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NCAA’s Misleading Wording on “Guaranteed” Scholarships

If you’ve seen the NCAA’s “Driving Change” 30-second commercial during an event like March Madness or the College World Series, you may recall that the narrator says “…D1 scholarships are now guaranteed…”

Well, as Lee Corso might say on ESPN’s College Game Day during the Fall, “not so fast, my friend.”

While attending the annual NCAA Rules Seminar recently, I learned that Division I scholarships are NOT guaranteed if the scholarship agreement is written in a certain manner.

If a scholarship is written as a multi-year scholarship, but lists “zero” financial aid in years 2, 3 and 4, there is no guarantee that the athlete’s scholarship will be renewed after the first year. 

Furthermore, in that type of situation, there is no requirement that the athletic department must provide an opportunity for an appeal hearing.

The rationale of the NCAA is that the athlete is signing a scholarship agreement that clearly indicates there will be no athletic scholarship provided in years 2, 3 or 4, so no notice of non-renewal or the opportunity for an appeal hearing is necessary.

So, for example:

Year 1 – 100% of a full scholarship
Year 2 – 0 scholarship
Year 3 – 0 scholarship
Year 4 – 0 scholarship

This is a valid scholarship agreement with no assurances that your son or daughter will receive an athletic scholarship after the first year of the agreement.

Do you Have Questions?

If you have questions about your athlete’s scholarship and are interested in a confidential consultation to discuss, schedule a Scholarship Strategies Consult online, call us at 913-766-1235 or write to rick@informedathlete.com.

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NCAA House Settlement Details for NIL, Roster Limits and Opting In or Out

After months of anticipation, we’re finally able to share some details with you regarding the NCAA – House settlement and the ways in which it will impact NCAA Division I student-athletes and teams.

NIL

For NIL arrangements with third-parties other than their own university, Division I athletes are now required to report deals worth $600 or more to a new online platform called “NIL Go.”  (www.nilgo.com)

The goal of this new process is to gain some control over the value of NIL deals, so that they are more in line with what was originally intended for the use of an athlete’s name, image or likeness.  That is, for arrangements such as being compensated for autograph signing, personal appearances, or promoting businesses through social media, rather than what appear to be simple “pay for play” compensation deals for upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

NIL deals with third parties will be evaluated on the following three points:

  • The relationship between the “payor” and the athlete’s school.
  • Whether the payor offer of NIL compensation is for a valid business purpose.
  • Whether the compensation is reasonable for deals offered to other similar individuals (based on things like the athlete’s public recognition, number of social media followers, is the payor a local company or a nationally recognized brand? etc).

If an athlete’s NIL deal is Not Cleared through NIL Go, the athlete will have the option to revise the deal and resubmit for approval, to cancel the deal or can appeal through an arbitration process.

Note: This requirement applies to ALL Division I athletes, regardless of whether their school is opting-in to or is opting-out of the House settlement and is effective immediately.

Roster Limits


Defendant universities (ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pac-12) and other universities that Opt-In to the House settlement – referred to as “Participating Institutions” – will be held to the roster limits in each sport that have been publicized for the past few months.

 

However, Participating Institutions will be able to designate athletes who had been told that they were losing their roster spot due to the House settlement if they were on a Division I roster prior to April 7, 2025. Those Designated Student-Athletes will be allowed to continue participating with the team but will not count against a team’s roster limit.

  • The same will be true for recruited athletes who had signed with or been promised a roster sport with a team for the upcoming year before April 7.
  • Designated Student-Athletes must be declared by each Participating Institution and be reported to the NCAA by July 6. Once that list has been submitted to the NCAA, it can’t be revised.
  • Furthermore, except for Designated Student-Athletes (who will not count in roster limits), Fall sports must finalize and be at their limit by the first date of competition this Fall. For Winter and Spring sports teams, rosters must be finalized by either the first date of competition or December 1, 2025, whichever is earlier.
  • Participating Institutions that can afford to do so will have the opportunity to provide full scholarship funding to every athlete on their roster, rather than being restricted to the scholarship limits for each team that have been a part of Division I athletics for many years.

Those universities that Opt-Out of the House settlement will have no specific roster limits (except for Division I baseball), but they will continue to be held to the current scholarship limits in each sport.

Opting in or Opting Out

Schools that are current members of the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC, as well as schools that choose to Opt-In to the House settlement will be referred to as Participating Institutions.

