This from J.T. Higgins, president of Texas Aggies United, the NIL partner of Texas A&M:

"One of the best things I have seen come out of NIL is for our student-athletes who have a partial scholarship or no scholarship at all," Higgins said. "The money from NIL helps cover the costs of their education, pay for room and board and relieves some of the financial pressure on their families."

Q: Does this essentially mean that this gives us (or any school) total freedom to exceed the NCAA limit of 85 football scholarships? This would apply to all sports....?

No.

NIL money is not a scholarship. Scholarship money is usually disbursed buy the school to the student minus tuition and fees on a semester basis. At least this is how it was done in my day.

NIL money is simply an agreement and contract between the student athlete and the Collective that has negotiated the terms and conditions of the NIL money. The athlete is not required to use the money for tuition. etc. That does not mean a Collective cannot create an NIL deal that "encourages" the athlete to use the money for school cost. In that case they are essentially a scholarship fund. I could see a Collective headed by someone that was a walk-on or practice squad player in their day create this type of fund for current walk-ons, etc.

I am not 100% all knowing about NIL contracts but that is what I have come to understand.

Rectitude said:

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This from J.T. Higgins, president of Texas Aggies United, the NIL partner of Texas A&M:

"One of the best things I have seen come out of NIL is for our student-athletes who have a partial scholarship or no scholarship at all," Higgins said. "The money from NIL helps cover the costs of their education, pay for room and board and relieves some of the financial pressure on their families."

Q: Does this essentially mean that this gives us (or any school) total freedom to exceed the NCAA limit of 85 football scholarships? This would apply to all sports....?

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He's talking more about sports like baseball or track where very few athletes have a full scholarship.

Seems simple, is there any reason NIL money couldnt be used by a student to pay their tuition. And what would prevent that person from being a walk on.

If the above is true, then a scholarship limit isn't really limiting for schools that attract NIL opportunities for players

^ that does indeed seem to be how it would shake out. Not sure what prohibits that. Have a team chock full of very high wage earning walkons, plus 85 schollies.

Isn't there a limit of 105 total players or is that the total of how many can suit up for a home game? Curious minds want to know.

Divining Rod said:

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^ that does indeed seem to be how it would shake out. Not sure what prohibits that. Have a team chock full of very high wage earning walkons, plus 85 schollies.

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What would that accomplish? The kids at the back end of the scholarship roster typically aren't even suited up on Saturday. You are going to be able to stack a bunch of impact players (even as freshmen) and not get them suited up on Saturday. They'll transfer pretty damn quick if that did happen .

Last I read (it may have changed), the SEC allowed 60 players to dress

I believe the OP is talking about scenarios like this one:

https://www.si.com/college/oklahoma/football/thanks-to-huge-blessing-from-former-player-oklahoma-walk-ons-now-have-door-to-nil

Quote:

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Owen Heinecke told his dad last year that he'd rather be on the bench for the Oklahoma football team for four years than be a scholarship athlete and starter in another sport at another school.

Heinecke's passion for being an OU linebacker has been rewarded with playing time in the crimson and cream this season a reward that just got much greater, at least financially speaking.

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You can read the rest of the article, or find other examples from around the country. But the practical effect is that scholarship limits are essentially meaningless now.

Definitely not. I can look up specifics but that is only to start the year

In spring and summer it's whoever you want

lagoag said:

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Isn't there a limit of 105 total players or is that the total of how many can suit up for a home game? Curious minds want to know.

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Suiting up for games is much different than on the team

Only Fans Director said:

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No.

NIL money is not a scholarship. Scholarship money is usually disbursed buy the school to the student minus tuition and fees on a semester basis. At least this is how it was done in my day.

NIL money is simply an agreement and contract between the student athlete and the Collective that has negotiated the terms and conditions of the NIL money. The athlete is not required to use the money for tuition. etc. That does not mean a Collective cannot create an NIL deal that "encourages" the athlete to use the money for school cost. In that case they are essentially a scholarship fund. I could see a Collective headed by someone that was a walk-on or practice squad player in their day create this type of fund for current walk-ons, etc.

