House Settlement FAQ: Roster Limits Established, NIL Reporting Timeline Revealed

New roster limits have been established after the House settlement was granted final approval by Judge Claudia Wilken late on Friday evening.

The official roster limits, along with details surrounding the new NIL Go clearinghouse and when athletes will be required to begin reporting their deals, were released in an NCAA Q&A document obtained by SwimSwam.

ROSTER LIMITS

Effective 2025-26

Sport Limit
Football 105
Women’s Rowing 68
Women’s Stunt 65
Women’s Acrobatics and Tumbling 55
Women’s Equestrian 50
Men’s Lacrosse 48
Men’s Indoor Track and Field 45
Men’s Outdoor Track and Field 45
Women’s Indoor Track and Field 45
Women’s Outdoor Track and Field 45
Women’s Lacrosse 38
Women’s Rugby 36
Baseball 34
Men’s Swimming and Diving 30
Women’s Swimming and Diving 30
Men’s Wrestling 30
Women’s Wrestling 30
Men’s Soccer 28
Women’s Soccer 28
Softball 28
Field Hockey 27
Men’s Ice Hockey 26
Women’s Ice Hockey 26
Men’s Fencing 24
Women’s Fencing 24
Men’s Water Polo 24
Women’s Water Polo 24
Men’s Gymnastics 20
Women’s Gymnastics 20
Women’s Beach Volleyball 19
Men’s Volleyball 18
Women’s Volleyball 18
Men’s Cross Country 17
Women’s Cross Country 17
Men’s Skiing 16
Women’s Skiing 16
Men’s Basketball 15
Women’s Basketball 15
Women’s Triathlon 14
Men’s and Women’s Rifle 12
Women’s Bowling 11
Men’s Tennis 10
Women’s Tennis 10
Men’s Golf 9
Women’s Golf 9

ROSTER LIMITS VS PREVIOUS ROSTER SIZES/SCHOLARSHIPS

Data Courtesy of Business of College Sports

Sport Previous Scholarship Limit Previous Roster Size (Average)
New Roster Size
Rifle (M&W) 3.6 6 12
Stunt (M&W) 14 38.5 65
Baseball (M) 11.7 40.9 34
Basketball (M) 13 17 15
Cross Country (M) 5 13.9 17
Fencing (M) 4.5 17.4 24
Football (M) 85 124.3 105
Golf (M) 4.5 10 9
Gymnastics (M) 6.3 20.5 20
Ice Hockey (M) 18 28.6 26
Lacrosse (M) 12.6 38.8 48
Skiing (M) 6.3 12.1 16
Soccer (M) 9.9 29.7 28
Swimming & Diving (M) 9.9 20.9 30
Tennis (M) 4.5 10 10
Track and Field (M) 12.6 34.7 45
Volleyball (M) 4.5 15.3 18
Water Polo (M) 4.5 21.1 24
Wrestling (M) 9.9 29.4 30
Basketball (W) 15 14.8 15
Beach Volleyball (W) 6 18.1 19
Bowling (W) 5 8.7 11
Cross Country (W) 6 13.5 17
Equestrian (W) 15 28.3 50
Fencing (W) 5 15.2 24
Field Hockey (W) 12 21.6 27
Golf (W) 6 7.9 9
Gymnastics (W) 12 19.6 20
Ice Hockey (W) 18 23.3 26
Lacrosse (W) 12 24.8 38
Rowing (W) 20 42.4 68
Skiing (W) 7 11.7 16
Soccer (W) 14 27.3 28
Softball (W) 12 21.8 25
Swimming & Diving (W) 14 23 30
Tennis (W) 8 9.4 10
Track and Field (W) 18 32.5 45
Triathlon (W) 6.5 7.6 14
Tumbling (W) 14 25.9 55
Volleyball (W) 12 16.7 18
Water Polo (W) 8 19 24
Wrestling (W) 10 14.2 30

The document confirmed that the roster limits will become effective for the 2025-26 academic year, and also detailed how anyone identified as a “designated student-athlete” won’t count against roster limits:

A current or incoming student-athlete may be identified as a “Designated Student-Athlete”, if they were removed from the roster, or would’ve been removed, for the 2025-26 academic year, due to the implementation of roster limits.

Schools will have to identify their designated student-athletes within 30 days of June 6. If a student-athlete receives the designation at one school, they’ll have it at any school if they end up transferring.

NIL REPORTING NOTES

  • Student-athletes will be required to report any third-party NIL deals over $600 to NIL Go, the new independent NIL clearinghouse. Any deal signed after June 6, 2025, must be reported to NIL Go. Additionally, deals signed before June 6 but have payments after July 1, 2025, must be reported.
  • NIL Go is expected to launch this week (week of June 9), and the compliance office will educate student-athletes on the submission and review process, according to the document.
  • NIL Go reviews “whether the ‘Payor’ of the NIL deal is an ‘Associated Entity’ or ‘Associated Individual’, the compensation is within an acceptable range of compensation, and whether the NIL activity is for a valid business purpose to promote goods or services that are available to the general public (for profit).”
  • Read more on the NIL Go review process here.
  • The College Sports Commission, which recently hired MLB executive Bryan Seeley as CEO, has been launched to address issues related to third-party NIL deals, revenue sharing, roster limits, and violations to any of the House settlement rules.

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Stan
19 days ago

What are the effects of this settlement on swim/dive budgets? How many coaches will be let go? How about athletes’ access to nutrition, trainers, sports psych, etc? Will many schools opt for an even lower roster size to save money? Or will they cut programs altogether? Will scholarship funding increase or decrease? Which types of programs will survive? If Congress intervened, what would that look like? I’d love to read an article covering these impacts.

Row Stunt EQ
20 days ago

Talk about really sticking it to women’s sports. Women’s Rowing, Stunt, and Equestrian make up 183 roster spots. How does this even come close to being justified with youth participation rates?

Entgegen
20 days ago

So what are colleges paying structure? is it dependent on school? Is most of the money going to football players still and swimmers get barely anything?

Awning
20 days ago

Do the roster limits apply to D1 schools only?

Admin
Reply to  Awning
20 days ago

For now yes, though any school can set any roster limit they want as long as it’s Title IX compliant.

Blutarsky
20 days ago

Women need to start suing immediately!

Joel Lin
20 days ago

My whole adult life I’ve heard conservative types hand wave & bark about activist liberal judges playing god to make new law out of whole cloth.

Thats usually silly thing, but I must say I accept the point this time. Claudia Wilken ruined college sports.

This Guy
20 days ago

Are any conferences still planning on implementing their own lower roster limits like what was previously talked about? Or will that hopefully subside?

One interesting thing that may ultimately happen is that there may actually be more scholarships available in total than previously, if schools fund above the previous scholarship caps.
Texas for example will probably have 30 full male scholarships, 3X as many as before.
Hopefully any reductions at some schools will more than be offset by others expanding their scholarship offerings. Championship roster caps help at least a little bit with distributing talent across the school landscape

Admin
Reply to  This Guy
20 days ago

Conferences couldn’t really officially do anything until this passed, but I’ve heard no indication that the SEC is deviating from its plan for lower roster limits.

MigBike
20 days ago

SEC SEC SEC the leader in sport

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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