More Scholarships Could Soon be Available in College Football

Dylan Grausz | Aug 27, 2024

Nov 25, 2023; Stanford, California, USA; Stanford Cardinal head coach Troy Taylor hugs graduating senior outside linebacker Lance Keneley before taking on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports / D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

Football, especially in college, is a very unique sport. With most sports such as baseball, where rosters of around 20-30 are most common and basketball, where rosters of about 12-15 is the average, roster spots are much more limited with the need for a plethora of players not as high. But in football, roster sizes are large and with a limit on scholarships, programs need to be very selective while also needing to make sure that they have enough depth. That is why the expansion in the number of available scholarships has become a point of discussion.

Recently, the NCAA instituted a new rule that makes 105 scholarships available for football teams to use beginning with the 2025-26 school year, up from the current 85. With how college football is nowadays with the transfer portal and the amount of change and movement that is constantly going on, allowing teams more flexibility with how they construct their rosters as well as giving them more freedom with who they offer a spot on the team, sets the tone for the future of how college football will look.

“There’s been preliminary talks,” head coach Troy Taylor said during Monday's press conference. “I think that will go into effect a year from now. Those things are all being talked about and obviously there’s tons of changes going on in college football. We obviously would like to have all of our guys on scholarships, that’s our preference. That’s what I’ve been told will happen, so I’m excited about that. And I think some of the rules that are being changed and stuff, some of them are really good and then some of them we’re going to have to see how obviously with the ability to have your limitations on the roster of 105, it’s not going to be a huge effect on us. We’ve always been kind of limited to 110 but some schools have over 130 players. So that’s going to obviously eliminate a lot of players that were walk ons at one time. So it won’t have as much of an effect on us, but I know that some programs will definitely be affected by it.”

In today’s world, many teams will extend more offers than roster spots or scholarships available, anticipating that either those players will commit to other schools or that transfers will occur. With walk-ons also being a big part of college football, with some eventually earning a scholarship later on in their careers, it will be interesting to see how walk-ons will be affected with the new scholarship increase.

The rule change will only affect FBS schools, as the FCS schools will still only have 63 scholarships to give out and Division II schools will still be limited to 36. However, FBS schools will most likely begin to implement more of the FCS model in that scholarships will become equivalency scholarships, as opposed to solely full rides, allowing more division amongst the program and creating opportunities for more players.

For now however, everything will remain as is but in a year in which a lot of change has already occurred, including a massive conference realignment, the future of college football has already come early.