Why baseball programs could get more scholarships, football eliminate walk-ons after House v. NCAA settlement

DESTIN, Fla. — Josh Booty could have it all.

When former LSU baseball coach Skip Bertman recruited Booty 30 years ago, the offer wasn’t just a scholarship, it was essentially to play shortstop for the defending national champions.

Ah, but the top prospect from Shreveport, Louisiana, would play quarterback (on scholarship) and start primarily as a walk-on in baseball. Who would let this go? Heck, playing both sports at a high level worked for Bo Jackson. Why not Booty?

“If you want to play baseball, I’ll give you a full license [baseball] scholarship,” Booty recalled the legendary Bertman saying. “But why wouldn’t I put you in football [scholarship] and build a better team [baseball]?”

Baseball intervened without Booty ever hitting a ground ball at Alex Box Stadium. The Florida Marlins came with a record offer of $1.6 million for him to turn pro.

Five years and all 30 MLB appearances later, Booty returned to play quarterback for the Tigers in 1999 for two seasons. In that sense, Booty had it all. The boy, now a 49-year-old businessman, played football for Nick Saban – but not without a lesson.

College baseball has been underserved. Only four programs in the country make money, according to U.S. Department of Education data gathered by consultant Tony Altimore. The scholarship issue, well, it was unique. It’s very difficult to manage them on a Division I roster.

The NCAA Baseball Tournament begins this week with an SEC-record 11 teams in a 64-team field. This is a continued salute to all Division I coaches trying to micro-distribute 11.7 scholarships across 35 roster spots. This distribution model makes baseball an “equivalence” sport. FBS football is a “headcount” sport that awards full scholarships for each available roster spot.

The only sports counted in Division I are FBS football, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s tennis, women’s gymnastics, and women’s volleyball. The rest are equivalency sports, where coaches have struggled for decades to know how to divide these scholarships.

This may be the last time they have to do this.

The last NCAA championship on the annual calendar is about to become a referendum on the future of what amounts to two factions following the landmark House v. NCAA village. Baseball scholarships are about to be fully funded with money from revenue sharing. Meanwhile, there are rumors that football rosters will have an 85 scholarship limit. This does a few things – potentially eliminate players from football while also balancing rosters to address Title IX concerns in the deal.

Gentlemen, start wringing your hands.

“Business as usual is over,” Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts told reporters Tuesday. “It’s a new model.”

As part of the agreement reached last week, there is discussion about replacing scholarship limits with roster limits. It’s complicated because, on the one hand, Power Four schools will be subject to $22 million annually in revenue-sharing money. At the same time, Alberts and his peers will have to consider deemphasizing or cutting back on sports to survive and address Title IX concerns.

It’s all “permissive,” i.e. optional, but is there any doubt that the SEC is committed to adding smaller exchanges?

“I think it’s too early to make any kind of speculation about what people will actually end up doing. [but] I know the SEC, whatever it is, they’re going to do it,” said Craig Keilitz, executive director of the American Baseball Coaches Association.

The dichotomy comes from putting any kind of brake on football. “It just means more” at the SEC. At those same spring meetings a few years ago, football coaches practically lost their minds at the prospect of Auburn players perhaps receiving an extra $100 a month in attendance costs.

While the rest of the college world worries about what to do next, the SEC has the same plan as always: whatever the cost.

“Everyone is going to do it. If you can do it, you have to do it,” Booty said of the increase in baseball scholarships.

It’s not just about baseball. What is about to happen is arguably the most massive financial adjustment in the history of college sports – once again, as a condition of this massive deal.

There is some discussion about how the NCAA and campus leadership let it get to this point. The US$2.8 billion Home the deal will cost all of Division I one way or another. Now it’s just a matter of finding the money to do it.

“I’m strongly against it,” Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko said, addressing the prospect of losing walk-ons. “I think it’s absolutely against college football, what it stands for, what it’s about, especially when you look at the legacies of the Texas A&M kids who will have the opportunity to play football at Texas A&M potentially taken away from them. something that is very bad for the sport.”

At Texas A&M, a significant part of the football program’s tradition is based on the ultimate walk-on, the famous “12th man“, named after a player who came out of the stands to win a game in 1922.

“We’re in this era of college football where we have to continually adapt…,” Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian said. “If we don’t adapt, we won’t be here. If that’s the number, that’s the number.”

Coastal Carolina AD Matt Hogue oversees a national baseball program — the Chanticleers were the 2016 national champions — but also an elite Group of Five football program. Once the settlement money is released, will it ever be the same again?

He must they are equal? We have already told you the inexorable separation from FBS taking place. NIL for top tier programs is evolving in unique ways.

“I predict that anyone who is fully engaged at this moment will redefine the standard of what fully engaged means,” Hogue said.

All of this has sparked rumors of an NFL model following the deal. Apparently, we’re already halfway there with rules, lists and, now, revenue sharing.

“This could be the carnage of not getting it right…,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said. “I like how it is. But I know it won’t stay the same.”

College baseball has always been that kind of niche American place where anyone could win. The SEC is the power conference in the country, but in the last 20 years Rice and Cal State-Fullerton have won it all. During this period, the state of Oregon became a national power.

And for years, smaller athletic coaches have suffered from the division of those scholarships. There is anecdotal evidence of athletes and their parents buying “deals.” A school may offer half a scholarship. We could offer a quarter or an eighth. Now?

“We’re in the golden age of college baseball…,” Keilitz said. “We’ve never been this good. I think another big leap will be needed.”

The climate in football was completely different 50 years ago. In an era of unlimited scholarships is the famous story of Bear Bryant recruiting an Auburn quarterback with no particular intention of playing him just to keep him away from the Tigers.

The first limitations on football scholarships came in 1973 (105 scholarships), in response to Title IX. In 1978, they were reduced to 95. In 1994, they were reduced to the current 85.

Coaches like Bobby Bowden (Florida State) and John McKay (USC) predicted the end of quality football with these cuts. They were completely wrong. Back then, it was about cost reduction, competitive equality, and adherence to Title IX.

Today, the conversation has shifted to giving players more money — according to the deal — than they ever dreamed of to play college sports.

“I hear coaches talk about [the situation], but that’s life,” Keilitz said. “They do the same thing with their employers. I heard a football coach who’s making $11 million complaining that, hey, college is supposed to give you the opportunity to make a living in the future… I’m against paying players. And the coach is making $12 million a year.”

O Home The agreement exposed hypocrisy and mismanagement. According to reports, not only will schools be forced to spend $22 million annually on revenue sharing, an additional $8 to 10 million will be needed annually to fully fund these smaller sports scholarships.

“We’re not very good at running good businesses,” Alberts said. “We have always had enough growing revenues to exceed expenses… Does this reshape our thinking, create some discipline? So far it hasn’t. Based on this new reality, the flow of money will change.”

It’s early. Extremely early. The revenue share portion may not arrive until the fall of 2025. College baseball would likely not be affected until the 2026 season. The roster expansion portion is a tricky part of this revenue share. And if it becomes necessary to close antitrust lawsuits – it certainly won’t be at the Home agreement only – athletes and their representatives must be appeased.

You might even say they’re all about to have it all.

“I’m a little jealous of the student-athletes,” said Alberts, a former All-American linebacker at Nebraska. “The life of a student-athlete…will reach an unprecedented level.”