NCAA increases scholarship limits for certain sports

Power conference commissioners have finalized new roster-size limits, enabling athletic departments to distribute millions of dollars in new scholarships, particularly in football, baseball, softball, and volleyball. Beginning in the 2025-26 academic year, schools can offer scholarships to their entire rosters, including partial scholarships in what were previously known as “head count sports.” All sports will now be classified as “equivalency sports,” allowing partial scholarships to be distributed to players. Football will see a 20-scholarship increase, while baseball and softball will also experience significant rises. This expansion aims to provide more scholarship opportunities across various sports while balancing increases between men’s and women’s sports to maintain compliance with federal Title IX law. Some athletic programs may need to adjust their investments to afford these changes, which significantly increases the possibly that we will start seeing decreased financial support for Olympic and non-revenue-generating sports.