Sports
Dabo Swinney says the impending college football roster cap is ‘the worst thing in my whole coaching career’
Clemson’s group of senior day honorees will be bigger than normal against the Citadel.
The Tigers end their home schedule against the FCS opponent on Saturday before a road game at South Carolina to end the season. With the potential for football rosters to be capped at 105 players for the 2025 season and beyond, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is already doing some number crunching.
The Tigers have over 130 players on their roster this season. And he said Tuesday that the possible incoming roster cap was “terrible” and “the worst thing in my whole coaching career.”
“It’s very simple, first of all you know who definitely has to leave so that makes it easy and basically anybody that’s a fourth-year that you know you’re not coming back — obviously we have to cut a lot of guys this year,” Swinney said. “It’s terrible. It’s the worst thing in my whole coaching career … but we’ve gotta cut a bunch of kids that have been in our program. I’ve given all of them an option if they are a fourth-year then they have the option to be honored as a senior. They’ve earned that. And some of these kids would be back for their fifth year next year and they’re not going to have the opportunity to do that and that’s sad. That’s the way it is.”
Swinney was a former walk-on himself at Alabama and has talked fondly about his experience with the Crimson Tide. Given his playing past, you can understand why he’s so open to having dozens of walk-ons on his roster. But college athletics is in the midst of some serious change.
College football teams are currently limited to 85 scholarships but there is no official roster cap. Clemson has over 50 walk-ons listed on its roster. And the 2024 season looks to be the final time for the Tigers to have so many non-scholarship players.
As part of the potential U.S. House settlement to pave the way for schools to directly compensate players, college football rosters would have a maximum of 105 players. Most schools currently have considerably many more players on their rosters when walk-ons are taken into account.
Walk-ons could also become a thing of the past. Especially at power conference schools. The 105-player max would also increase the number of available scholarships. If the settlement is officially approved, every player on a college football would be eligible for a scholarship.
And given the timing of the court dates, Swinney and other college football coaches are having to act like it will be approved. Official approval is set for April and the terms of the deal would be implemented for the 2025-26 school year.
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