Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua Commits To Honoring All Current Football Roster Spots
Notre Dame is taking the lead on NCAA roster reform. With roster limits coming soon to college football, Fighting Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua has committed to honoring the roster spots for every current student-athlete. Bevacqua told Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports that the Irish will also allow those who were cut to return to their respective teams.
Bevacqua’s announcement comes a day after the NCAA and power conferences made changes to the proposed House settlement that would allow schools to grandfather in players who are currently on the roster, players who have already been cut from the team as well as high school recruits who enrolled at a school after committing to a roster position, only to see it eliminated.
The revision to the House settlement has not yet been approved. It also only permits but does not require schools to grandfather-in student athletes, making Notre Dame the first school to publicly commit to fully grandfathering in current athletes amid upcoming roster limits.
The original settlement that was reached last fall required football teams to set a roster limit of 105 players. Notre Dame currently has 114 players on its roster and 93 of them are expected to be on scholarship. Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said last month that Notre Dame plans to give 95 scholarships when the new roster cap is implemented.
“I think we’re probably around 95 if it gets to the 105 limit,” Freeman remarked after Notre Dame’s spring practice concluded. “But if we need to find a way to make sure there’s more guys that don’t have to pay for school, we have a plan to do that, too. But actual scholarship numbers right now, the plan would be around 95.”
U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California has delayed a decision to approve the House v. NCAA settlement on two separate occasions after asking attorneys to “grandfather” in all players.
Student athletes who are grandfathered-in would be exempt from roster limits at any school in which they participate. So, if their current school chooses against retaining them, those athletes who qualify to be grandfathered-in can transfer and remain exempt from their new school’s roster limits.
Per the terms of the revision, schools would be expected to track their grandfathered-in roster spots with a rolling list of exceptions. Those protected athletes would then fall off the exception list as their eligibility expires. The exceptions would permit schools to surpass the roster limits detailed in the settlement.
