Notre Dame athletic director Peter Bevacqua will honor the roster spots of all current athletes and permit those who were cut this year to return, reports Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. This makes Notre Dame the first university to publicly commit to grandfathering-in current athletes to the roster limits model.
Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua, long a proponent of phasing in roster limits, tells @YahooSports that the school will honor the roster spot of all current athletes and permit those who were cut this year to return, becoming first school to commit to fully grandfathering-in athletes.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 8, 2025
Bevacqua made his announcement after the House vs. NCAA settlement parties filed their revised rules on Wednesday. Two weeks ago, Judge Claudia Wilken gave the settlement parties two weeks to revise the language about roster limits and their implementation. The parties reworked the language so that schools are permitted, but not required, to grandfather-in athletes currently on a roster, those that were cut this year due to early implementation of roster limits, and high school recruits that enrolled at a school after committing to a roster spot that was then cut.
Grandfathered-in athletes will be exempt from roster limits at any school where they compete. That means if their current school does not phase in roster limits, student-athletes can transfer and remain exempt from a roster limit at their new university.
The Power Four conferences reportedly see the revised language as a compromise to Judge Wilken’s wishes. She was interested in a grandfathering-in model during the final approval hearing on April 7. Then, she recommended it in her order sending the parties back to the drawing board two weeks ago. However, whether Judge Wilken views the revision as enough to grant her final approval for the settlement remains an outstanding question.
Judge Wilken has given objectors a week—until May 13—to file responses to the NCAA and power conferences’ revisions. The roster limits have been one of the most heavily criticized parts of the House vs. NCAA settlement. Many objectors spoke against them at the final approval hearing. The plaintiffs and the NCAA will then have until May 16 to respond to the objections. Judge Wilken does not have to wait until this deadline to make a ruling, but this timeline does further extend the window for her to make a ruling.
The NCAA and Division I conferences have spent the past months making decisions as if the settlement was already approved, cutting roster spots and setting up new frameworks for NIL management. This was all in preparation for an approved settlement, which would go into effect July 1. Judge Wilken found these preparations an uncompelling reason to approve the settlement two weeks ago, writing “any disruption that may occur is a problem of Defendants’ and NCAA member schools’ own making.”
If Judge Wilken approves the historic settlement with the revised language, schools will have another decision to make—whether or not they will grandfather-in their athletes.
Announced after already cutting several of the women on the team due to “roster limits”. What a sham!
First school to commit to reopening for in person learning during Covid and now this. Lead from the front
Who already opted to transfer?
Since it applies to all sports, there could have been several
I had a lot of not very nice things to say about the way Notre Dame administration handled the men’s team scandal, so I guess it is only right to acknowledge my support for this decision and applaud them for taking this stance. While most of the damage is done, no doubt there are situations where this phasing-in process will provide a student-athlete their sought after relief. Hopefully other universities are influenced by this example.
Which is ironic since they cancelled the mens season and a bunch of guys hit the portal!
Bravo Notre Dame! What great leadership and integrity!
I bet this is the right decision for Notre Dame. Odds are most will come back.
Crazy how the initial push of “let’s give athletes more money” has turned into “oh sweet, now i can delay halving my roster by 4 years instead of immediately”
10/10 lawsuit, hope the $120K is worth it
I hate to keep repeating it, but this week’s CSCAA conference reiterated an important point: that many, many college coaches are not upset by the smaller roster limits.
very true. And the Power 4 schools are in favor of the reduced championship roster maximum.
I think a lot of Power 4 schools understand that they’re never going to win a championship so long as Texas and Cal can take 18.
For this year, only 5 schools for each D1 championship brought more than 12 swimmers
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I did not read how the 12 were considered (swimmers & divers), would the divers still count as 1/2?
It is also a lot easier when this is NCAA wide and not one coach holding to a true #. It’s so easy telling kids it’s not my decision to have a limit of 22, my hands are tied. So I can see every coach enjoying having smaller roster #s. Not having walk-ons and kids trying to have a chance and only having your conference roster all year. Sounds pretty awesome to me, who wouldn’t want that?
Jassen Yep and Julian Smith – 2 walk ons that ended up NCAA champions. Lots of kids that come in as highly ranked recruits never develop and lots that were overlooked end up big point scorers with the right coach.
I wrote this in an editorial a few weeks back, but – the Jassen Yeps and Julian Smiths of the world are still getting Power 4 roster spots in this new world, they’ll just be further down the food chain. That’s going to ramp up the pressure on those other Power 4 coaches, some of whom I think we all understand are not as good of coaches as the brand on their universities imply they might be.
Yep was a 1:57 breaststroker as a junior in high school. Julian Smith was a 55.5 breaststroker as a senior in HS (when his spring championship meet was in long course).
And also remember that “walk on” doesn’t mean “not in the first… Read more »
You’re saying this, but a 55.5 won’t even touch Power 4 these days. A 55.5 will put you in a small mid-major or something like D3.
College coaches: “oh boy, only coaching 16 means that we’ll really be able to focus on those top swimmers”
ADs: “Say, you were coaching 25 swimmers with 3 coaches before, right?”
Coaches: “Yeah why?”