Sometime during the 2025-26 college academic year, all the college football programs will see a massive shift in their roster size as they have been told to trim to the highest ceiling of 105 players for each team, leading to a cutthroat removal of a total of 3000 talents from their collective rosters. The reason?
There is an NCAA rule that is planning to impose a quantity-over-quality approach for the better execution of the system of all Division I college football programs. It’s not easy for any program to straightaway tell its players that they are fired without a reason. Blame it all on the upcoming house settlement that forces the NCAA to wear a hard cap. Looking at the current numbers of the Alabama players, it seems Kalen DeBoer needs to do the toughest cut of his career before this fall.
Teams had the leeway to continue with their large chunk of rosters unless and until the House Settlement talks reached a decisive conclusion. The rule started to leave a serious impact since the early signing day in December. As we inch nearer to the settlement deal, the breathing time is over for the teams. Clemson Tigers coach Dabo Swinney has already dubbed it the most terrible thing in his career. Sure, it’s a tough call to make, ruining a lot of kids’ dreams to see the field. But in terms of the growing NIL market, it makes sense to skirt scholarship limits.
It’s safe to say that we are going to cover some similar quotes out of 130 other FBS head coaches over the coming days and weeks, yes, including the second-year Alabama coach, Kalen DeBoer. Reminding everyone about the looming reality, Mike Rodak tweeted, ”Alabama’s roster currently lists 124 players entering spring practice, which doesn’t include three summer-enrolling freshmen. That means, assuming the House settlement is finalized, the Tide will need to cut 22 players by this fall.”
Alabama’s roster currently lists 124 players entering spring practice, which doesn’t include three summer-enrolling freshmen. That means, assuming the House settlement is finalized, the Tide will need to cut 22 players by this fall to comply with the new 105-man roster limit.
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) March 3, 2025
The other side of the house settlement might be an alluring subject to coach DeBoer, as he believes that the direct revenue share in a model aiming to level the playing field for all of college football will take the Tide to a whole new height in some years. DeBoer thinks getting back to the balanced playing field will help to keep them focused only on the basic points in the recruitment process: relationships and a shared vision.
Yes, getting the house in order is always a great idea. However, in reality, those 22 players would be more than a number in a news piece or a press statement. They’d represent stories of struggles, dreams, and aspirations, and for no fault of theirs, a new rule would mean that they would no longer have the scholarships.
Nick Saban loathes the idea of roster-cutting as part of a new house settlement deal
The certified GOAT of Alabama, the veteran head coach, a notable member of the College GameDay crew, feels for the left-out walk-ons who can be the next guy for the Tide if given a chance. Saban somehow thinks this is a wrong thing to do ethically with a bunch of kids.
“It really is a concern to me because some of the things moving forward that have been presented is that all players will be on scholarship and there’ll be no opportunities for walk-ons,” Saban said. “I think that’s not good. It’s all a participation number thing that people are trying to control, but there have been so many guys who have been walk-ons who got scholarships… Rashad Johnson played, I don’t know, 10 years in the league and was a walk-on at Alabama for us,” the legendary Bama head said back in November.
Saban said he hates the idea because some of the guys deserve to stay on the team. They worked hard every day to prove their worth, and not being able to give them a chance is a failure of the system and a shame for the college sports community.
However, regardless of the mixed bag of opinions, we will see how DeBoer handles the pressure to cut players from his roster before this fall and how it impacts the program in the long run.
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