Mark Stoops is one of many head coaches worried about roster limits

The House v. NCAA settlement will bring revenue-sharing to college athletics. At SEC Media Days, everyone is wondering just how much college football programs will have available to spend on players but that is not the only big change from the game-changing settlement.

Scholarship limits are going away in college athletics. A hot-button topic at SEC Spring Meetings re-emerged in Dallas when ESPN‘s Pete Thamel reported that 105 players without walk-ons is the number that is being discussed.

Sources: The number for college football roster limits that’s being socialized this week from the commissioners to the campus level is 105. That has yet to be accepted, but it’s the number that commissioners have brought back to athletic directors for discussion.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 18, 2024

Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops and numerous other head coaches in the SEC do not believe that is enough.

“It’s not but I really don’t want to get into much of that right now because it’s all still hearsay and we’re working through that,” Stoops told KSR at SEC Media Days when asked about Thamel’s report. “I think we’re pretty collective within the SEC that think that’s a pretty tough number to operate.”

Teams are currently allowed to spend 85 scholarships per year but also have a large number of walk-ons to field a team that can reach 120-plus players. Now those walk-on programs are likely getting eliminated following the lawsuit settlement and scholarship signing classes will get bigger, but college football coaches could be forced to trim their rosters in a big way if the roster limit is set at 105.

Mark Stoops pointed out that the NFL can bring in “unlimited players” if somebody gets hurt at any point during the league year. College teams won’t have that same option. The NFL only has a 53-man roster but there is a practice squad for each team and the option to add free agents if players are added to the injured list.

The SEC and the rest of college football need to figure out how they will pay players but getting settled on a roster limit number is a big talking point and it’s certainly an issue that head coaches are worried about.