How new NCAA rules could impact Vanderbilt football, basketball, baseball rosters

As part of a settlement for several court cases, the NCAA enacted a settlement Friday that allowed for revenue sharing and direct payment to athletes by their schools.

Another part of the settlement involved removing scholarship limits but instead enacting a roster limit for each sport beginning in 2025-26. Teams cannot have more players than the overall roster limit, but they can choose to give full scholarships to every player on the roster if they choose. The new rules would still allow for partial scholarships or walk-ons if teams decide not to fully fund certain programs.

While the new roster limits allow for more scholarships in most sports, they reduce the overall roster size in some. Here's how the roster limits could impact Vanderbilt in football, basketball and baseball:

Football

New roster limits for football allow all teams to have 105 players. That's significantly more players allowed to be on scholarship than the previous 85. But most SEC football programs have well over 105 players already, with the remainder of the spots filled by walk-ons. Vanderbilt's 2024 roster, as listed on its website, has 118 players.

The ability to offer more scholarships could allow the Commodores to build higher-quality depth and re-balance the scales between high school players and transfers. Vanderbilt has just nine commits for 2025 so far, and many teams have taken fewer recruits due to wanting to leave spots open for transfers.

Compared to transfers, high school players tend to care less if they play right away, so the ability to offer a scholarship when that previously doesn't exist could attract more high schoolers. However, the same is true for all other high-level programs, and the Commodores will need to be more competitive on the field to make the greater number of scholarships an advantage.

Basketball

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The roster limit for both men's and women's basketball will be 15.

In women's basketball, teams could already offer 15 scholarships, but most did not. For 2024-25, Vanderbilt has 13 players.

In men's basketball, the scholarship limit is raised from 13 to 15. Like in football, while teams will be able to offer more scholarships, they may have to cut walk-ons from the roster. The Commodores' 2024-25 roster has 18 players, with 13 on scholarship and five walk-ons.

It's unclear whether men's basketball teams will use their full roster allotment. In women's basketball, many teams don't because 15 is too many players to play regularly. Basketball also has a larger number of teams that are nationally competitive than football, and mid-majors still fully fund their programs.

Even if the two extra scholarships don't result in immediate impact players for Vanderbilt, it could be an opportunity to find grad transfers who care about academics and have a desire to earn a free graduate degree at a top-ranked school. It could also make the Commodores and other schools more willing to take 1-2 developmental freshmen who redshirt their first years. Under the 13-player scholarship limit, these players were often the victim of cuts.

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Baseball

Baseball is finally rid of the 11.7 scholarship limit − but it came at the expense of reduced roster sizes. Teams will go from being able to have 40 players in 2025 to 34 in 2026.

Vanderbilt was already giving money via NIL to its entire team , meant in part to help cover educational costs. So being able to give out more scholarships won't have as much of an impact as the cut down in roster sizes. For the 2024 season, the Commodores had 46 players.

Vanderbilt played 34 players in 2024, 31 in 2023 and 35 in 2022, but the reduced roster sizes will mean less ability to take on developmental projects. The Commodores, who have 17 players committed for 2025, will likely need to cut that class size down significantly to leave room for transfers and returning players from the draft. It is also likely that several current players will need to be cut from the team in the offseason.

What is not yet clear is whether the roster sizes will be set before the fall or before the spring. Currently, roster sizes are set before the spring, allowing teams to evaluate players in the fall before making a final decision on who makes the roster. Requiring 34 players for the fall too means scouting would become more important, as coaches will need to decide earlier who they believe will contribute. It could also leave injured players in the crosshairs, with teams forced to decide between cutting players with long-term injuries or playing shorthanded for most or all of a season.

With Vanderbilt and many other SEC teams currently offering money to more than 34 players via NIL, the new roster limits will make it more important for teams to identify high-end talent and land those players through the draft or the portal, as these teams will experience reduced depth.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How new NCAA rules could impact Vanderbilt football, basketball, baseball rosters