The fast-changing world of the NCAA brought us news this week that may be the biggest change of all – a big jump in the number of scholarships available for several sports.
The most impacted will be college football, where the scholarship limit will increase from 85 to 105.
Which begs this question: when is big, too big?
To be fair, the expanded scholarships are limits, meaning, not all schools will choose to reach the maximum allotments.
But the schools that are already printing money to support NIL will take full advantage.
And the other schools that are significantly limited financially?
Sorry, fellas, the big boys are working this side of the street.
ICYMI
This latest change will have a dramatic impact on athletics budgets across the college landscape, and the full scope of these changes, good or bad, will be felt soon.
Is it a case of the rich getting richer?
The likes of Alabama, Georgia, Texas will have even more scholarships to hand out in football.
With the expanded College Football Playoff, some teams may create “practice squads” to help reduce wear and tear on their players.
The NFL already does that.
But the NFL has a salary cap; no such equalizer exists in college football.
Everything in college football is moving in the direction of structuring like the NFL, with that one exception, the salary cap.
Increasing scholarship limits moves creating a level playing field in the wrong direction.
The NCAA doesn’t care about a level playing field.
The big boys play big boy football, on any field they choose.
A limit of 105 scholarship players in football allows a team to be four-deep at every position and then some
Remember “Rudy,” the movie about a walk-on at Notre Dame?
Does this expanded scholarship number signal the end of walk-ons?
It may very well, especially at the big boy level of college football, which obviously will choose to go to the max scholarship level.
Of course, if a player is good enough or works hard enough, they should reap the benefits of a full scholly.
If a walk-on does not get a full scholarship offer from their current school, there’s always the transfer portal, with its instant-eligibility nonsense.
You think college roster turnover is bad now, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Baseball benefits the most, or will it?
Baseball is the happiest about this change.
There are 40 players on a baseball roster, but the student-athletes can only get partial scholarships. When NIL went into place, the deeper-funded programs created an even greater divide between the haves and the have-nots.
The big-time baseball programs can get lucrative NIL deals that significantly supplement their scholarships or paying tuition fully.
Again, increasing scholarship limits will drive the wedge deeper.
With baseball nearly tripling the number of available scholarships, from 11.7 to 34, this will play heavily in the power structure of the sport.
Schools with the money, the haves, will now be able to load up on quality players. The schools with limited funding, the have-nots, may decide to waive the white flag, ultimately deciding it’s not worth it to continue to field a team when you can only afford 12 scholarships.
And don’t forget, college baseball at most every school is considered a non-revenue sport.
Is the NCAA really this dumb?
If you’re wondering where schools will turn to expand their rosters, and you said high school, then you’re wrong.
With this new change, the move by the NCAA simply will move thousands of players from non-Power Four schools to the Power Four group.
The FCS level and Group of 5 members will be ravaged by schools at the Power Four level. A bloodbath is coming.
So, the answer to the question can the NCAA be this dumb? Yes.
The NCAA makes changes without giving any thought to their impact. Just like the NCAA has always made rules retroactively and have little to no chance of enforcing them.
It’s back to the future, where the bluebloods could simply stockpile players.
Somewhere, Woody Hayes is smiling.
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