- No Scholarship Cap: NCAA D1 schools will be able to offer scholarships to every athlete on their roster, eliminating previous sport-specific limits. This means schools will have more flexibility financially supporting their athletes, increasing the number of potential college sports scholarships.
- New Roster Limits: NCAA is introducing new roster limits that match or exceed current scholarship restrictions for each sport. With scholarship caps gone, most programs will be able to offer more scholarships. However, they must follow the new NCAA roster limits for each sport. For example, NCAA football scholarship limits will have a roster cap of 105 players, up from 85. Keep reading to see the full list of new roster limits for all NCAA D1 sports, including the current and new numbers
- Scholarship Type: All sports will now be classified as equivalency sports, allowing schools to offer partial scholarships. This is a huge change from the current system where some sports, like football, basketball and volleyball, are headcount sports and only offer full scholarships.
- Direct payment: Starting in 2025, schools can opt to share a “cap” of up to $20.5 million with their student-athletes, beginning July 1, 2025. It is up to schools to decide how that money is shared and not all will have the funding to do so (more on that below).
- NIL: Student-athletes will still be able to profit off of their Name Image Likeness but there will be changes to regulation of the deals and enforcement.
NCAA Scholarship and Roster Limits: Key Changes Explained
Learn about the new NCAA scholarship and roster limits for the 2025-26 school year. Discover how these changes impact student-athletes and recruitment.
www.ncsasports.org
