Tuesday was the start of the revenue-sharing era in college athletics after the House v. NCAA settlement was passed on June 6. The biggest change has been schools paying student-athletes for the first time ever and a new NIL clearinghouse that will attempt to clean up direct pay-for-play. However, this settlement almost failed to pass due to roster limit designations. That caused the NCAA to adjust on the fly.
Judge Claudia Wilken wanted walk-ons or any other player on a roster to have their spot saved for the duration of their college eligibility. That meant that these collection of players were to be grandfathered in for this new era. Now NCAA member institutions must classify what players on their roster are a part of this group.
The NCAA has essentially created a walk-on waiver.
Schools now must tag the players receiving this waiver. Those that become a “Designated Student-Athlete (DSA)” would have been cut from the roster if the roster limits immediately went into play. Once on the DSA list, those student-athletes are eligible to transfer this summer without conditions, and “must be released from their contract prohibition(s)” with their current school. That transfer portal window opens on July 7 and will close on August 5.
Do not expect rosters to drastically change this summer across all sports, but there will be some more player movement heading into the 2025-26 school year. Players currently on scholarship will not be allowed to transfer in this window.
Teams are shifting around how they roster-build moving forward by obeying the roster limits, but also bolstering roster depth with walk-ons who will remain in college athletics for the next couple of years.
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