I am not 100% all knowing about NIL contracts but that is what I have come to understand.

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I see that I was not clear in my original post. I recognize that NIL assistance for 'walk-ons' (if that is what they are) is not exactly the same as Scholarship. The question, more precisely, is "does NIL essentially give any school an unrestricted number of players"?

I think the question has been answered. The answer appears to be YES. However apparently there are limits on the number of players who can dress for the game. The occasional situation where more than one player has the same number indicates that there may be more than 60 dressing for the game. (?)

Rectitude said:

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Only Fans Director said:

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No.

NIL money is not a scholarship. Scholarship money is usually disbursed buy the school to the student minus tuition and fees on a semester basis. At least this is how it was done in my day.

NIL money is simply an agreement and contract between the student athlete and the Collective that has negotiated the terms and conditions of the NIL money. The athlete is not required to use the money for tuition. etc. That does not mean a Collective cannot create an NIL deal that "encourages" the athlete to use the money for school cost. In that case they are essentially a scholarship fund. I could see a Collective headed by someone that was a walk-on or practice squad player in their day create this type of fund for current walk-ons, etc.

I am not 100% all knowing about NIL contracts but that is what I have come to understand.

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I see that I was not clear in my original post. I recognize that NIL assistance for 'walk-ons' (if that is what they are) is not exactly the same as Scholarship. The question, more precisely, is "does NIL essentially give any school an unrestricted number of players"?

I think the question has been answered. The answer appears to be YES. However apparently there are limits on the number of players who can dress for the game. The occasional situation where more than one player has the same number indicates that there may be more than 60 dressing for the game. (?)

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Why does that indicate there may be more than 60 dressing? Two players have always been allowed to have the same number as long as they're not on the field at the same time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_number_(American_football)

Usually it would be in the context of an offensive and defensive player, but it doesn't have to be.

Are you thinking coaches are going to skirt the rule by sneaking in non-scholarship players on NIL to play in lieu of the scholarship players under the guise of the same number?

It seems like they could get the worse players on the field in a more straightforward manner, but then again the other team will never know what didn't hit them. Thanks a lot NIL.

Demo_Slug said:

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Seems simple, is there any reason NIL money couldnt be used by a student to pay their tuition. And what would prevent that person from being a walk on.

If the above is true, then a scholarship limit isn't really limiting for schools that attract NIL opportunities for players

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Discussed at length several weeks ago with respect to football

Using tu as an example Ewers is still there and now that Arch is QB2 the guy that was QB2 is gone because he wants playing time

The 86th-95th best players on the team aren't getting very much playing time

What I think I know. There is a point sometime in the late summer / early fall where the 85 scholarship players must be identified. There is no real limit to the number of players on "the team". I seem to recall 113 one year. Only 105 may suit up for home games. For away games there are 60 allowed in the "travel squad". It's possible more can be on the sidelines if they pay their own way to and from the game.

wangus12 said:

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Divining Rod said:

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^ that does indeed seem to be how it would shake out. Not sure what prohibits that. Have a team chock full of very high wage earning walkons, plus 85 schollies.

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What would that accomplish? The kids at the back end of the scholarship roster typically aren't even suited up on Saturday. You are going to be able to stack a bunch of impact players (even as freshmen) and not get them suited up on Saturday. They'll transfer pretty damn quick if that did happen .

Last I read (it may have changed), the SEC allowed 60 players to dress

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"what would that accomplish?"

seriously? if you were aware of college football pre- scholly limits you would know the answer.

Ag in ATL said:

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What I think I know. There is a point sometime in the late summer / early fall where the 85 scholarship players must be identified. There is no real limit to the number of players on "the team". I seem to recall 113 one year. Only 105 may suit up for home games. For away games there are 60 allowed in the "travel squad". It's possible more can be on the sidelines if they pay their own way to and from the game.

