With Scholarship Limits Ending, Who Makes a Push in the Next 3-4 Years?

[West Coaster]

Unless I missed something, isn't this all speculation at this point? I mean yes they ruled in the courts to allow schools to pay athletes, etc, but I'm guessing this all has to go through a boatload of red tape before anything is official. Or did it just magically go into effect?

Scholarship limits are extinct after this year. The recruiting class signing in November will be the first the experience this change. Many collegiate athletic departments are already operating this way... if they can afford it.

Scholarship limits remain. They may go away for 25-26 season concurrent with the proposed House settlement, but that's all it is at this point a proposed settlement of general terms. More secific terms are in the works. Don't expect that for months. Even after the details of the settlement are resolved, the judge has to agree to the settlement. I would not expect a slam dunk on this. Don't be surprised if scholarship limits remain for yet another year.

I'm telling you with 100% certainty that schools are operating in a way that scholarship limits do not exist for 2025-2026, only roster limits. You will see this on display before Independence Day.

You may be right in that either the NCAA removes the scholarship limit pre-emptively, OR schools choose to willingly ignore the limits (more likely) because it gives them a head start in some sports and they know the limits won't pass legal scrutiny. But right now, scholarship limits remain in the books, and I would bet they remain on the books until the House case is agreed to and settled.

[LaxDadMax]

I talked to a power five women’s lacrosse coach and he said that the expectation is budgets will
Be cut to get to the 22 million or whatever the number is. He went so far as to say the coaches at their school
Weren’t going to really be recruiting until the new year started July 1 and the budget was there. They had no money left for June. Haven’t heard that before from a football
School.

I've heard similar input from another Power 5/football school coach. She said she doesn't even know what her 2025 budget will be so she will be more cautious than normal in making financial commitments -- probably only looking to bring in 4-5 recruits with $$ in September/October unless she gets more clarity on budgets sooner.

Definitely feels like the 26s will be feeling the impact of this.

[forthelaxofit]

I talked to a power five women’s lacrosse coach and he said that the expectation is budgets will
Be cut to get to the 22 million or whatever the number is. He went so far as to say the coaches at their school
Weren’t going to really be recruiting until the new year started July 1 and the budget was there. They had no money left for June. Haven’t heard that before from a football
School.

When you say they had no money left and weren't recruiting until July, do you mean that they weren't attending any June events and tournaments?

[laxfan9999]

They were being selective and sending fewer coaches to events.

[wgdsr]

Title Nine began in 1972 -- Colleges have not been able to change the requirements since then. Doubt they can do it now. Most of the changes lately have to do with what is gender -- not how much we have to pay each gender.

Folks sometimes do not understand college finances. Many schools have negative athletic budgets, but that does not mean they do not have great finances as colleges and universities -- esepicailly private colleges whose finances are not open to public scrutiny.

Decisions about women LAX will come down to what many of these colleges want to spend -- not on if they can spend.

As everyone has been saying -- these next few years will be pivotable to all college sports.

said that if they figure how to cut football and basketball out of title ix requirements, not that they'd be able to change them.
i.e.: one silo - men's and women's athletic department.
another silo - the pro sports department, (mostly) independent of the university.

[LaxPundit07]

I talked to a power five women’s lacrosse coach and he said that the expectation is budgets will
Be cut to get to the 22 million or whatever the number is. He went so far as to say the coaches at their school
Weren’t going to really be recruiting until the new year started July 1 and the budget was there. They had no money left for June. Haven’t heard that before from a football
School.

When you say they had no money left and weren't recruiting until July, do you mean that they weren't attending any June events and tournaments?

They aren’t missing June tournaments because they had no money left……because their budget shrunk. Budgets don’t shrink mid year. They didn’t have any money left because their coach poorly managed his/her program finances. It’s not like his/her university called and said “the $10,000 you had left in your account for recruiting this fiscal year has been removed. Sorry.” They simply ran out of money from their predetermined budget. A budget they were aware of 11 months ago when the fiscal year started. Could their budget for this past fiscal year been smaller than in year’s past? Of course. But it’s not like they didn’t know that until a few weeks ago. I can’t believe a coach would openly admit “they had no money left for June”. He/she should have just said (if they felt the need to share their programs financing publicly-which blows my mind) “we won’t be on the road in June, I already burned through my recruiting budget this year. I need to be better.”

