The transfer portal has changed college football, and it’s now harder than ever to manage the number of players a team has coming in on scholarship in a given year.
The NCAA Division I Council waived the initial counter scholarship limits for two years on Wednesday, which means teams only have to worry about staying under the overall limit of 85 players under scholarship. Previously limited to bringing in 25 players a year between both the transfer portal and high school recruits, D-I programs were finding themselves with more scholarships to offer than allowed each season.
In October, the council announced a one-year waiver that allowed teams to go over the 25-person limit if they lost transfers of their own, but now they’re doing away with it completely for at least two years. The waiver should allow programs that have been gutted to replenish with ease.
DI football annual signing and initial counter limits removed for next two academic years by DI Council. All Council actions are not final until today’s meeting ends. pic.twitter.com/M0OjNKGNWA
— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) May 18, 2022
Unfortunately for Florida, it doesn’t help too much since the Gators are currently sitting at 88 players on scholarship. The waiver UF wants to hear about is the one that says players returning for their extra COVID years don’t count against the cap. Perhaps that will be next on the docket for the council with this decision made.
As college football continues to change so will the scholarship rules. This move buys two years for the council to figure out the appropriate numbers, but bigger changes still need to be made.
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