Fighting Roster Limits in House v NCAA settlement

Good luck! Even in the disastrous year of 2025 a 1500 SAT, 4:59(LOL) mile woman is still pretty special.

Even if she stays where she is; academics and college relationships are important, and she gets her mind right. Club or self training with goal of some big xc, road, or track races could still be fun.

Dec'25 will be important U20 and open USATF xc for example.

When she graduates, she would still have some eligibility left to get a masters in Engineering at one of the mentioned schools.

Find positives! Getting your school paid for in a demanding major is already an achievement!

It is not the same process as high school. You have to enter the portal. And aid is pretty much nonexistent for transfers. Also, nobody is looking for transfers now due to the roster limits coming. This parent obviously is closer to the issue than you or most posters. My daughter ran even faster in high school and she is facing being cut in the fall.

This is only partially true.

Trust me, I know first hand that there are schools out there looking for transfers to balance their class. I agree that money will be tighter but there are opportunities available. And many many schools are very good academically that but they don't have the big name brand attached that many kids are stuck on.

The process is though that the SA must put their name in the portal before anything can happen for other coaches. If the SA has preferences they can also reach out to other schools after their name goes in the portal.

It's challenging but it can be done.

Club City... my son just got into Purdue (yesterday!!!!) and is waiting on CMU (long shot), MIT (long shot), Illinois, Cornell, Va Tech, UT Austin, GA Tech, Penn State. He wants to be a walk on wherever he goes (will likely graduate low to mid 4:20s, and 9:20s... if things go REALLY well outdoor maybe dip into the 4:teens and 9:teens). Are you saying there will likely be a chance for him at a few of these programs? I was beginning to feel disheartened for him as a he has been a late bloomer and just keeps dropping loads of time every race. 2y ago he was a 5:20/11+ min guy so didn't get many looks, even after running 4:35 and 9:48 last year.

As the other poster suggested there are options. your daughter just will need to look for them and be open minded.

No.

I assume you are making fun of me, which is cool. Just note the SA I was talking about is a woman running 4:58, already on a full ride at an Engineering school looking to transfer.

If you are serious, yes even in bad environment he has a chance to walk on. Most likely at Ivy or D3. Perhaps but still difficult at bad D1 distance schools like Purdue and Georgia.

No... I was not making fun of you! I just had to come up with an anonymous name and wanted to pay you respect. Clearly poorly. Lol. Thanks for the response!

Couple thoughts.

1)Entering the portal. Issue is what the coach is like. Many coaches now see entering portal as a sign of quitting. If since she lost her roster spot, coach is supportive of her using portal to explore options, but still preserving her current scholarship and option to remain at her school, get this in writing and enter the portal.

If portal risks losing her current scholarship, I'd do a lot of up front research before I went to portal.

2) At least at Ivies, Mit, Stanford etc, full need based financial aid is available to transfers. School free with family income under $125k, with some aid still coming even at $300k. At P4 school athletic aid and Nil available, but maybe unlikely in this case.(but much more available for women)

3)Options- you'll note in my post I recognized that her situation may be hopeless, and just staying where she is and running and racing on her own might be best solution. Smart academically and financially, with still opportunity to improve and compete as an independent/club runner.

It just appeared that they only looked at other TX schools for transfer, and then an ncaa lawsuit LOL, without considering options at other Engineering schools with less competitive running programs, where she might find a roster spot.

Not poorly, just thought you were trolling me. The recruiting environment is indeed awful, and at a serious xc Engineering school like Stanford, there for sure would be no roster spot. At bottom of D1 xc with no scholarships like Lehigh, there probably will be roster spots available.

As noted Ivies and D3 schools also operator differently, so some chance. Good luck.

Ivies consider assets and income. I saved. Ivies are full price for me.

I volunteer to help with college prep for low income and minorities. It's funny the families and kids in really tough situations are often unaware, or don't believe how much money is available for them. Even a single Mom making $125k as a nurse can have her kid get a free ride at the Ivies.

