College Roster Caps

Its just their MO on how they operate. They bring in about 10 recruits and purge a good portion of their roster every year. They are not interested in developing just bring in talent and see who floats to the top. Unfortunately they are not the only program that does this....Look at Mich St., Kentucky, and Arkansas. This new roster cap is going to destroy this method and they will now have to rely on development and coaching. We'll see how well they do moving forward.
This is a good point. Will be interesting to see what happens when they don’t have the flexibility for huge turnover and rebuild every year. There are certain colleges like those you mentioned that are notorious for over recruiting and dumping players. Roster size (prior to the change), number of transfers historically, long term program success/coaching stability, and picking a school you actually WANT to go to academically/location were huge factors in the schools my kids decided to take visits on and ultimately commit to. Hard to not be wooed by sales pitches from coaches or go with the very best ranked soccer program at the moment, but if the research doesn’t align with what they are saying and the school isn’t really a fit if soccer wasn’t in the mix, it isn’t worth the time and risk just to say you are playing at a particular school.
 
Yes. And the comment above on Intrenational players coming to that program is spot on. Coach Randy loves the international recruits and he does the travel to find them. I.e. Africa.
My daughter desperately wanted to play for Arizona State. I told her, "good luck hun... you're American."
 
My daughter desperately wanted to play for Arizona State. I told her, "good luck hun... you're American."
International players are much more widespread on the men’s side. Lots of Canadian players on the women’s side, but still a fairly small percentage of total international players (about 6% of the D1 recruitment class for the 2025s). Definitely may start growing, though. I think it’s just the poor timing of a max exodus at Pitt in the transfer portal and immediately turning around and signing 4 International players. Yeah, roster limits BUT that in no way explains 14 leaving and then signing 4 more right away.
 
Maybe teens and the parents (and their club coaches who push for P4 or bust) need to make better choices as well. Why choose a P4 that will never see you play more than 25% of the time when you could grab a mid major D1 scholarship. Lower D1 schools still play good colleges.
Why? Egos.
 
Maybe teens and the parents (and their club coaches who push for P4 or bust) need to make better choices as well. Why choose a P4 that will never see you play more than 25% of the time when you could grab a mid major D1 scholarship. Lower D1 schools still play good colleges.
So true. Lower D1 or mid major. OR..........a p4 that has you as a priority. I tell people with younger DDs playing, one of the worst things you can do is chase a school because it's a big name or a dream school. One, you're probably not gonna play much and two you're not gonna get much if any money at all. Go where you're wanted or needed. Get on the field and get some money!
 
Kids and parents chase P4. Kids and parents chase D1. Kids and parents chase D2.

I'd like to see Kids and parents chase a good education with as little debt as possible.
If education and saving money are the only objectives then soccer is not the best pathway. Just go to a good community college and transfer to a UC after two years.
 
If education and saving money are the only objectives then soccer is not the best pathway. Just go to a good community college and transfer to a UC after two years.
If your goal is simply to get a "sports" scholorship.

1. Be a girl (title 9)
2. Get involved with competitive fencing

Nearly everyone involved with fencing gets a D1 scholorship.
 
If your goal is simply to get a "sports" scholorship.

1. Be a girl (title 9)
2. Get involved with competitive fencing

Nearly everyone involved with fencing gets a D1 scholorship.
My kid would have loved fencing. She was really pissed off missing girls flag football. 5'10", great hands as a goalkeeper, great leaping ability, ran the 100 and made league finals in that event. She was made for the sport. Got to play one game and beat coverage in less than a second every time.

If education and saving money are the only objectives then soccer is not the best pathway. Just go to a good community college and transfer to a UC after two years.

JC, then UC playing college soccer on scholarship saves you even more. Still a good way. Every ECNL player can get at least a D2 scholarship. There are 9000 D1 soccer players. Figure 1/4 of them graduate each year, giving us 2250. 5%, or about 100 players will go pro. The other 95% will end their careers in college. Choose a school with a good scholarship, a chance to play, that is top 100 in education. If after a couple years it looks like you might be one of those 5%, transfer if needed to better your chances at playing professional.
 
