NCAA Division I Board Officially Announces Changes to Softball Roster Limits

Jun 5, 2025; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders fans cheer after Texas Tech Red Raiders pitcher NiJaree Canady strikes out Texas Longhorns outfielder Kayden Henry (21) for the final out, defeating the Longhorns NCAA Softball Women's College World Series finals at Devon Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Rojo-Imagn Images | Brett Rojo-Imagn Images

There will be changes to NCAA Division I softball rosters for the 2026 season.

This comes after the House settlement, which allows schools to directly pay athletes. Both will become effective immediately starting July 1.

Rosters will no longer have sport-specific scholarship limits, meaning that every player on the roster can have a full scholarship, but there will be a limit as to how many players can be on a team.

This change would increase the number of scholarships to more than double what was previously available to female athletes. For softball, programs were limited to 11.7 scholarships.

Tim Sands, Chair of the board and president at Virginia Tech, says this is in part due to the new era of college sports.

"With the court's approval of the House settlement, college sports are entering a new era of increased benefits for college athletes," Sands said.

"Today's vote to codify the roster provisions of the settlement formally removes limits on scholarships for schools that opt in, dramatically increasing the potential available scholarships for student-athletes across all sports in Division I."

Schools have a deadline of June 30 to decide if they want to opt in to this new settlement.

NCAA rules for D-I programs will no longer include sport-specific scholarship limits. Schools that opt-in to the House settlement will have roster limits.

Notable roster limits set to be imposed once athletes are grandfathered in: Football (105), men’s and women’s basketball…

— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos_) June 23, 2025

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