  • Those schools will be allowed to directly share revenue earned by the athletic departments with their student-athletes, in addition to having the opportunity to provide full scholarships to those athletes.
  • Schools must formally Opt-In for the 2025-26 school year no later than June 30. A full list of participating schools will then be made public.
  • Going forward, on an annual basis, schools outside of the major conferences will need to declare each year if they are Opting-In or Opting-Out for the upcoming school year no later than March 1.

Do You Have Questions?

Schedule a confidential Scholarship Strategies consultation online if you have questions about the settlement, and we’ll do our best to answer them with the resource materials that we have access to from the NCAA, or by calling us at 913-766-1235 or writing to rick@informedathlete.com.

 

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Recent NCAA “House Settlement” Developments

Attorneys representing the NCAA and major Division I conferences, as well as those representing the plaintiffs in the “House case” appeared before Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, Calif on April 7 to make their final remarks (at least as of that date).

This is the major lawsuit settlement that has been in the works for months and which we wrote about in January.

https://informedathlete.com/ncaa-di-roster-and-scholarship-limits

There have been a couple of recent bits of news about the Settlement that may be of interest to current Division I athletes and families.

  • Judge Wilken did not issue a final ruling on the settlement but stated that “I think it is a good settlement – don’t quote me.” With that, many believe that she will issue a final ruling with the next few weeks.
  • She also indicated that she would like to see the roster limits changed. She stated that “my idea is to grandfather in” those who are currently on Division I rosters and suggested a “phase-in” of roster limits.

In a related development, an email was sent to all Division I universities last week by an NCAA Senior Vice-President which clarified that

  • “A current scholarship student-athlete who enters the transfer portal after being told that they will lose their roster spot cannot lose their scholarship based on the decision to enter the portal if they ultimately decide not to transfer.”

We will provide more updates about the settlement when it becomes official.  If you have any questions, please call our office at 913-766-1235 or send an email to rick@informedathlete.com.

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NCAA Division I Roster and Scholarship Limits

I’m sure many of you have been tracking on the news that NCAA Division I will be imposing roster size limits and new scholarship limits for ALL sports starting in the 2025-26 academic year. This is due to a class-action lawsuit settlement that is known as the “House settlement.”

At the current time, Division I baseball is the ONLY sport that has a legislated roster size. However, ALL Division I sports will have a legislated roster limit starting next year.

Somewhat ironically, while roster spots will be eliminated in many sports, scholarship limits will be increasing in Division I sports due to the lawsuit settlement.

  • Division I programs will have more scholarships available and more flexibility to provide full or partial scholarships to team members depending on a school’s funding capability.
  • Note that Mid-major and smaller D1 universities will have the option to “opt out” of the House settlement and if they do so, they will be held to current scholarship limits in their sports.

For Fall sports programs starting next year:

  • Schools must finalize their roster prior to the first date of competition that counts for championship selection. In other words, athletes may be allowed to participate in a preseason scrimmage or exhibition game before being cut from the final roster to reach a team’s limit.

For Winter and Spring sports starting next year:

  • Schools must set their final roster no later than December 1 or the first contest that counts for championship selection in that sport, whichever is earlier.

The House settlement is not yet official and there may be changes to the settlement before it is finalized.

Do You Have Questions?

If you have questions about the potential impact of this settlement on a particular sport and how it could affect your student-athlete, schedule a confidential Scholarship Strategies Consult online, contact us at rick@informedathlete.com or call our office at 913-766-1235.


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NCAA 2025 Convention Summary

The annual NCAA Convention was held recently in Nashville. I’ll share below some of the key decisions and rule changes that were approved during the Convention.

As a side note, I was surprised to not see any mention of a formal discussion about the possibility of athletes being granted 5 years of playing eligibility given recent lawsuits against the NCAA.

Here’s a brief rundown of the approved rule changes that directly impact student-athletes:

NCAA Division I

For Division I (and for Division III), the only proposed rule change that directly impacts student-athletes is the approval of Women’s Wrestling as an official Championship Sport beginning next year. There will be one National Championship for NCAA sponsored teams across all three NCAA Divisions in 2026.

