Photo: USA Today Sports
Questions About New NCAA Roster Limits & Scholarship Numbers
7/31 CGC Staff *Updated stats 8/4
For years, there have been rumblings and rumors about changes in NCAA scholarship counts and rules, and as of July 26th, there is finally some concrete preliminary information available to athletes and coaches. If you aren’t familiar with the latest news, please read https://sports.yahoo.com/new-college-sports-roster-limits-revealed-as-house-settlement-expands-scholarship-numbers-210542040.html to catch up on the latest information. To simplify, starting in the 2025-2026 season, men’s and women’s golf rosters will be limited to nine spots. This will apply to schools that choose to share revenue with their athletes. Non- ‘Power 4’ conference schools will not be bound by the roster limits if they opt out of sharing revenue with their athletes. Schools that our bound by the 9-athlete roster limit will be able to provide up to 9 full scholarships instead of the current 4.5 for men and 6 for women. While this will benefit some athletes greatly, it poses many questions that coaches, athletes, and universities will be navigating in the upcoming months.
🔴Will all colleges give 9 full scholarships?
Power 4 schools obviously have the most ability to finance the scholarship increase, especially the Big Ten and the SEC, but there are many factors that affect the ability to fully fund golf, essentially a non-revenue sport. First, the total number of scholarships for men and women for all sports in a university much be equal and abide by Title IX regulations. Schools do not have to use all nine 9 scholarships available for golfers, and they may opt to provide less than 9 to balance the numbers between men and women. Whether the golfers like it or not, the increase in the number of available football scholarships, as well as the large increase in number for sports such as baseball, hockey, lacrosse etc may affect the availability of scholarships for golf. Another factor is the athletic department’s capability of funding the additional scholarships. One would think that schools with perennial top 25 golf programs would fully fund their teams, but time will tell.
🔴Will non-Power 4 schools opt-in to revenue sharing?
The decision to opt-in to revenue sharing will likely depend on the strength of non-Power 4 schools’ football and basketball programs. Taking a quick look at ESPN’s post-season top-25 football rankings, each school is from a Power-4 conference. In men’s basketball, there are several top teams such as UCONN, Gonzaga, Creighton, and Marquette (mainly Big East schools) that may jump in on the revenue sharing action due to the revenue from basketball. It will be interesting to see which non-Power-4 schools will opt-in to revenue sharing, and decisions will have to be made quickly to help coaches of all sports shape their rosters for the 2025-2026 season.
🔴What happens to teams that are projected to have more than 9 players on their roster in 2025-2026?
This will be a tough situation for coaches to tackle. We are assuming that there won’t be a grace period to whittle a roster down to nine, as rumor has it that the number 9 in 2025-2026 is definitive. There are many teams that will have several athletes rostered above the magic number of 9, with a little over three months until the class of 2025 verbal commitments sign their National Letter of Intent. Current rosters may include athletes that are walk-ons or on a small scholarship percentage, and coaches will be forced to choose between athletes that they have already built relationships with and future contributors to their team that they have spent many months recruiting. We don’t envy the decisions that coaches will be forced to make. We took an in-depth look at the projected 2025-2026 rosters for each SEC men’s team, taking account of graduating athletes and current known verbal commitments. Note that some teams have not posted their 2024-2025 rosters yet, and we may not be aware of all transfers for the upcoming season. There also may be redshirt years that are not formalized; therefore, we did our best to estimate accurate roster sizes. Of the sixteen SEC teams, only 5 teams will be at or below the 9 roster spots. Seven teams will be one athlete over the limit, and 4 teams will have to make decisions about 2 or more players. If our projections hold true, 19 male golfers from the SEC alone will be out of an expected roster spot and may be looking for a new home for the 2025-2026 season. The women’s side of college golf is a different story, if other conferences have similar results to our analysis of the teams out of the Big 10. After looking at the projected roster numbers for 2025-2026, 16 of 18 teams will consist of 9 or fewer players, while one team will be 3 over the limit, and another team with one extra player. In general, womens’ golf rosters tend to be significantly smaller than the mens’, and the new rulings shouldn’t have as much impact on the female side.
Conference stats added on 8/4: *Stats are generated from verbal commitment information that we have gathered for the class of 2025. We may not have full information regarding transfers for this season for teams that have not posted their 2024-2025 rosters. Our numbers are based on the assumption that listed redshirt athletes will compete for their school for the 2025-2026 season.
MEN
SEC: 11 of 16 teams will have more than 9 athletes rostered. Seven will be 1 over the limit, two will be 2 over the limit, and two teams will be 4 over the limit. *19 total over the limit.
BIG 10: Only 3 of the 18 teams will have more than 9 athletes rostered. One team will have 2 additional athletes, one team will have 3, and one team with 4 over the limit. *9 total over the limit.
ACC: 5 of the 15 teams will have more than 9 athletes rostered. Three teams will be 1 athlete over the limit, and two teams with have +3. *9 total over the limit.
BIG 12: 8 of 16 teams will have more than 9 athletes rostered. Three teams will be 1 over the limit, two teams with 2, two teams with 3, and one team with +4 rostered. *17 total over the limit.
WOMEN
SEC: 3 of 16 teams will have more than 9 athletes rostered. All three teams will be one athlete over the limit. *3 total over the limit.
BIG 10: 2 of the 18 teams will have more than 9 athletes rostered. One team will have 1 additional athlete over the limit, and one team will have +3 rostered. *4 total over the limit.
ACC: 2 of the 10 teams will have more than 9 athletes rostered. Both teams will have 1 athlete over the limit. *2 total over the limit.
BIG 12: Only 1 of the 14 teams will have more than 9 athletes rostered, 1 over the limit. *1 total over the limit.
🔴How does this affect the classes of 2025 and 2026?
The ripple effect to the classes of 2025 and 2026 remains to be seen, but we expect to see verbal commitment changes happening soon. (*Please report any changes to admin@collegegolfcommits.com or message us on instagram) Coaches need to make their roster decisions before signing day in November for the class of 2025. Athletes in the class of 2025 will be scrambling to find another team or weigh the option of taking a gap year, if available. Mid-major teams who do not opt in to revenue sharing may benefit greatly from the new ruling, as athletes who have decommitted from Power-4 teams may look to these schools for a roster spot. Overall, we may see increased competitiveness in the NCAA landscape. The class of 2026, who are just starting their official visits as of August, may be playing a waiting game a bit longer than they expected. Coaches need to have a definitive number for the 2025-2026 competitive year before determining the available spots for 2026 athletes. Will the coaches honor redshirt years of their current athletes or offer gap years to their class of 2025 verbal commits that no longer have a spot in the fall of 2025? Time will tell. All we know is that there will be a big shakeup in college golf, especially on the men’s side, and it will play out quickly.