What do expanded roster limits mean for the future of college football?

Ross Dellenger and Dan Wetzel discuss the recent settlement of three antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and a settlement that would expand college football rosters to allow for 105 scholarship spots. While this is a victory for student-athletes, Dan and Ross argue that it could make competitive balance in the sport more difficult, and that blue-blood schools in power conferences could be even more effective at poaching athletes from mid-tier and lower-tier universities. Listen to the full conversation on the College Football Enquirer podcast — and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Video Transcription

For football, if you can get 20 scholarships, then the limit is 100 scholarships and five players.

I’m trying, I’m trying to figure it out.

I don’t want to draw hasty conclusions.

Will this bring more talent to the top?

Because obviously, if Ohio State had 100 and five, that would mean 20 more kids getting full scholarships, which would mean 20 fewer kids.

Alright, I’m going to play in the middle of the Big Ten, okay?

And that’s the way it looks, but Ohio State could have anywhere from 100 to 30 players in its program right now.

So in reality, 25 guys now have more freedom to move anywhere.

Does that balance out, or is that, well, well, my initial reaction is that that’s going to make things very difficult, not just for the Mid-American and Mountain West conferences, but even the mid-pack, right?

You don’t need Ryan Day offering five more scholarships every year.

What’s up, what’s up?

What are your thoughts?

Yes, for sure.

I think that, you know, every rule change that we’ve seen over the last few years has just widened the divide, um, between many of the best in the sport, the most prominent figures in the sport, and everyone else.

And this is another one.

There’s a reason why the Big 10 and the SEC, uh, recommended higher roster limits, uh, especially for football.

120.

And I think 110, as opposed to AC C big 12 in G five, which is around 90–100.

There is a reason for this.

Normal.

Well, they, yeah, they, so they would, basically sit in the middle, as close to the middle as they could, I think 105.

But I think you’re right.

Well, I think, you know, 20 extra scholarships, that’s 20 extra players that get taken from the middle of the strong four, and then that’s an extra 20 players, Dan, from the middle of the strong four that get taken from the G5 and it goes down.

Normal.

It will probably be four teams in 64.

I think in the case of Notre Dame it’s 70, they’re not any players and they’re not the best at math.

So I’ll leave it to you.

But you know, there’s a caveat here.

Well, now it depends where, but there’s probably at least 10 of maybe 20 major college football programs that have a paid roster of at least 95, 100, maybe 100 players and five players, right?

Because NIO collects data, unauthorized persons are not really unauthorized persons.

Normal.

They receive tuition from NIO Collective.

And it happens quite often.

Now everything will be fine.

You will have such an opportunity.

Yeah, officially offer scholarships, and on top of that Dan, everything red, and then they’ll divide it up in red and that’ll be, uhm, significant.

The thing is, you can only put a limited number of players on the field, but that should help with recruitment.

I mean, there are 1,400 scholarships available that could be awarded, there are levels in the top ten and there are levels in the second half.

That’s why I won’t do it.

The last thing most of the Big Ten want is Michigan Ohio State with 20 extra players.