Kentucky's recruiting plan is 'up in the air' awaiting House v. NCAA settlement approval

The House v. NCAA lawsuit settlement was supposed to bring some big changes to college athletics. One of the most notable changes was that football walk-ons were being eliminated, and total yearly scholarships were going from 85 to 120. That creates more roster-building wiggle room for those schools planning to fulfill the full scholarship volume.

However, those plans were put on hold at a preliminary approval hearing on Sept. 5. Judge Claudia Wilken asked the NCAA’s attorneys to “go back to the drawing board” due to NIL pay restrictions. Last week, the NCAA resubmitted revised documents centering around NIL and collectives but every other part of the settlement is stuck in a holding pattern as we wait for final approval from the court system.

That makes things tricky for college football staffs. Will they have 85 scholarship players and walk-ons in 2025 or 120 scholarship players and no walk-ons in 2025? We are still waiting for a definitive answer as the early signing period (Dec. 4-Dec. 6) is only two months away. Programs are building their high school classes and planning out how many scholarships need to be available for utilization in the transfer portal market.

Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops is among those waiting for a final answer, but at this point, the Wildcats are operating under the assumption that there will be more scholarship capital available in 2025.

“Until we get the final decision from the judge in California, we all are just kinda recruiting under the assumption that we’re going to have more numbers than we’ve had. So we gotta go out and hit the pavement,” Stoops told the media on Wednesday. “You want to recruit. You want to take some high school commitments and obviously, you want to leave a little room for the portal but we’re up in the air a little bit here.”

“Everybody’s in the same boat. Every school is in the same boat.”

We are playing the waiting game in a fluid world where things are changing rapidly in college athletics. Just this week, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti met in Nashville to discuss some big-picture issues. Most notably, the two conferences are likely looking for eight total automatic bids when the College Football Playoff expands in 2026. We might only at the beginning of seismic changes coming to the sport.

In recruiting departments across college football, employees must be ready to pivot in a hurry no matter what happens in a courtroom in California over the next few weeks. If the new 120 rule is put into place, expect to see high school recruiting activity pick up in a hurry over the next few months. That could make the late signing period (Feb. 5) more interesting this year.