New D1 Baseball Scholarships and Roster Cuts (2025-2026)

Hey guys, there's two massive changes coming to Division 1 baseball and there's good news and there's bad news. And I just wanted to clarify some things as far as going through and what we know and now. And this will look like it's going to go into effect for the 2025, 2026 season. So fall 2025. And this will impact scholarship and this will impact roster spots available. So let's start with the good news, and that is scholarships. Okay, The NCAA just changed this rule because they were getting sued and sued and sued and eventually we're just like, hey, basically have all of the scholarships, okay? Because Division 1 baseball for the longest time only had 11.7 scholarships. I know random number that they could divvy out amongst 28 to 32 guys, depending on the roster limit for that year. So not a lot of athletic scholarship in Division 1 baseball. And most schools were not fully funded with 11.7, which is going to come into play here when we talk about these new scholarship limits. Now, a lot of schools can offset those athletic scholarships with academic scholarships. And usually that threshold is around 3.5 GPA. And of course, if you're a good test score taker, you can get help with academic money. And some schools will allow you to stack some athletic money and some academic money, which helps because of how expensive college is these days. Now this new rule, NCAA is going to allow 34 full scholarships. Basically, it's like the football basketball method where basically everybody has a full scholarship. There's one thing, not all schools are going to be able to afford 34 scholarships because if we take just baseball and put that to a side, most schools have a lot of other sports as well, and they just up their scholarships as well. And these schools are trying to bring in revenue for their school. And if they're giving all these athletic scholarships out, it's hitting their bottom line, all right? And that's just the truth and reality of it. So there's going to be caps. Just like some schools, as I mentioned earlier, couldn't fully fund 11.7 scholarships. Well, if they can't fully fund 11.7 scholarships, they certainly can't fully fund 34. Now some schools are going to get creative and be able to push more money to baseball, which is just fantastic. This is the good news. But there's also just a reality of it. Mostly the big schools, the power four schools, the SEC, the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big 12 are going to be able to at least maybe get up to 34. I honestly don't think many schools will get up to 34. I think the conferences will come out and be like, hey, this is your limit. But then it gets tricky there. There's still some unknown here, but more scholarship is coming. So if bigger school athletes, they're definitely going to get more money. Now we have the Nils. There's just more money coming into college athletics, just a lot more than there ever was, which is great for the athletes, great for the families. I just want to manage expectations. Not, not all of these schools are going to be fully funded. Of those 34, they certainly won't. So a lot of mid major schools, there's about 230 mid major schools, they will not have 34 full scholarships. They certainly won't. But again, if you are doing well academically, have a 3.5 or higher and try to get as high as you possibly can, there's a possibility that you get an athletic scholarship and an academic scholarship, which is just so helpful. So there is good news that more money is coming and we're kind of figuring out. I think schools are getting creative with this. But then there's also the bad news. Roster cuts. We're going from 40. Okay. Which is relatively new. It used to be 35 before COVID Okay. 35 was the roster limit. We bumped it up to 40 roster spots for Division 1 teams because players got another year of eligibility. They had to really kind of manage that. And 40 honestly got a little too big. So now they're cutting it back to 34. Bad news is, guys, some guys that have committed to schools right now are getting let go and some guys that are on teams are getting let go. And it has made recruiting. It was already really, really hard. Only 2.2 to 2.3 high school players make it to Division 1. And it's going to make it a little harder now. Okay. And it will eventually level off and we'll have a clearer path. But right now it's pretty difficult. It's pretty difficult. We really have to stand out. And then let alone we have the transfer portal now that we're competing with other guys as well. And that's made an impact. But these coaches are still recruiting high school players. I don't. There's some, you know, really just verbiage out there saying that these coaches aren't recruiting any high school guys. That's not the case. They. They are recruiting high school guys. They need to recruit high school guys. Are they taking transfer portal guys too? Yes, both can be true. So there's definitely made a dent in the recruiting process. But this is why it's so important to be proactive in this recruiting process and find schools that are recruiting your position. Very, very important in that Find schools that are good fit for you athletically and academically, geographically. Okay, not every player. Most players are not SEC, ACC. I wasn't. I played at Division 1 level. I wouldn't have played that much if I played in the SEC ACC. Okay. I went to a Division 1 mid major that was a perfect fit for me and got to compete and play a lot through my years at college and it was just the best thing ever. Became a captain, all of that. Look for schools that are a good fit for you, whether D1, D2, D3, D2 and D3 baseball right now is the best it's ever been and you guys need to consider that as you go through this process. So again, just a quick little overview. The NCAA changed their scholarship rules from bumping it up massively from 11.7 to 34 scholarships starting in 2025, 2020, a six and then they are cutting the rosters for the2025 roster to2026. They're cutting it down by six from 40 to 34. If you guys have any questions, any comments, please comment down below. Please smash that like button and I'll see you in the next video. Take care of.