The NCAA is a mere 24 hours from providing a short-term remedy, for at least one year, to programs who lose student-athletes through the organization's Transfer Portal.
With the NCAA's Division I Council on Tuesday approving a year-year waiver of signing and initial counter limits, schools now may replace as many as seven scholarship signees to fill voids left by student-athletes departing programs in the first semester.
In layman's terms: a football program with its full complement of scholarships to sign a 25-man signing class could extend those numbers to 32, if it is working to replace seven (or more) transfer departures.
“We believe schools should have temporary flexibility to help address possible roster depletion due to transfers,” NCAA D-1 Football Oversight Committee chairperson Sandy Barbour. “This one-year waiver enables schools to properly utilize their scholarship limitations.”
Though the move is approved, it does not formally become an adopted measure by the NCAA until the conclusion of Wednesday's D-1 Council meeting.
Division I Council approves a one-year waiver of signing and initial counter limits to allow schools to replace up to seven football student-athletes who leave school in the first term.
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) October 5, 2021
Decisions are not final until the end of tomorrow's meeting. pic.twitter.com/a5u3pP64BV
For example, a program like the University of Tennessee -- which led the nation in the Power 5 ranks for highest number of Portal entrants in the wake of Jeremy Pruitt's recruiting scandal and the school's hiring of Josh Heupel, could potentially sign more than 25 players in its next signing class.
Josh Heupel has publicly stated that the Vols presently sit at approximately 71 scholarship players on roster -- not including a handful of super-seniors playing an extra season because of the COVID-19 waiver.