Shift in Scholarship Numbers Offer New Reality for Hogs

Baseball more than doubling, provides new path to success for Razorbacks

Arkansas Razorbacks athletics director Hunter Yurachek calling the Hogs at a basketball game against Texas A&M. / Craven Whitlow-Hogs on SI Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — As rules constantly change in the NIL era, the NCAA announced changes in the way scholarships will be awarded. According to a report from Ross Dellinger of Yahoo Sports, teams will now have roster limits in which the entire roster is on scholarship instead of a scholarship cap.

Arkansas' Sam Pittman and every other college football program will now have 105 scholarships to hand out, 20 more than they do now as part of the new revenue-sharing model that begins in 2025-26 academic year.

On Tuesday, commissioners finalized roster limits that’ll be filed Friday in House settlement, sources tell @YahooSports:
football 105
M/W basketball 15
baseball 34
softball 25
volleyball 18

Schools can offer scholarships to full rosters starting 2025-26https://t.co/8L7dfTQtZj

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) July 24, 2024

The impact goes far beyond football. Coach Dave Van Horn and the rest of college baseball have long said that college baseball's cap of 11.7 scholarships needed an increase. Now, that number will nearly triple to 34.

"11.7 scholarships is ridiculous," Van Horn said in January. "College baseball making money for the NCAA. We could go on and on about that. It gives them an opportunity to supplement scholarships. In the past, our best players would leave here and be in debt."

Other sports stand to benefit as well. John Calipari's basketball team will see its roster expand from 13 to 15. Volleyball and softball will pick up an additional six and 13 scholarships respectively.

There is one caveat that could prevent the Razorbacks from handing out all of the new scholarships. Any bump in scholarships in a male sport would likely need to be reciprocated with an additional scholarship in a female sport to remain Title IX compliant.

Dellinger writes that teams are "in the process of 'tiering' their sports by decreasing investment in certain programs and increasing investment in others."

HOGS FEED:

• Calipari adds another Razorbacks' home non-conference game

• Applying 12-team playoff to Pittman Era reveals interesting nuggets

• Andrews lost for words when Calipari made offer

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