[LiveLaxLove]

I talked to a power five women’s lacrosse coach and he said that the expectation is budgets will
Be cut to get to the 22 million or whatever the number is. He went so far as to say the coaches at their school
Weren’t going to really be recruiting until the new year started July 1 and the budget was there. They had no money left for June. Haven’t heard that before from a football
School.

When you say they had no money left and weren't recruiting until July, do you mean that they weren't attending any June events and tournaments?

They aren’t missing June tournaments because they had no money left……because their budget shrunk. Budgets don’t shrink mid year. They didn’t have any money left because their coach poorly managed his/her program finances. It’s not like his/her university called and said “the $10,000 you had left in your account for recruiting this fiscal year has been removed. Sorry.” They simply ran out of money from their predetermined budget. A budget they were aware of 11 months ago when the fiscal year started. Could their budget for this past fiscal year been smaller than in year’s past? Of course. But it’s not like they didn’t know that until a few weeks ago. I can’t believe a coach would openly admit “they had no money left for June”. He/she should have just said (if they felt the need to share their programs financing publicly-which blows my mind) “we won’t be on the road in June, I already burned through my recruiting budget this year. I need to be better.”

Disagree. A lot of schools tightened up their budgets once the NCAA decision came down.

[cdb]

I should have been clearer. I am done with this topic. I do not believe academic rating affects recruiting in any major way. If MD had ended up in the Final Four we probably would not have had this topic. I don't care who is rated higher, MD or BC, so believe what you want bout academic rating. It's fine with me.

Some schools have tons of money. Some use that money generously to assist students or keep costs down. Some do not.

My focus is on Women's Lacrosse. I want all the schools to do well, because I want the sport to keep growing in popularity. Charlotte North was at Duke -- a tremendous academic university -- and transferred to Boston College. Obviously she didn't transfer there to go to a higher rated academic institution.

That's been my point -- girls want to go where they think they have the best chance of winning.

[LaxPundit07]

I talked to a power five women’s lacrosse coach and he said that the expectation is budgets will
Be cut to get to the 22 million or whatever the number is. He went so far as to say the coaches at their school
Weren’t going to really be recruiting until the new year started July 1 and the budget was there. They had no money left for June. Haven’t heard that before from a football
School.

When you say they had no money left and weren't recruiting until July, do you mean that they weren't attending any June events and tournaments?

They aren’t missing June tournaments because they had no money left……because their budget shrunk. Budgets don’t shrink mid year. They didn’t have any money left because their coach poorly managed his/her program finances. It’s not like his/her university called and said “the $10,000 you had left in your account for recruiting this fiscal year has been removed. Sorry.” They simply ran out of money from their predetermined budget. A budget they were aware of 11 months ago when the fiscal year started. Could their budget for this past fiscal year been smaller than in year’s past? Of course. But it’s not like they didn’t know that until a few weeks ago. I can’t believe a coach would openly admit “they had no money left for June”. He/she should have just said (if they felt the need to share their programs financing publicly-which blows my mind) “we won’t be on the road in June, I already burned through my recruiting budget this year. I need to be better.”

Disagree. A lot of schools tightened up their budgets once the NCAA decision came down.

How can you tighten up a current budget 10-11 months into a fiscal year? Tightening up future budgets certainly makes sense once that decision came down. These universities operate on the academic fiscal year. July 1-June 30. I could see admins saying July 1 2024-June 30 2025 budgets will be impacted by this decision. But how are they retroactively tightening budgets? That is essentially impossible. The money has already been spent/accounted for/set aside to cover purchase orders, etc.

[LiveLaxLove]

I talked to a power five women’s lacrosse coach and he said that the expectation is budgets will
Be cut to get to the 22 million or whatever the number is. He went so far as to say the coaches at their school
Weren’t going to really be recruiting until the new year started July 1 and the budget was there. They had no money left for June. Haven’t heard that before from a football
School.

When you say they had no money left and weren't recruiting until July, do you mean that they weren't attending any June events and tournaments?

