2021 and 2022 Spots Available

[BillySee58]

The NCAA allowing players who play in the fall to essentially have a free season looks like it may complicate things down the line from a scholarship standpoint. Next year, players who are currently seniors who elect to come back for another senior season next year will reportedly be exempt from the scholarship team limit of 85.

Currently, by my unofficial breakdown of the roster, we have 77 players on scholarship, with 12 being seniors. If everyone who is not a senior chose to stay for next season, that would give us 20 spots this class, and potentially up to as many as 24 to account for players leaving the team (1 spot already gone to Ikaika Ragsdale).

Where this really gets tricky is not with players coming back for another senior season, but juniors and below getting extra seasons. Let’s say between the current juniors and below on the team plus the 2021 signees bring us to 85 scholarships not including seniors coming back. Then what would we do for the 2022 class? 85 guys who technically will still have eligibility for the 2022 season, how do you sign another class on top of that and still stay under the 85 scholarship limit?

Does the NCAA raise the scholarship limit beyond next season? As a head coach, do you start being more aggressive in not renewing scholarships for guys who don’t see the field much? Do you make a rule where you give guys 5 years counting this season, and if they’re still eligible (i.e. guys who have redshirted) you ask them to play elsewhere if they want to continue playing college football? 

A lot of questions and hard to imagine how it will all shake out. And the coaches are having to ask themselves these questions right now as they figure out how many players to sign this class.

[UNT18Grad]

Just now, UNT18Grad said:

Yep, have posted about this before and I don't really see them raising scholarship limits because it would then become very difficult to ever lower the number back down to 85 unless they gradually reduced it by 1 or 2 every year for several years or something like that.  Even still, all implementing a change like that would do is benefit the Ohio State's of the world even more because they will still lose their 15+ guys to the NFL after this season no matter what.  So they lose their normal amount but all of the sudden scholarship limits are raised so they can bring in a bigger recruiting class or have the ability to bring in more transfers, meanwhile schools like UNT could hypothetically lose nobody and be forced to bring in a class of around 10.

It will be interesting how it all turns out and to see if the NCAA actually does anything about it since this is an issue that mostly impacts the smaller schools.  I think not renewing scholarships of players who have put years into your program would be a horrible look and I hope no school is ever forced to start going down that road.  I also think for 2021 we should try to plan ahead among the uncertainty and potentially take a class that's around 5 players short compared to what we would ideally like that way the hit wouldn't be so hard in the 2022 class.

 

[BillySee58]

51 minutes ago, UNT18Grad said:

 

They couldn’t do that unless the NCAA also raised the scholarship limit of 25 per class. I would say this issue could really help G5 programs because their seniors would be much more likely to come back for another year than P5 seniors who would rather enter the draft.

But yeah, having to not renew scholarships would not be ideal. Especially if it’s a situation where you renew some but not others. Bringing Jacob Brammer and Manase Mose back for 6th seasons but not bringing back Chris Thornton, for example, would not look great. But it also could be more common if that is something everyone is facing.

[GMG24]

On 9/16/2020 at 1:57 PM, BillySee58 said:

The NCAA allowing players who play in the fall to essentially have a free season looks like it may complicate things down the line from a scholarship standpoint. Next year, players who are currently seniors who elect to come back for another senior season next year will reportedly be exempt from the scholarship team limit of 85.

Currently, by my unofficial breakdown of the roster, we have 77 players on scholarship, with 12 being seniors. If everyone who is not a senior chose to stay for next season, that would give us 20 spots this class, and potentially up to as many as 24 to account for players leaving the team (1 spot already gone to Ikaika Ragsdale).

Where this really gets tricky is not with players coming back for another senior season, but juniors and below getting extra seasons. Let’s say between the current juniors and below on the team plus the 2021 signees bring us to 85 scholarships not including seniors coming back. Then what would we do for the 2022 class? 85 guys who technically will still have eligibility for the 2022 season, how do you sign another class on top of that and still stay under the 85 scholarship limit?

Does the NCAA raise the scholarship limit beyond next season? As a head coach, do you start being more aggressive in not renewing scholarships for guys who don’t see the field much? Do you make a rule where you give guys 5 years counting this season, and if they’re still eligible (i.e. guys who have redshirted) you ask them to play elsewhere if they want to continue playing college football? 

A lot of questions and hard to imagine how it will all shake out. And the coaches are having to ask themselves these questions right now as they figure out how many players to sign this class.

I believe the NCAA is going to bypass the 85 scholarship limit.

[BillySee58]

2 hours ago, GMG24 said:

I believe the NCAA is going to bypass the 85 scholarship limit.

In 2021 they will for the current seniors coming back. The question is beyond that. 

[ADLER]

3 hours ago, GMG24 said:

I believe the NCAA is going to bypass the 85 scholarship limit.

This is probably the answer.

Continue issuing the 25 scholarships per year and the squad sizes will even out after 5 years.

[Wag Tag]

I could see not renewing scholarships, they could transfer.

[UNTLifer]

I can see some programs going over the limit/taking advantage of this and then claiming confusion/ignorance.

[ADLER]

This year, because of no eligibility being expended, is by far the best to be chasing graduate transfers.

For one year only, ,most fourth year players will be graduating with a year of eligibility left, and many, many players will be graduating with two and even three years of eligibility left.

[p_phelps]

9 hours ago, ADLER said:

This year, because of no eligibility being expended, is by far the best to be chasing graduate transfers.

For one year only, ,most fourth year players will be graduating with a year of eligibility left, and many, many players will be graduating with two and even three years of eligibility left.

Seth hardly does this.  And I hate it. All the successful g5 programs have gone hard into the transfer game. We typically get 1 maybe 2 p5 transfers. 

[H-towngreen]

On 9/20/2020 at 1:41 AM, ADLER said:

This year, because of no eligibility being expended, is by far the best to be chasing graduate transfers.

For one year only, ,most fourth year players will be graduating with a year of eligibility left, and many, many players will be graduating with two and even three years of eligibility left.

Agree...there should be a ton of grad transfer options after this season and we need to take full advantage of it. 

In regards to numbers the NCAA will 100% change the team scholly totals for the next several years