  • There were 76 NCAA schools (across all three Divisions) that sponsored a Women’s Wrestling team during the 2023-24 school year.
  • By the end of the 2024-25 school year, it’s expected that there will be 93 schools sponsoring a Women’s Wrestling team (4 in Division I, 34 in Division II and 55 in Division III).

NCAA Division II

Effective Fall 2025, an athlete in their first year of college enrollment will be able to redshirt as long as they participate in less than 30% of the maximum permissible games or dates of competition in their sport.

  • Note that this will only apply for an athlete who starts their college career at a D2 school.
  • This option will not be available for an athlete transferring to D2.

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Also, D2 member schools voted to eliminate the academic requirement that an athlete must earn at least 18 semester credit hours or 27 quarter credit hours during the regular academic year to be eligible for competition the following year.

Other academic requirements were retained for Division II eligibility:

  • An athlete must earn at least 9 semester credit hours or 8 quarter credit hours during each semester or quarter of full-time enrollment to be eligible to compete during the next term.
  • An athlete must earn a total of at least 24 semester credit hours or 36 quarter credit hours annually to be eligible (summer or winter credit hours can be included to satisfy this requirement).
  • An athlete must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.00 to be eligible for competition.

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Athletes who were Qualifiers based on their high school academic performance and who are transferring to NCAA Division II from a two-year college will no longer be required to earn transferable credit hours in English, math or science courses to satisfy transfer eligibility requirements.

  • Those athletes will still need to satisfy other academic requirements to be eligible as a 2-4 transfer (such as earning at least 12 hours of transferable credit for each term of full-time enrollment at the two-year college, etc.).

*****

Finally, as in the other NCAA Divisions, D2 approved the addition of Women’s Wrestling as a Championship Sport starting in 2026. It was necessary that all three Divisions approved this to establish a Championship next year.

NCAA Division III

As mentioned above under Division I and Division II, the only proposed rule change affecting Division III athletes was the approval of Women’s Wrestling as an official NCAA Championship Sport beginning next year.

Do You Have Questions?

For questions about any of these actions taken at the NCAA Convention, you can contact us directly via e-mail at rick@informedathlete.com or by calling 913-766-1235.

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NCAA & NJCAA Signing Dates

Upcoming NCAA and NJCAA Signing Dates include:

November 1, 2024

The NJCAA Letter of Intent signing opportunity for high school recruits begins November 1 for all sports except football.

November 13, 2024

High school seniors and junior college recruits in all sports other than Football can sign an official scholarship agreement with an NCAA Division I or II university beginning November 13.

For Division I basketball only, this period is only for one week and ends on November 20. For all other sports, the end date of the signing period is based on each university’s policies and deadlines for awarding scholarships to all incoming students.

December 4-6, 2024 High school football recruits can sign an official scholarship agreement with an NCAA Division I program (FBS or FCS) during this 3-day period.

December 4, 2024

Junior college Football players who plan to enroll in January with an NCAA Division I or II program can sign an official scholarship agreement beginning on this date.

February 5, 2025

The initial date for the Football “regular signing period” for high school or junior college recruits to sign with NCAA Division I or II programs or NJCAA football programs is February 5, 2025. The end date of the signing period is based on each university’s policies and deadlines for awarding scholarships to all incoming students.

Do You Have Questions?

For questions about these signing opportunities, schedule a confidential Scholarship Strategies Consult online or send an email to rick@informedathlete.com.

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NCAA Official Visit Rule Change For These Specific Situations

NCAA universities (in all divisions) are limited to providing only one official visit for each prospective student-athlete that they are recruiting.

However:

  • Beginning on October 15, it is permissible for both Division I and Division III universities to provide a second official visit to a student-athlete if they are transferring from another university or if they have taken a gap year after graduating from high school.
  • For NCAA Division II universities, a second official visit for a prospect became available beginning September 1 after the completion of high school.
  • Another Exception allows a high school or junior college prospective student-athlete to take an additional official visit to an NCAA Division I or II school if there has been a change of head coach at the university since the time of their previous official visit to that school.

Also, Important to Know:

A high school or junior college prospective student-athlete MUST be registered with the NCAA Eligibility Center BEFORE they can make an official visit to an NCAA Division I or II university.

Do You Have Questions?

If you have questions about the recruiting process and rules, official visits, navigating the NCAA Eligibility Center, or would like to discuss the athletic scholarship that is being presented to your athlete, schedule a confidential Scholarship Strategies Consult online or by calling us at 913-766-1235 or sending an email to rick@informedathlete.com

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NCAA Rule Changes Just Keep on Coming!

