New NCAA Roster Caps: 17 for xc, 45 for Track

This is MASSIVE news. A complete game-changer.

My university cut the XC to 10 back in the 90s. This is an expansion.

This is just for P4 schools correct? Or is this for all of Division I?

Just saw this on Instagram. Is this for all D1? The D1 team I run for currently has 18 men and about 30 women on the xc team. Does that mean 13 women have to get cut?

Yes this is for all of D1. Yes your rosters will have to go down to 17 for each. When it goes into effect is unclear. I would assume for 25-26. So one year. Want a roster spot - you have a year to earn it. Now, a caveat is - some of those women could only be on the track roster, and not the cross roster. So they could potentially still be on the team, just not the cross country team.

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sports.yahoo.com

New college sports roster limits revealed as House settlement expands scholarship numbers

@RossDellenger

More than 750 additional scholarships are coming to college sports.

Link:sports.yahoo.com/new-college-sports-ro...

The opposite will be true at many P5 schools. Many have 60 women on the roster today of which 20 are distance runners. For sprint/hurdle/jump schools, some of the 17 XC women won't make the track roster.

Betting that they grandfather all scholarship athletes. I predict that it takes 2-3 years to achieve the caps. Teams won't recruit. They will dump grad students. They will have shadow athletes.

Do redshirts / injury redshirts count towards the roster cap?

I dont have issue specifically in regard to being able to produce well rounded and complete tf and xc programs with those roster limits. It can be done.

However the reality is that with the roster growth in football you now need to make up 20 more title ix spots. Where will those come from…..mens sports either by a roster well below the limits or by cutting programs. Of course you can add womens opportunities but i am not aware of that approach recently

Doesn't 7 spots on women's xc count as 21 women?

That table lists the old scholarship limit for XC as 5 for men and 6 for women. What is that referencing? Could you give out 5 scholarships to XC athletes that weren't tied to the 12.6 for track?

So according to this article, schools that aren't part of the settlement (non P4 schools) are only bound by roster limits if they participate in revenue sharing. If they don't participate in revenue sharing are they then bound by the old scholarship limits?

I sort of like this, honestly. 17 spots only.

No Sean Carlson/Tennessee styled talent hoarding using partials, academic aid, and NIL.

Stops private institutions (Ivy League), religious schools (BYU and Notre Dame), and the service academies from hoarding using endowment dollars and non-athletic rides.

No more talented kids from wealthy families packing 20-30 deep into elite programs like Oregon, Arkansas, Washington, Colorado, NAU, etc. because they can afford to pay the tuition while blowing off programs that actually want them and need them.

An end to carrying hobby jogger grade walk-ons for Title IX reasons. Sorry, but no D1 should have women incapable of breaking 20 minutes for 5K on their rosters.

Best of all for our sport, I think that this will help to discourage coaches from breaking bodies and minds because they have an endless supply of pack fodder.

There are downsides as well, but I think that this helps to create a more honest competitive landscape, spreads the wealth of talent around, and demands that a young athlete needs to earn their spot via performance.

Those are for XC programs without track.

So many teams are going to cut track to give more scholarships to football, lacrosse, baseball/softball and soccer.

Why give 7 scholarships to men and 12 for women when you'll just get CRUSHED by teams giving 30+ to each - all of which are international 25 year old freshmen.

Potential "Key" excerpts from the article:

"The new scholarship and roster structure — an attempt to prevent future lawsuits — takes effect starting in the 2025-26 academic year"

"Commissioners finalized new roster limits earlier this week, and they were all revealed with Friday’s (7/26) court filing."

"In the new model, schools are permitted to offer a scholarship to each player on a sport’s roster up to the new roster limits."

"As is the case now, schools are not required to distribute scholarships to each player."

"Those that are not defendants in the settlement case — schools and conferences in the Group of Five, FCS and non-football playing Division I programs — are bound by the roster limits, reporting system and enforcement mechanism only if they choose to share revenue with athletes. They can opt out of the new model if they decline to share revenue."

Cross Country will have a roster limit of 17 for men and 17 for women. The "old limit" of 5 and 6 in the table refers to scholarships for XC only programs.

Track & Field will have a roster limit of 45 for men and 45 for women.

The question now is about funding; not all will be able to or will choose to fund up to the max in each sport. Schools opting in for revenue sharing could have 20 on scholarship leaving 25 walk-on spots. I'm assuming the 17 XC would count against the 45 for T&F, assuming all 17 also ran T&F; leaving 28 T&F spots for non distance runners.

Back to quotes from the article:
"Some administrators are in the process of “tiering” their sports by decreasing investment on certain programs and increasing investment in others. This includes staff and salary cuts as well as the reduction in scholarships from Olympic sports, especially those that generate little to no revenue."

Not this year. But it appears yes for next year IF your school chooses to opt in (if it isn't in the P5 involved in the lawsuit). Those 13 cuts could presumably run on the T&F team; they just can't run XC.