The FCS Daily Dose is a blog-style article series featuring an assortment of news, rumblings, quick hitters, and commentary on various topics.
A new Daily Dose will be published multiple times a week.
SoCon/Big Sky Set Scholarship Caps Ahead Of House Settlement
The SoCon announced today its plans in anticipation of the House settlement following a vote by the conference’s Council of Presidents. This includes maintaining current scholarship caps for schools that choose to opt in to the House settlement.
For football, the scholarship cap will remain at 63, which is the current FCS max.
HERO Sports is also told, “For the 2025 season, the Big Sky will be at 63 football scholarships, which can be spread out over as many as 105 student-athletes.”
The current (pre-House) formula for FCS teams is a 63 scholarship max that can be spread out over 85 players (partial scholarships). For teams that opt in but face a conference cap of 63 equivalency scholarships, they can now spread those 63 out over 105 players instead of 85.
Opting in means the ability to share revenue and do NIL deals directly with athletes. It also means that schools have roster limits instead of scholarship limits. For example, the roster limit for football is 105 for teams that opt in. Schools could fund up to 105 football scholarships.
However, conferences can set their own scholarship caps, which is what the SoCon and Big Sky decided.
Another FCS conference, the CAA, did not set a football scholarship cap. The CAA announced that the conference as a whole will opt in. Although William & Mary and UAlbany later announced they will not opt in the first year.
Hypothetically, a CAA school could now fund 105 football scholarships, giving them a massive advantage. Realistically, though, FCS-level schools don’t have the extra money to offer many more football scholarships beyond 63, especially considering Title IX. The SEC, as rich as it gets in college athletics, even kept its football scholarship cap at 85 in 2025 instead of allowing teams to go up to 105.
According to sports attorney Mit Winter, “Conferences have more latitude in setting rules like this because one conference doesn’t have market power, and likely doesn’t violate antitrust law. It’s a different story when multiple conferences or the NCAA set the rules.”
HERO Sports will have SoCon Commissioner Michael Cross on the FCS Football Talk podcast tomorrow to discuss more details.
Via a press release, the SoCon’s approach includes the following key components:
- Institutional Autonomy: The determination to opt in or out of the opportunity to offer new benefits under the terms of the anticipated NCAA settlement shall be left to the discretion of each member institution. Each institution will have the freedom to make this decision based on their individual circumstances and priorities.
- Ability to Offer Extra Benefits: Institutions that choose to offer additional financial benefits to student-athletes through revenue sharing, licensing payments for name image and likeness, and enhanced academic benefits (Alston payments) may do so consistent with the terms of the NCAA settlement.
- Reinforce Existing and Distinctive Policies: The SoCon will maintain policies to distinguish its place in the collegiate landscape:
- Member institutions shall continue to adhere to the current NCAA Division I grant-in-aid maximums for all conference sports.
- A student-athlete transferring between conference members is required to serve an academic year in residence prior to competing for their new institution. Immediate competitive eligibility is provided for graduate transfers and student athletes who did not receive athletics aid at their previous institution.
- Universal postseason eligibility, ensuring every SoCon team will participate in conference championships.
Villanova Signs 32-Year-Old Punter
Last week, Villanova signed East Carolina graduate transfer punter Luke Larsen. No offense to specialists, but these transfer additions typically don’t grab headlines. But this one did because Larsen is 32 years old and will be 33 by the time the 2025 season hits.
Larsen is from Keilor Park, Vic., Australia, and is a product of Prokick Australia. Prokick Australia, established in 2007, “serves as a premier institution dedicated to the training, mentorship, and successful transition of Australian athletes into the collegiate and professional ranks of American football, particularly within the College/NFL sphere. Leveraging our innate Australian proficiency in ball-kicking, we have meticulously crafted a highly effective program aimed at facilitating this transition.”
Larsen was 28 when he signed with ECU as a freshman in 2020. He’ll enter his sixth season of college football eligibility as he heads to Villanova. In five seasons at ECU, he punted 174 times for an average of 40.8 yards, including 53 punts inside the 20-yard line.
Past Daily Doses
Saint Francis Moving From D1 to D3 + Renovations To Vanderbilt’s Stadium, New Home Of The FCS Championship … READ MORE
Tennessee State Hires Barlow As Next HC + Polasek Talks NDSU QB Battle … READ MORE