They aren’t missing June tournaments because they had no money left……because their budget shrunk. Budgets don’t shrink mid year. They didn’t have any money left because their coach poorly managed his/her program finances. It’s not like his/her university called and said “the $10,000 you had left in your account for recruiting this fiscal year has been removed. Sorry.” They simply ran out of money from their predetermined budget. A budget they were aware of 11 months ago when the fiscal year started. Could their budget for this past fiscal year been smaller than in year’s past? Of course. But it’s not like they didn’t know that until a few weeks ago. I can’t believe a coach would openly admit “they had no money left for June”. He/she should have just said (if they felt the need to share their programs financing publicly-which blows my mind) “we won’t be on the road in June, I already burned through my recruiting budget this year. I need to be better.”

Disagree. A lot of schools tightened up their budgets once the NCAA decision came down.

How can you tighten up a current budget 10-11 months into a fiscal year? Tightening up future budgets certainly makes sense once that decision came down. These universities operate on the academic fiscal year. July 1-June 30. I could see admins saying July 1 2024-June 30 2025 budgets will be impacted by this decision. But how are they retroactively tightening budgets? That is essentially impossible. The money has already been spent/accounted for/set aside to cover purchase orders, etc.

This isn't a government entity that I'm speaking of (with fiscal year appropriations and "use or lose" budgets). Most Athletic Departments run as private companies now, especially with the money coming from donors. They can spend or cut spending at will.

[Bart]

I talked to a power five women’s lacrosse coach and he said that the expectation is budgets will
Be cut to get to the 22 million or whatever the number is. He went so far as to say the coaches at their school
Weren’t going to really be recruiting until the new year started July 1 and the budget was there. They had no money left for June. Haven’t heard that before from a football
School.

When you say they had no money left and weren't recruiting until July, do you mean that they weren't attending any June events and tournaments?

They aren’t missing June tournaments because they had no money left……because their budget shrunk. Budgets don’t shrink mid year. They didn’t have any money left because their coach poorly managed his/her program finances. It’s not like his/her university called and said “the $10,000 you had left in your account for recruiting this fiscal year has been removed. Sorry.” They simply ran out of money from their predetermined budget. A budget they were aware of 11 months ago when the fiscal year started. Could their budget for this past fiscal year been smaller than in year’s past? Of course. But it’s not like they didn’t know that until a few weeks ago. I can’t believe a coach would openly admit “they had no money left for June”. He/she should have just said (if they felt the need to share their programs financing publicly-which blows my mind) “we won’t be on the road in June, I already burned through my recruiting budget this year. I need to be better.”

Disagree. A lot of schools tightened up their budgets once the NCAA decision came down.

How can you tighten up a current budget 10-11 months into a fiscal year? Tightening up future budgets certainly makes sense once that decision came down. These universities operate on the academic fiscal year. July 1-June 30. I could see admins saying July 1 2024-June 30 2025 budgets will be impacted by this decision. But how are they retroactively tightening budgets? That is essentially impossible. The money has already been spent/accounted for/set aside to cover purchase orders, etc.

Mid year adjustments to OTPS are not unheard of in academic departments.

[LaxPundit07]

I guess I have been out of coaching too long. When I was a head coach at the Division 1 and Division 3 levels, we were given budgets which were set for the fiscal year. End of discussion. They were not touched again/discussed again until your budget for the following year was presented and approved. Hell, they didn’t even touch our budgets mid year during the Great Recession of 08/09.

[Womenslaxxfan]

I should have been clearer. I am done with this topic. I do not believe academic rating affects recruiting in any major way. If MD had ended up in the Final Four we probably would not have had this topic. I don't care who is rated higher, MD or BC, so believe what you want bout academic rating. It's fine with me.

Some schools have tons of money. Some use that money generously to assist students or keep costs down. Some do not.

My focus is on Women's Lacrosse. I want all the schools to do well, because I want the sport to keep growing in popularity. Charlotte North was at Duke -- a tremendous academic university -- and transferred to Boston College. Obviously she didn't transfer there to go to a higher rated academic institution.

That's been my point -- girls want to go where they think they have the best chance of winning.

CDB—-that’s true only for 50 -100max of the 3000+ division 1 lacrosse players. Most recruits and their families consider way more than “can I win a championship at this school.” If this were true, the only schools top 100 recruits would consider are BC, MD, UNC and NW.

