The NCAA is in final preparation to fundamentally change its business model, with final approval for $2.7 billion in back pay to former athletes set for final approval as soon as Friday. A formal payroll of $20+ million to current athletes is on its way.
A new form of athlete compensation will be here sooner than later, but the old form of compensation -- scholarships -- isn't going way. And soon, more players will be on scholarship.
Power conference commissioners are preparing to put a hard cap of 105 players on football rosters (decreasing from the current 120), but all 105 players will be eligible for scholarships, raising the long-standing limit from 85. But the total number of scholarships awarded by football programs might not even go up, and could potentially decrease, even with 105 scholarship players.
How?
In conjunction with the House v. NCAA case, commissioners are set to change the football from a "head-count" sport to an "equivalency" sport, according to multiple reports on Wednesday.
In short, presently every football player on scholarship has to be on full scholarship, but moving forward schools would be permitted to split scholarships in half, or further.
For instance, 85 players could be on full scholarship and the remaining 20 on half-rides. Or, schools could place all 105 players on half-scholarships and let their collectives pick up the rest.
Even bigger changes are coming to sports like baseball, where the sport will transition from 11.7 scholarships to split amongst the entire team to a 34-man roster limit, all of whom would be eligible for a full scholarship. Similar changes are expected in softball (12 to 25) and volleyball (4.5 to 18).
All changes are expected to go into effect for the 2025-26 academic year, which is when House payments will begin.
How football programs plan to divvy up their 105 scholarships remains to be seen, obviously, but it will be one of the biggest stories to follow in college football moving forward.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.