If you are interested google Questbridge and see how many low income kids they help get into top schools.

Middle class sucks, too much money for aid, but not enough to make best schools easily affordable. I faced this same issue with my own kids.

My daughter ran 4:52 in high school and had a 1510 SAT. She received only a few tiny offers. Many schools didn't even respond. She is now facing the potential of being cut.

This is just you openly admitting you want to go to an SEC school with fancy bells and whistles, with two of those schools having no consistent reputation of developing American distance talent. there’s no way a Tennessee engineering degree is THAT much better than other programs out there.

He was already rejected at one Ivy where he probably could have run and Cornell is actually quite good atm... so I don't hold high hopes there. MIT I know he can run at if he gets in and I assume CMU the same. I think getting in on academics is very low for MIT for him (he was deferred EA) and somewhat low for CMU. CMU is by far his top choice. Its his dream school in so many ways. He will be stoked to go to Purdue (I think that sits top of his list behind CMU and MIT atm), if that's where he ends up... but would love the opportunity to run there if that's how things shake out. If not, he won't be devastated. I guess once all the decisions settle out he reached out to coaches and sees what's up. Will be a fun few months!

Another topic that no one has mentioned is the $2.8 billion in back damages that have to be paid to athletes competing in Division I schools from 2016 to 2024. 90% of that will go to basketball and football players. This will be paid over 10 years at $280 million annually. This effects all Division I schools, not just the P4 schools. So not only are schools having to pay their current athletes, they are having to pay athletes from 2016-2024. This is just another reason why there will be roster limits, to control budgets.

I think one of the most ironic things about all of this is that Grant House (House v. NCAA) was a swimmer at Arizona State. His class action lawsuit could bring down many olympic sports and potentially the NCAA, which is one of the best developmental leagues for swimming.

Your response shows how little you know. Tennessee is a Tier 1 research school. Her major is a unique collaboration between the Herbert School of Agriculture and Tickle College of Engineering. She is pursuing an internship with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (located near UTK) hoping the connections through her professor and alumni that work there will give her an edge. She is a member of the ASABE branch at her school that is only at select schools and will be attending the National convention at Texas A&M. She was part of Engineer’s Day where all the engineering students get the day off to setup booths featuring working examples of all the different engineering disciplines. While there, they talk with local high school kids and teachers about the possibilities in engineering. While working her booth, she got to have a casual conversation with the CEO of Lockheed Martin. Don't forget the several job fairs with leading corporations and several mini job fairs specific to her career. She is receiving a top notch education and numerous opportunities to make herself an appealing job candidate with job experience when she graduates. Her Agriculture and Engineering buildings are new and cutting edge. So yes, she feels the engineering degree she is getting from Tennessee is way better than at other schools. That was ONE of the deciding factors in her decision to go run at Tennessee. I only mentioned those other schools off the top of my head because she had a recruiting visit there and I know they carry her specific degree and they are also Tier 1 research schools. She is a very smart lady and realizes that her degree is most important and with her athletic, merit and department scholarships she knows it probably isn’t the wisest move to chase running. They have a good club team or even a fun student running club with people training for half and full marathons. That might be the best way to keep her connected with her sport. I am so surprised at the mean spirited comments especially when people really don’t understand what they are talking about.

Thank you so much for your encouraging words! Seems most people don’t really want to be helpful and just want to blast people. Please know your kindness shows through!

if you feel that the education & connections your D will get at Tennessee are so much better than any of the other very good options out there than your D should stay there, get her education, and follow that career path. It is unfortunate that she can't have both of the things she/you want but sometimes life deals you a bad card or two.

That is not mean spirited or meant to blast you it just is the reality.

My take, from my life experience, is there are many path ways to achieve the same end goal. And if running is actually important then your D could find a different pathway, one where she could actually achieve both of her goals.

But it's her life and her decision and not a sole here can predict the future.