Over the past year or so, we’ve obviously seen many changes to the NCAA rules, mostly at the Division I level.

  • Changes to the Transfer Portal Windows in D1
  • The opportunity for athletes to be immediately eligible after a transfer, even if they have previously transferred from one four-year university to another (as long as they satisfy academic requirements to be eligible at the new university).
  • The elimination of contact, evaluation and quiet periods from the Division II recruiting calendars, as we mentioned in our last newsletter.
  • Proposed settlements in the “House vs. NCAA” lawsuit which potentially are leading to more scholarships being available to Division I athletes, even though roster limits may reduce the number of roster spots available in various NCAA sports.

AND NOW

It was recently reported by credible sources that Division I leadership is considering even further changes to the NCAA rules. Such changes being considered include:

  • Applying football’s “four-game rule” to all sports.
  • Allowing student-athletes in all sports to earn prize money before enrolling in college.
  • Eliminating the National Letter of Intent (but possibly being replaced by institutional scholarship signing agreements that would likely be very similar to the NLI).
  • Allowing student-athletes and recruits in all sports to maintain their collegiate eligibility while engaging with agents to consider and explore pro sports opportunities.

Do you have questions about how these rule changes could affect your athlete?

Schedule a confidential Transfer Eligibility Consult online, send an email to rick@informedathlete.com or call us at 913-766-1235.

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NCAA Division II Recruiting Rule Changes

NCAA Division II has made the following changes to their recruiting rules, and those changes are now in effect for ALL D2 sports.

  • D2 coaches can communicate via phone, text, email or regular mail at any time with no restrictions, even with a freshman or sophomore prospect.
  • June 15 preceding a prospect’s junior year of high school is still the earliest that D2 coaches can provide an official visit or have in-person off-campus contact with a prospect.
  • The D2 recruiting calendars, which were already much simpler than D1, are now almost completely “open.”

    The only recruiting “Dead Periods” for D2 coaches which prohibit any face-to-face contact with recruits are during the 48 hours prior to the start of a National Letter of Intent Signing Period.

If you have any questions about your athlete’s recruiting process you are welcome to schedule a confidential scholarship strategies consult online, call our office at 913-766-1235 or send an email to rick@informedathlete.com.

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Redshirt Rules 101 for 2024 Fall Sports

With sports competition beginning at colleges and universities across the country, this is an appropriate time to review the “redshirt rules” that are relevant to Fall Sports.

NCAA Division I and II Sports other than Football

An athlete who enters a regular season contest (at the varsity or JV level) during the season in their Fall sport, even if only for one or two minutes or for one or two plays, will be using one of their four seasons of competitive eligibility.

There is an exception for All Fall sports for participation in preseason scrimmages or exhibitions, BUT how such scrimmages or exhibitions are counted can vary from one sport to another.

For that reason, it is best to communicate with the NCAA compliance director at your university to inquire whether appearing in an exhibition contest or preseason scrimmage for your team will count as using one of your four seasons of competition.

NCAA Division I and II Football

An athlete on a Division I football team can compete in up to four games without being charged with a season of competition.

In Division II, a freshman athlete may appear in up to three games without being charged with a season of competition. Unlike the Division I rule, this opportunity is only available to an athlete “…in their initial year of collegiate enrollment.”

NCAA Division III

To redshirt at the NCAA Division III level, an athlete must completely remove themselves from their team before the first game or contest of the season.

The D3 rules charge a “season of participation” if an athlete is practicing with their team once the season begins, even if the athlete never appears in a game for their team during the season.

NJCAA and CCCAA

An athlete who enters a regular season contest (at the varsity or JV level) during the season in their Fall sport, even if only for one or two minutes or for one or two plays, will be using one of their four seasons of competitive eligibility.

NAIA

The NAIA only charges an athlete with a season of competition if the athlete appears in more than 20 percent of the maximum number of games or dates of competition in their sport. However, any participation in NAIA-approved postseason competition will count as a season used (even if that is the athlete’s ONLY appearance in competition all season).

Do you have questions about redshirting or a medical redshirt?

Schedule a confidential Eligibility Issues Consult online, send an email to rick@informedathlete.com or call us at 913-766-1235.

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