The Southland Conference will not set a football scholarship cap for teams that opt into the House settlement, a conference official told HERO Sports.
How conferences plan to handle scholarship limits has differed in the FCS.
Other conferences we have reported on: The CAA and OVC-Big South also did not set a cap. The Big Sky and SoCon kept the football equivalency scholarship cap at 63 for 2025. The MVFC is deciding next week.
Opting in means a school no longer faces scholarship limits, but roster limits, which is 105 for football (teams can grandfather in spots above 105). However, conferences can set their own scholarship caps.
The current (pre-House) FCS formula is 63 football scholarships that can be spread out over 85 players (partial scholarships). For FCS schools that opt in but still face a conference-wide 63 scholarship cap, they can now spread those 63 scholarships over 105 players instead of 85, getting more players on partial scholarships. Opt-in schools could also work around scholarship caps by offering higher Alston payments, cost of attendance, or in-house NIL deals.
A CAA or Southland school that opts in can theoretically now offer 75, 85, 90, or even 105 football scholarships, which would create a competitive advantage. However, additional scholarships are expensive, especially when factoring in Title IX. It’s unlikely many FCS schools, operating on tight budgets already, can afford too many more scholarships.
