Alex Swenson (former D1 coach/recruiter) explains recent NCAA Division I baseball rule changes: roster size increased from 35 to 40 players (adding 5 spots per program across ~300 programs → ~1,500 new D1 roster spots) and scholarship-distribution rules were adjusted so schools may split their scholarship budget (maximum 11.7 full scholarships if fully funded) among up to 32 players (previously 27). He notes most programs are not "fully funded," Ivy League and Patriot League do not offer athletic scholarships, and that teams currently must award at least 25% scholarship to any player receiving athletic aid (a minimum that may be proposed for change).
Questions this video answers
40 players (previously 35).
Approximately 300 programs; 5 additional spots per program → ~1,500 new roster spots.
11.7 full scholarships.
Up to 32 players (previously up to 27).
25% minimum per scholarship recipient (subject to proposed change).
Chapters
Hey, how you doing? Alex here. Thanks for joining me. In today's episode, we are talking about the new roster and scholarship changes that just happened to Division 1 baseball. And it is good news. I'm going to talk about the roster rules and the scholarship rules. And it's also important to understand that the NCLA just signed us over and it is a one year waiver. You might be thinking only one year, but these are kind of the steps to make these rules appropriate, permanent. So we are headed in the right direction and it gives us an avenue to get more scholarship money, more athletic aid into college baseball, which we really, really need. You'll learn more about that here in a second. About that. But if you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swenson. I'm a former Division I college baseball coach, scout and recruiter with 11 years of experience. And now what I do is help high school baseball players and their parents navigate this college recruiting process and really help them find the best college fit for them. So with that said, if you get anything from this video, please smash that like button and subscribe to the YouTube channel. And if you're listening to this on the podcast, please subscribe so you can get my weekly videos and or podcasts. If you want to just listen to it on the car ride or anything, go over to my podcast and pick it up there. But again with that said, let's go into roster rules. So this is the new rule Change here. Division 1 baseball teams are now allowed to have a maximum of 40 active players on their roster. Previously it was 35. So there's 300 Division 1 baseball programs in the country. They are adding five spots to their roster. That's 1500 new Division 1 baseball spot spots in the country. So that is exciting news for players and high school baseball players that want to play at the next level because there is more availability, which is again, great news, especially with the transfer portal and all this stuff going on with the pandemic and all those changes that were happening. We won't get into that today, but again, this is good news moving forward. Also note some roster rules. This isn't a big change. This isn't necessarily a change at all, but some roster stuff I wanted to cover. So eight players, more are on no athletic scholarships. That's just important to know. We're going to talk a little bit more about that on the scholarship rules, which we're going to get here in a second. So typically those eight players or more are considered preferred walk ons or walk ons and if you guys have watched my channel at all, you guys can go back on and I explain the difference between what a preferred walk on is or a walk on. So what those differences are. But usually it's eight players or more that are preferred walk ons or walk ons. And basically you're just not on athletic aid. You could be on no aid or you could be on academic only as we go forward. So let's go into scholarship rules. So the scholarship rules for Division 1 baseball, no changes here yet. I'm going to get into the small change that happened. But Division 1 baseball teams are allowed to offer maximum of 11.7 scholarships if they are fully funded. What is fully funded mean? Fully funded means that you have 11.7 scholarships to give out to 32 players on your roster. I'm going to talk about that in a second. But the thing is, not all of these schools, honestly, most of these schools, college baseball programs are not fully funded. Well, what does that mean? That means they don't have 11.7 scholarships to give out. They might have 10, they might have eight, they might have five, they might have three. They might not have no money. Okay. And Ivy Leagues and the Patriot League do not have any athletic scholarships. So just a tidbit there. The Ivy Leagues and the Patriot League do not have athletic aid. All other conferences, all other schools have the ability to give athletic aid just to depends on really the school and the administration giving the baseball coaches and the athletic department giving them scholarship money to divvy out. But this was the change that came along. Since they're upping the roster to 40, they are giving more slots or more players the ability to have scholarships. So the new rule is scholarships can now be divided among 32 players or less and it was previously 27 or less. So they could, you couldn't, you can't give out more scholarships to 33 players. You can't give it out to. The max amount of players you can give out is 32 is what I'm trying to say. So again, that goes back to those eight players. So there's 40 players on active roster. 32 of them could be on athletic scholarship. But again, some schools might just have five scholarships and they're giving it out to 15 players. So that would be 15 players are on scholarship, athletic scholarship, and the rest are not on athletic scholarship. They might be on academic scholarship. So again, there's all these different ways and each school is a little bit different. Other than the Power 5 schools, most Power 5 schools are all fully funded with 11.7 and teams must give a player an athletic scholarship a minimum of 25%. So you if, if they give out a scholarship, all right, the player must have at least 25% going forward. Now this rule change is or this rule here is looking to be changed and it's kind of in the queue to be voted on to changes where they can give any amount. They could give 5% all the way up to 100%. Even though most players I've never seen when I was coaching and even up to this day a kid on full athletic scholarship, it's usually around that 25 to 30% for Division 1 baseball. But those are the major changes which is rosters are now going up to 40 rather than 35 previously was 35 and they're allowed to give up to 32 players a athletic scholarship there. So that those are the rule changes, all positive. So especially for high school baseball players that are looking to play Division 1 because there's more opportunities going forward. I will keep you guys updated as we move forward as new rules changes are coming because it happens usually late summer or into the fall and then around this time this year, so around start of the spring as we go forward. But if you have any questions, please let me know. Please comment down below and I will be happy to answer them. I'll see you in the next video. Take care.