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If you can just pay players a scholarship "limit" is irrelevant since you can just pay the value of the scholarship covering the cost of travel also seems like a trivial hurdle in the NIL world. I don't understand any of the actual limits but it's clear if the limit is financial in nature it's not a limit.

rootube said:

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Ag in ATL said:

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What I think I know. There is a point sometime in the late summer / early fall where the 85 scholarship players must be identified. There is no real limit to the number of players on "the team". I seem to recall 113 one year. Only 105 may suit up for home games. For away games there are 60 allowed in the "travel squad". It's possible more can be on the sidelines if they pay their own way to and from the game.

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If you can just pay players a scholarship "limit" is irrelevant since you can just pay the value of the scholarship covering the cost of travel also seems like a trivial hurdle in the NIL world. I don't understand any of the actual limits but it's clear if the limit is financial in nature it's not a limit.

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The limit now in the Portal Age is playing time.

So You could effectively have a bunch of people not on athletic scholarship but making plenty of money and more to cover what the scholarship does? This would seemingly be a loophole around scholarship limits and put us back to where we were 50 yrs or so ago when some schools offered 200+ scholarships just to keep guys away from competitors.

halfastros81 said:

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So You could effectively have a bunch of people not on athletic scholarship but making plenty of money and more to cover what the scholarship does? This would seemingly be a loophole around scholarship limits and put us back to where we were 50 yrs or so ago when some schools offered 200+ scholarships just to keep guys away from competitors.

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The only difference between now and 50+ years ago is that the players that are good enough will go where they can get paid and also play so that they might get a shot at the NFL.

Back in the days of 200+ scholarships, NFL money wasn't that big of a deal and football players didn't physically stand out that much from the general student population so that getting a scholarship for a free education actually meant something to a vast majority of the players.

I don't disagree . It does still seem to me that The loophole could provide some similar type advantages for programs with big NIL programs as the unlimited scholarship did tho.

Couple questions, why would a walk on get Name, Image and Likeness money? Hell, I can only name 2 walk on's and that is because they were the 12th Man. 2nd, if you are suggesting that any stud athlete gives up his scholarship so someone else can have it because you are making enough NIL money to cover it, I just don't see that happening.

These posters are hoping that with our superior financial resources we could horde enough talent it would be like the 60's when tu had guys buried on the bench that could've started at most schools in the swc

If A&M could get that type of talent then we would never lose to the Ole Miss and Mizzou etc
Personally I doubt any team can buy a NC in football but with the new NIL people are working on a theory that might get it done

Sq 17 said:

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These posters are hoping that with our superior financial resources we could horde enough talent it would be like the 60's when tu had guys buried on the bench that could've started at most schools in the swc

If A&M could get that type of talent then we would never lose to the Ole Miss and Mizzou etc
Personally I doubt any team can buy a NC in football but with the new NIL people are working on a theory that might get it done

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It worked in the 60's because you could not change schools easily.

Dorm 15 said:

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Sq 17 said:

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These posters are hoping that with our superior financial resources we could horde enough talent it would be like the 60's when tu had guys buried on the bench that could've started at most schools in the swc

If A&M could get that type of talent then we would never lose to the Ole Miss and Mizzou etc
Personally I doubt any team can buy a NC in football but with the new NIL people are working on a theory that might get it done

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It worked in the 60's because you could not change schools easily.

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I remember an older brother of a classmate went to Texas on scholarship in early sixties. They had something 200 people on scholarship at that time. He stayed the entire 4 years and got in a game his senior year for exactly one play.

Bogey1996 said:

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Couple questions, why would a walk on get Name, Image and Likeness money? Hell, I can only name 2 walk on's and that is because they were the 12th Man. 2nd, if you are suggesting that any stud athlete gives up his scholarship so someone else can have it because you are making enough NIL money to cover it, I just don't see that happening.

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don't see any of those happening but i could see a kid with a scholarship to sam walking on at a&m if it was not going to cost him anything. not likely to get any stars that way but could find some good depth and the occasional project that works out. of course with the way the transfer portal is now probably more efficient for the projects to develop with playing time at lower programs and then snatch them up when they show something.

Also
The NFL in the 60's was not the goal for most of these players on scholarship