Ross Dellenger confirms: SEC scholarship limit to remain 85 for 2025

I don't understand the reasoning behind this decision. The SEC will fall behind the Big Ten.

A couple of thoughts on this that I think some folks in the media are missing:

First, as of today the conferences do not set the scholarship limits. The scholarship limits for each sport are set in the NCAA Division 1 Manual. As far as I’m aware, there have been no formal revisions to the NCAA D1 Manual yet regarding the changes to scholarship/roster limits under the House settlement.

Second, the House settlement (which will cap the football roster at 105 while eliminating scholarship limits) is not fully approved yet. The fairness hearing is set for April 2025. That means April 2025 is the earliest that the settlement could be finalized. In the meantime, we are weeks away from early signing day.

If the conference says nothing, then it will be up to each school to decide whether to risk over-signing players to financial aid agreements. Those schools are ultimately governed by NCAA bylaws which still cap scholarships at 85.

To me, this is the SEC addressing a lack of guidance from the NCAA. They aren’t changing any rules though. They are just saying “we will continue to comply with the NCAA rules on the books, which have not changed yet.” You can argue that other conferences will have a competitive advantage by going to 105 but the reality is that no conference has the authority to unilaterally decide they’re going to break the current scholarship limit.

The NCAA should have addressed this already and either set an interim policy or given guidance on how over-signing will be treated if the settlement changes or is not approved. I’m sure coaches/administrators are asking the SEC WTF the plan is, and at some point (before signing day) the SEC has to give them something.

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So it’s the same as this year?

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Correct, the same as current NCAA rules which, as far as I can tell, have not changed.

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So it hasn’t been approved yet?

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Also correct.

I already posted this and was ridiculed
85 anything over will be walk ons

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Scholarship or roster limit

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Scholarship.

There is no roster limits currently (although there are squad size limits governing how many players can actually dress for a game).

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I already posted this and was ridiculed

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This is my least favorite kind of post.