Scholarship limits are out, roster limits are in.
One of the more significant — and contentious, in terms of objections in court — changes stemming from the House vs. NCAA settlement that has ushered in the revenue-sharing era of college athletics concerns how teams will be able to construct their roster.
Beginning Tuesday, July 1, universities around the country have started sharing up to $20.5 million of revenue with their student-athletes. Mizzou has opted in to the full amount, as will be the case with most Power-conference programs.
But one of the biggest changes — which still has an air of uncertainty surrounding it — will be how many players are listed on each team’s roster in their respective upcoming seasons.
Here is what you need to know about the changes coming to athletics scholarships and roster limits:
Every team has agreed to use $2.5 million of its revenue-sharing budget to add new scholarships. That means Mizzou and every other SEC program will be operating with $18 million in revenue-sharing money.
Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch also said Mizzou, specifically, plans to add approximately $3 million in scholarships. Only $2.5 million of that will count against the Tigers’ revenue cap, though.
The reason teams are doing this is because more scholarships are available across the board as a result of the House settlement. A majority of new scholarships are expected to head to women’s sports.
There are more scholarships available, but fewer overall roster spots.
Missouri baseball, for instance, can provide 34 full scholarships, which is more than its previous limit of 11.7. That also means the program now has a hard cap of 34 players on the roster, although all of them will be available for scholarships.
But that’s fewer overall players. MU baseball had 42 players on its roster last season, with players likely divided between full scholarships, partial scholarships, and walk-ons.
Football moves from 85 to 105 scholarships, although the SEC will keep it at 85 with room for 20 ‘walk-ons’ this year. Previously, teams could have 120 players on a roster. Again, that’s more scholarships but fewer total players.
Here is how rosters for every sport at MU will change. The first number for each sport is the old and no-longer-relevant scholarship limit, and the second number is the roster limit:
Like almost anything in college athletics in the year 2025, even ‘roster limits’ aren’t quite as simple as what is advertised on the tin.
With overall roster sizes decreasing, that meant roster spots were being eliminated and players across the country were being cut from their programs. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, who approved the house settlement, was sympathetic to the student-athletes who were facing this issue and ordered that proposed roster limits be grandfathered in.
So, as part of the revisions to get the house settlement approved, schools are now eligible to submit ‘Designated Student-Athletes.’
From an NCAA memo, June 23: “The rules changes include legislated exceptions for current student-athletes with remaining eligibility whose roster spots would have been impacted by immediate implementation of the roster limits. Those designated student-athletes will be identified by their current or former schools, and regardless of the school for which they participate, they will not count toward that school’s roster limits for the duration of their eligibility.”
Missouri can submit a list of players whose roster spots would have been cut if roster limits immediately went into effect. The deadline for MU to submit that list appears to be July 6.
Those players will remain eligible to play for MU — and will not count against the team’s roster cap — for the duration of their MU career. That could mean that some rosters don’t truly meet the implemented limit for four or five more years, as designated athletes complete the entirety of their collegiate eligibility.
There is no current limit on how many players a school can submit as a Designated Student-Athlete.
A player is eligible to be a DSA if:
To top it all off, the NCAA has opened up a one-time, month-long transfer portal to open up from July 7-Aug. 5, per multiple reports on Wednesday.
The good news, for anyone growing weary of the portal: This portal window is only open to players who have been listed as Designated Student-Athletes.
In all likelihood, this means you won’t see many high-profile players entering the portal. Designated Student-Athletes are widely walk-ons and players who would have been cut. That doesn’t mean a talented athlete or notable name won’t end up in the portal, but it’s likely to be few and far between.
