he thinks he’s deserving of revenue. lol

And the other 2 plaintiffs are similar: backup women’s basketball and 3rd string football

And also, the public class cert briefing shows that there is a past damages class comprised of Football, MBB and WBB players (can't remember if there is negligible past damages for "other"), and then an injunctive relief class going forward. That injunctive relief framework is the key. It might just eliminate the rules barring direct (i.e. school paid) NIL and school pay for play and make it optional. Not clear any school will be forced by rule to pay anyone on a go forward basis. But if they can opt in, along the lines of what Baker suggested publicly early in the year, then that is how competition will spring up in D1. Some schools will obviously opt to compete for the best FB/MBB/WBB (and any other priority talent) and elect to pay them to play on top of GIA/COA/Alston and NIL. I think assuming that conferences will drive roster limits and pay scales is also very speculative because that is simply another form of price fixing by rule. Seems more likely schools will be left to choose how to invest in sports, which ones, how, etc.