My kid would have loved fencing. She was really pissed off missing girls flag football. 5'10", great hands as a goalkeeper, great leaping ability, ran the 100 and made league finals in that event. She was made for the sport. Got to play one game and beat coverage in less than a second every time.

If education and saving money are the only objectives then soccer is not the best pathway. Just go to a good community college and transfer to a UC after two years.

JC, then UC playing college soccer on scholarship saves you even more. Still a good way. Every ECNL player can get at least a D2 scholarship. There are 9000 D1 soccer players. Figure 1/4 of them graduate each year, giving us 2250. 5%, or about 100 players will go pro. The other 95% will end their careers in college. Choose a school with a good scholarship, a chance to play, that is top 100 in education. If after a couple years it looks like you might be one of those 5%, transfer if needed to better your chances at playing professional.
Sure but you are introducing a soccer objective. If only looking at education and cost then you need to consider the savings from not participating in elite youth soccer.
 
Sure but you are introducing a soccer objective. If only looking at education and cost then you need to consider the savings from not participating in elite youth soccer.
Time savings is something to consider as well
 
Under the current system teams are limited to 14 scholorships. If there's 38 players and you figure 5 are full scholorship, 6 are half scholorship, and everyone else 27 players are quarter or no scholorship I guess the numbers work.

I'm not sure if I'd want to send my kid to a meat grinder situation like that.

The college game needs some serious cleaning up.
80% if the rosters have 30 players or less, with the new rules dropping it to 28 max. A number of programs aren't fully funded so less than 14 scholarships. A number of programs give 14 half scholarships, then use NIL money to get 28 players to full scholarships, as well as everything in between. Even a sport like basketball, where almost every D1 college offers 15 full rides you see players chosing schools for the NIL money and a great chance to play pro.
 
Its just their MO on how they operate. They bring in about 10 recruits and purge a good portion of their roster every year. They are not interested in developing just bring in talent and see who floats to the top. Unfortunately they are not the only program that does this....Look at Mich St., Kentucky, and Arkansas. This new roster cap is going to destroy this method and they will now have to rely on development and coaching. We'll see how well they do moving forward.
If you've seen the transfer portal list from last season, I don't know why any team would bring in more than 3-4 unicorns out of high school every year. If developing players is too much of a chore, there's your solution. Adjusting to the college game? No problem. Adjusting to being away from mom and dad? No problem. Redshirts? No problem.
 
Does anyone know the penalty for going over the roster limit?
If a player is injured and has long term recovery, can a team keep them off the 28 player roster, but still at the school?
Does a redshirt player count towards the roster limit during their redshirt year?
Players on a mission, do they count towards the 28? I know they get exempt from the 4 years play in 5 year period.
 
Couple of new bits of info relevant to the NIL settlement that's driving the proposed roster caps.

1) The proposed $2.6 billion settlement allocates 90% of the money to past men's football and basketball players, 5% to past women's basketball players and then 5% to all other past male and femal ecollege athletes.

2) On a go forward basis, if approved, starting for the 2025-26 season, there will be $21 million to all 364 D1 schools for athletic scholarship/nil money.

3) Most schools, when asked, say they will allocate the incoming $21m/year according the same 90/5/5 formula.

4) There were about 190,000 D1 college athletes in 2024-25, which included 28,000 football players, about 5,000 men's basketball players, and 5,000 women's basketball players

5) Doing the math, each football and male basketball player will receive an average $600 per player per year (allowing for the roster caps for those sports) and female basketball players will receive an average of $225 per player per year (allowing for roster caps). The other 152,000 athletes in other sports would receive an average of $7 per player per year (allowing for roster caps).

6) In exchange for this windfall, colleges would have to implement the roster caps mentioned above that, depending on the sport, would result in, for example, cutting 15% of the existing roster from the average men's d1 college soccer team

7) The Ivy league schools - as a conference - are opting out of the settlement.

8) The new presidential administration has officially rescinded Title IX guidance.

9) Scuttlebutt/Word on the street is that, because the settlement is still obviously and fatally flawed - never mind the Title IX issues - that coaches across sports across the country are already planning to disregard the roster cap.

10) Stay tuned...
 
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