[Bart]

I guess I have been out of coaching too long. When I was a head coach at the Division 1 and Division 3 levels, we were given budgets which were set for the fiscal year. End of discussion. They were not touched again/discussed again until your budget for the following year was presented and approved. Hell, they didn’t even touch our budgets mid year during the Great Recession of 08/09.

Depends on the school honestly. Structural deficits make life interesting.

[LaxDadMax]

I talked to a power five women’s lacrosse coach and he said that the expectation is budgets will
Be cut to get to the 22 million or whatever the number is. He went so far as to say the coaches at their school
Weren’t going to really be recruiting until the new year started July 1 and the budget was there. They had no money left for June. Haven’t heard that before from a football
School.

I've heard similar input from another Power 5/football school coach. She said she doesn't even know what her 2025 budget will be so she will be more cautious than normal in making financial commitments -- probably only looking to bring in 4-5 recruits with $$ in September/October unless she gets more clarity on budgets sooner.

Definitely feels like the 26s will be feeling the impact of this.

Another update -- My 25 daughter had a team dinner last Saturday will a majority of the other commits and coach staff at her future non-power 5 school.

They asked their coach about this at dinner. And she said something like this. (Keep in mind this is secondhand from a rising who doesn't have the best attention to detail.)

- Zero impact to our program. AD confirmed no changes to our budget. She thinks it is a net positive because of impact to other schools
- She expects there to be impacts at power 5 schools in terms of reduced overall budget. She thinks lots at some schools scholarship $$ will be converted to NIL$$ which will hurt kids because they will now be taxed on them
- She expects lots of schools to start fundraising programs to help fill the gap
- Thinks the biggest impact will be non-Big 10 power 5 schools. (Big 10 schools haven't built new revenue into fully budget yet so there is less to cut"
- She is hoping there will be an opportunity to pay commits to work at camps before they enroll; she couldn't commit to it yet, but would be a change in the ruling
- She thinks roster limit will end up in mid-30s. However, injured players and/or redshirts won't count against it.
- She thinks green cards will stay long-term but likely some more direction to improve consistency in officiating.

[cdb]

I think this is a topic that will be different for each college and university. Just because a team is part of the Big 10 or SE Conference and gets to split a bigger pot than the other conferences does not mean that there is no financial pressure on all of its members. For example, at least two of the members of the Big 10 needed assistance from the league to help pay bills -- both of those schools (I won't mention them by name, but their finances are a matter of public record), but there will be much great financial pressure on those programs than the wealthier Big 10 schools. There are some ACC schools whose finances for Lacrosse are not dependent on football and men's basketball revenue. My main point is that it is very difficult to make general statements about how each school will be affected by the recent ruling concerning sharing revenues with athletes.

I would also like to state that this an opinion board -- folks come here to express their opinions -- they are neither right nor wrong -- they are opinions. I am entitled to mine and you are entitled to yours. I would hope this board would never become like the political boards where anyone who disagrees with my opinion is not only wrong, but my enemy.

I came to these boards because I want to learn all I can about Lacrosse and I find so many great opinions and knowledge about the sport here. And those posters are not only helping me to learn -- but they are building up the entire fan base of the sport. So, I want to thank all of you for providing all that input and knowledge for me.

My $.02

[Womenslaxxfan]

I talked to a power five women’s lacrosse coach and he said that the expectation is budgets will
Be cut to get to the 22 million or whatever the number is. He went so far as to say the coaches at their school
Weren’t going to really be recruiting until the new year started July 1 and the budget was there. They had no money left for June. Haven’t heard that before from a football
School.

I've heard similar input from another Power 5/football school coach. She said she doesn't even know what her 2025 budget will be so she will be more cautious than normal in making financial commitments -- probably only looking to bring in 4-5 recruits with $$ in September/October unless she gets more clarity on budgets sooner.

Definitely feels like the 26s will be feeling the impact of this.

Another update -- My 25 daughter had a team dinner last Saturday will a majority of the other commits and coach staff at her future non-power 5 school.

They asked their coach about this at dinner. And she said something like this. (Keep in mind this is secondhand from a rising who doesn't have the best attention to detail.)

