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How it is impacting current and future athletes
More than a dozen parents of current college athletes or recruits spoke to Yahoo Sports for this story. They were granted anonymity for fear of negative impacts to their children.
Their stories range widely across a variety of sports. A beach volleyball recruit, committed to a Big 12 program for months, was recently told the spot no longer exists. A sophomore cross country runner for an SEC team was notified by email that she was cut from the team two days after the semester began. Yahoo Sports obtained a copy of the email.
At one SEC school, eight track and field runners were cut or pushed out over the summer. One power conference program released all of their 2025 men’s swimming commitments. And in football, it is estimated that more than 1,500 walk-on players — roughly 20-30 per team — will see their spots cut.
In all, the 68 power conference schools are expected to eliminate at least 3,000 roster positions as administrators work to adhere to new roster limitations, reallocate resources from lower-tier to revenue-generating sports, and balance men and women opportunities to comply with the federal Title IX law.
The settlement concepts — the new roster structure and direct athlete revenue-sharing — is expected to take effect next July. While the settlement has yet to be formally approved, schools are “making roster adjustments now,” said Samantha Barany, executive director for the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America. “Anybody who has been recruited is being re-evaluated.”
The
settlement is a groundbreaking and landmark agreement between the defendants (NCAA and power conferences) and the plaintiffs (those suing mostly over athlete-compensation restrictions). The deal features three main parts: (1) nearly $2.8 billion in backpay to former athletes distributed over a 10-year period; (2) a revenue-sharing concept permitting schools to share as much as $23 million annually with their athletes; and (3) the overhauled roster structure.
In an interview Thursday with Yahoo Sports, Steve Berman, one of the lead plaintiff attorneys who struck the settlement with the NCAA, acknowledged the elimination of roster spots. However, Berman told Yahoo Sports, “overall the settlement is a good thing, but some people are being affected who were promised a roster spot and now it is not there.”
Plaintiff attorneys are “working” with the NCAA and power leagues for solutions, Berman said, including a transitional period in which those currently on a roster are grandfathered into the system.
An NCAA official declined comment on this when reached.
Power conference leaders were not immediately available for comment. Commissioners of the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 were at the center of settlement negotiations and are expected to further assume more authority over the governance and enforcement in a post-settlement world.
Way more in this one. Full story is up on Yahoo now:
While the NCAA and power conferences agreed to expand upon scholarships as part of the settlement, they also imposed roster limits for sports, many of which did not previously exist.
sports.yahoo.com