Massive changes are coming to the NCAA this year.
On Friday, June 6, Judge Claudia Wilken approved the House vs. NCAA legal settlement that will fundamentally change Division I college athletics for the imminent future. Some track and field and cross-country rosters could be significantly reduced as a result of the decision, which goes into effect for the 2025-2026 school year.
The class-action settlement has three major parts. It will allow universities to share revenue with athletes for the first time—expected to be $20.5 million in the first year—and will provide $2.8 billion in back payments to former NCAA athletes who were not eligible to receive NIL money from 2016-2024.
A third part of the settlement has already been affecting many track and field and cross-country athletes. The settlement will set roster limits on each sport. For cross-country, schools will be capped at 17 roster spots, and track and field will be limited to 45. Only schools that opt into revenue sharing will be bound to these numbers.
Previously, there was no limit on roster numbers and schools instead had to adhere to scholarship limits: 18 total for women and 12.6 for men. Now, institutions can provide as many scholarships as they have roster spots. But few schools are expected to have the financial resources to use all 45 or 17 potential scholarships.
Many schools that opt into the settlement have rosters that are larger than the new limits.
Over the past year, some schools that are members of the Power 4 conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC) have begun preparing their rosters for the new numbers. The University of Florida, for example, had 56 men listed on their track team this year and 19 on the cross-country roster, and athletes like Alec Miller were faced with the possibility of not having a spot next year. And some athletes, like Jake Rimmel at Virginia Tech, were already cut in anticipation of the settlement.
The SEC, additionally, will limit rosters even further than the settlement’s numbers. Men’s programs will be limited to 35 athletes for track and just 10 for cross-country.
Originally, the settlement mandated that teams must adhere to new roster limits for the 2025–2026 school year—and no athletes would be grandfathered in. At that time, Yahoo Sports estimated that over 15,000 athletes across all Division I members could be cut, depending on how many schools opt in to the settlement.
But after significant pushback from athletes, the settlement was amended to allow—but not mandate—schools to grandfather in athletes who would have otherwise lost their spot.
The schools are instructed to use “good-faith efforts” to identify athletes who “were removed or would have been removed from the roster for 2025-26 due to the implementation of the roster limits.” Those individuals will not count toward roster limits for the rest of their eligibility. This applies to current athletes and those who were recruited to be on a team for the 2025-2026 school year (e.g., incoming freshmen). Schools have until July 6 to identify these athletes.
On May 8, Notre Dame became the first school to commit to grandfathering in all athletes.
While the settlement was preliminarily approved in October by Judge Wilken, many athletes, parents, and coaches voiced concerns about roster limits—a part of the agreement that was originally not as widely discussed as back payments and revenue sharing. This pushback delayed the approval for nearly two months after the April 7 final hearing.
Track and field was one of the sports that was at the center of the debate around roster cuts. At the final approval hearing, Gracelyn Laudermilch, a senior distance runner at Northeast Bradford High School in Pennsylvania, gave a powerful speech about declining opportunities for athletes.
Last fall, she was prepared to commit to an unnamed school but was advised by the school’s coach to go elsewhere because the coach had learned they would have to cut at least 15 women from the team to adhere to roster limits. Laudermilch argued to Judge Wilken that roster limits would reduce chances for her and “thousands of athletes” and encouraged her to deny the settlement.
Laudermilch also discussed how smaller roster sizes could discourage schools from taking chances on less-developed runners. She cited Olympian Emily Mackay, who was a walk-on in college, as an example of someone who thrived with a long-term approach.
NCAA coaches have also expressed concerns with budgets cuts (or complete team eliminations) that could occur due to new expenses from revenue sharing. In March, some of the most prominent coaches in the sport—including Vin Lananna, Ed Eyestone, and Maurica Powell—expressed displeasure with the settlement in a “call-to-action” email, where they mentioned that although scholarship limits will technically increase, “collegiate track and field programs won’t likely see funding across institutions.”
Revenue sharing could strain athletic department budgets. Yahoo Sports has reported that most Power-4 schools plan to allocate 90 percent of revenue sharing to football and men’s basketball—the two sports that have the highest chance at generating athletic department revenue. Cross-country and track and field programs generally do not bring in much revenue, if any.
On June 7, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) issued a joint statement, along with coaching associations for wrestling, volleyball, and swimming and diving. The organizations voiced worries that funding for Olympic sports could shrink, and they urged Congress to intervene.
“We are concerned that the new financial obligations placed on schools will force administrators to divert attention and resources away from non-football and non-basketball sports—the very programs in which the majority of NCAA student-athletes participate,” the statement read. “This is no hypothetical. Budget cuts and program eliminations have already occurred in anticipation of [the settlement’s approval], and more are likely to follow.”
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