- Zero impact to our program. AD confirmed no changes to our budget. She thinks it is a net positive because of impact to other schools
- She expects there to be impacts at power 5 schools in terms of reduced overall budget. She thinks lots at some schools scholarship $$ will be converted to NIL$$ which will hurt kids because they will now be taxed on them
- She expects lots of schools to start fundraising programs to help fill the gap
- Thinks the biggest impact will be non-Big 10 power 5 schools. (Big 10 schools haven't built new revenue into fully budget yet so there is less to cut"
- She is hoping there will be an opportunity to pay commits to work at camps before they enroll; she couldn't commit to it yet, but would be a change in the ruling
- She thinks roster limit will end up in mid-30s. However, injured players and/or redshirts won't count against it.
- She thinks green cards will stay long-term but likely some more direction to improve consistency in officiating.

Pretty good for A 17 year old!!

[spidey44]

I think this is a topic that will be different for each college and university. Just because a team is part of the Big 10 or SE Conference and gets to split a bigger pot than the other conferences does not mean that there is no financial pressure on all of its members. For example, at least two of the members of the Big 10 needed assistance from the league to help pay bills -- both of those schools (I won't mention them by name, but their finances are a matter of public record), but there will be much great financial pressure on those programs than the wealthier Big 10 schools. There are some ACC schools whose finances for Lacrosse are not dependent on football and men's basketball revenue. My main point is that it is very difficult to make general statements about how each school will be affected by the recent ruling concerning sharing revenues with athletes.

I would also like to state that this an opinion board -- folks come here to express their opinions -- they are neither right nor wrong -- they are opinions. I am entitled to mine and you are entitled to yours. I would hope this board would never become like the political boards where anyone who disagrees with my opinion is not only wrong, but my enemy.

I came to these boards because I want to learn all I can about Lacrosse and I find so many great opinions and knowledge about the sport here. And those posters are not only helping me to learn -- but they are building up the entire fan base of the sport. So, I want to thank all of you for providing all that input and knowledge for me.

My $.02

Agree with a lot of this, not to mention we won't know really ANYTHING until things start actually happening. All speculation at this point. And as you said, EVERY school will handle this differently unless there is an agreed upon plan (NO FN CHANCE THAT HAPPENS!).

[MDlaxfan76]

I should have been clearer. I am done with this topic. I do not believe academic rating affects recruiting in any major way. If MD had ended up in the Final Four we probably would not have had this topic. I don't care who is rated higher, MD or BC, so believe what you want bout academic rating. It's fine with me.

Some schools have tons of money. Some use that money generously to assist students or keep costs down. Some do not.

My focus is on Women's Lacrosse. I want all the schools to do well, because I want the sport to keep growing in popularity. Charlotte North was at Duke -- a tremendous academic university -- and transferred to Boston College. Obviously she didn't transfer there to go to a higher rated academic institution.

That's been my point -- girls want to go where they think they have the best chance of winning.

It should go without saying that not All "girls go where they think they have the best chance of winning".

Some do.

Many go where they think they will have the best chance at succeeding, whether on the field or off the field. And success, for some, isn't solely measured on "winning" games.

There are numerous criteria for the 'best fit' choice, for those who have such choices.

Girls are not monolithic, just as boys are not, or any other broad classification. Again, it should go without saying, but sometimes perhaps we should remind ourselves not to over generalize.

[Relax77]

I think this is a topic that will be different for each college and university. Just because a team is part of the Big 10 or SE Conference and gets to split a bigger pot than the other conferences does not mean that there is no financial pressure on all of its members. For example, at least two of the members of the Big 10 needed assistance from the league to help pay bills -- both of those schools (I won't mention them by name, but their finances are a matter of public record), but there will be much great financial pressure on those programs than the wealthier Big 10 schools. There are some ACC schools whose finances for Lacrosse are not dependent on football and men's basketball revenue. My main point is that it is very difficult to make general statements about how each school will be affected by the recent ruling concerning sharing revenues with athletes.

I would also like to state that this an opinion board -- folks come here to express their opinions -- they are neither right nor wrong -- they are opinions. I am entitled to mine and you are entitled to yours. I would hope this board would never become like the political boards where anyone who disagrees with my opinion is not only wrong, but my enemy.

I came to these boards because I want to learn all I can about Lacrosse and I find so many great opinions and knowledge about the sport here. And those posters are not only helping me to learn -- but they are building up the entire fan base of the sport. So, I want to thank all of you for providing all that input and knowledge for me.

My $.02

That’s a fair post.