The NCAA announced Tuesday that it has approved a one-year waiver of signing and initial counter limits in football that will help coaches deal with roster issues related to the transfer portal. Football programs can now sign up to seven more players in place of those who leave during the first term.
“We believe schools should have temporary flexibility to help address possible roster depletion due to transfers,” said Division I chair and Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour. “This one-year waiver enables schools to properly utilize their scholarship limitations.”
A school can sign up to 32 players during any given recruiting cycle as long as the extra signee coincides with a player that has transferred out. The NCAA said that the one-year waiver, while approved, won’t become final until the meetings wrap up on Wednesday afternoon.
Roster management has become a big issue in college football. The transfer portal has already become as crowded as a New York subway during rush hour, and is sure to get even busier now that players have the ability to transfer and play immediately instead of sitting out a year before becoming eligible. To make matters more interesting, the NCAA issued a one-year waiver prior to last season that gave every player a free year of eligibility due to uncertainty of the season occurring during a pandemic.
