More Scholarships Coming To NCAA DI Women's Hockey Via Settlement

As part of a recent settlement in a class action lawsuit brought against the NCAA, changes are coming to not only how athletes can be compensated, but to roster size limits and through the removal of scholarship limits.

As the NCAA stated in a media release, "scholarship limits will be eliminated in all sports, and roster limits will be established. Institutions have the discretion to offer partial or full scholarships provided they do not exceed the roster limits. This change will allow institutions to provide additional scholarships to student-athletes in the future."

As it relates to women's hockey, this means each team will be allowed eight additional scholarships.

The previous limit was 18 scholarships. Prior to this season, there was no official roster size limit, but that limit will now be set at 26.

In total, the NCAA's settlement is set to create hundreds of potential scholarship spots, with sports like women's rowing gaining 48 spots, women's track increasing by 27 scholarships, and women's soccer up 14 spots.

While the scholarship spots are increasing, roster sizes are likely to decrease as part of this agreement, and some schools will look to cut funding or field smaller rosters in non-revenue generating sports. For some, this is expected to be Olympic sports like equestrian or fencing.

In many sports, the newly imposed roster size limits will eliminate walk on players and stop big schools from stockpiling players. In football for example, while the number of available scholarships is increasing from 85 to 105, the new 105 player roster size limit is a decrease of 15 players per team.

The 26 player roster size limitation in the NCAA should have virtually no impact on women's hockey as most teams carry roughly 23 players per roster. With eight additional scholarships available, some teams will be able to provide financial support to depth players who previously could not be afforded a scholarship.