Clemson Learns New Roster, Scholarship Limits for House Settlement

The Clemson Tigers and the rest of college sports now wait for the House vs. NCAA settlement to be approved.

Clemson defensive end T.J. Parker (3) during the Spring football game in Clemson, S.C. Saturday, April 6, 2024. / Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

The long-form document for the House vs. NCAA settlement is set to be filed in a federal court on Friday, per multiple reports, and one of the final details settled on Wednesday is of particular note to the Clemson Tigers and the rest of college sports.

The conference commissioners agreed on roster limits for several of the major sports, spots that are expected to be fully funded via scholarship money thanks to the revenue sharing that is also part of the settlement.

If approved, the roster limit for football would be 105. Men’s and women’s basketball would be allowed 15 spots each. Baseball would get 34 spots, softball would get 25 spots and volleyball would get 18 spots.

The importance of the roster limits is that the upcoming revenue-sharing model will eliminate the current by-sport scholarship restrictions and allow schools to offer scholarships to all rostered players. The trick is that these limits will likely all but eliminate walk-ons, something that has been a point of contention among football coaches.

If the settlement is approved by a judge, then these new guidelines would take effect for the 2025-26 athletic season.

Many athletic directors around the country have either committed to funding full scholarships or are examining how to do it. Schools can opt-in or opt-out. The scholarship money will come from a revenue-sharing pool that is likely to be anywhere from $20-22 million.

This could mean up to 60 more scholarship opportunities for these major sports. For instance, 85 football players are on scholarship. So the Tigers would end up with 20 more scholarship players by these guidelines.

Men’s basketball would go up by two scholarships. Volleyball would go up by six and softball would go up by 13. Baseball would see the most dramatic shift, as it would bring the addition of 22.3 scholarships to each program that opts-in.

One note in the reporting by Yahoo! Sports was about the scholarship flexibility. The new rules will adhere to the old rules in that schools will not be required to distribute scholarships to each player. An example, as posed in the story:

For instance, many schools are unlikely to use a full 34 scholarships for baseball, choosing instead to offer grants to only a portion of its roster and leave walk-on opportunities.

Still, it’s a huge shift for a baseball program like Clemson, which had to supplement 11.7 scholarships with grant-in-aid money to field its baseball team each year. This settlement will make coach Erik Bakich’s job a lot easier.

“College baseball has historically been synonymous with student loan debt. Any increase in scholarships is a huge win for the sport,” Bakich told DI Baseball recently. “I’m over the moon about this news, and I’m ecstatic to hear there’s going to be more scholarship availability for baseball players.”