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.
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.
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?
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?
Do the roster limits apply to D1 schools only?
For now yes, though any school can set any roster limit they want as long as it’s Title IX compliant.
Women need to start suing immediately!
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.
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
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.
SEC SEC SEC the leader in sport