Big changes for college golf after NCAA settlement agreement

It won’t happen immediately, but big changes are coming to college golf soon.

The NCAA, the Power Five conferences and lawyers for plaintiffs in three antitrust cases over college athlete pay filed papers Friday asking a federal judge in California to give preliminary approval to a proposed settlement that would include a nearly $2.8 billion settlement pool for current and former athletes and radically change other fundamental aspects of how the association’s top-level competition is run.

Division I schools will be allowed to pay athletes directly for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL), with the limit per school increasing over time.

And while athletes will still be able to enter into NIL agreements with entities other than their schools, the settlement will allow the NCAA to implement rules designed to give the association more oversight in enforcing those agreements. The NCAA also could have rules requiring athletes to progress toward a degree in order to receive payments proposed under the settlement.

For college golf in particular, another significant change would be roster limits. Scholarship restrictions would also disappear for all sports, although each sport would now be subject to roster limits. For men’s and women’s college golf, the limit will be nine players, meaning schools can fund up to nine full scholarships but can’t have more than nine athletes in a given season.

In the past, there were no roster limits, while scholarships were 4½ for the men and 6 for the women. Looking specifically at the Power 4 conferences (SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and ACC), Oregon State men’s coach Jon Reehoorn posted on social media that these roster limits would result in a reduction of about 65 spots next year at current numbers.

If we include the rest of Division I, that number increases exponentially.

Another concern is possible cuts in the future. While it may not happen initially, it’s likely that a number of sports at schools across the country will be targeted for changes, including college golf programs.

While nothing new is likely to happen during the 2024-25 season, Friday’s decision is likely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to changes coming to college golf.