What does the NCAA settlement agreement mean for Division I college golf?
That means more scholarship opportunities but fewer roster spots.
The NCAA, along with the leading conferences and lawyers representing former and current DI athletes in three lawsuits, filed a 100-page settlement agreement on Friday that would mark a monumental change in college sports beyond football and basketball. The agreement, which will be finalized after judicial approval by the U.S. District Court for the Northern California District, allows schools to pay compensation directly to athletes (up to 22% of average revenues from media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships, or an initial amount of $20-22 million), but also requires schools to pay a total of $2.78 billion in past damages over a 10-year period to former athletes across all sports (through 2016).
The new payments would coexist with continuing NIL payments through third-party contracts, but in this new era of a de facto salary cap, sponsor-funded organizations can only make payments to players if a neutral arbitrator determines the agreement is for a “legitimate business purpose.”
The settlement does not clarify how the agreement satisfies Title IX requirements.
Scholarship limits will also be lifted for all sports, but each sport will now have a roster cap. Men’s and women’s golf will be capped at nine players (football, for comparison, will increase from 85 to 105). That means schools can offer up to nine full scholarships, but can’t roster more than nine players in any one season. Previously, teams had no roster cap, with men offering scholarships up to 4.5 players and women offering scholarships up to six.
Final approval of the agreement must wait until next year, with the changes set to take effect in the 2025-26 season at the earliest.
After speaking with several golf coaches from top conferences, it seems likely that not all schools will take advantage of the scholarships. And with many DI programs enrolling more than nine players, the total amount of DI playing opportunities will likely decrease. “We’re seeing a decline in the number of DI programs,” said John Leehorn, the men’s golf coach at Oregon State University, who serves on the NCAA DI Golf Committee. I did a rough calculation on X. They concluded that under the new criteria, 65 spots would disappear from current ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC men’s golf rosters.
And there’s one big question: Will this new revenue-sharing deal result in job cuts? Very likely, and probably definitely, but it probably won’t be the first on the list of cuts, especially with golf’s relatively small player base right now.
