In age of roster limits, NC State still carrying 125 players on football team

When NC State opened fall practice this week, it did so with a full roster — 125 players in all from (alphabetically) defensive tackle Omarian Abraham to wide receiver Christian Zachary.

In previous years, that’d be a normal number for football programs across the country. 

Now, under changes brought in conjunction with the $2.8-billion House settlement between the NCAA, its major conferences and former players, all sports have new roster and scholarship limits.

Previously, football programs could have 85 scholarship players and 125 total. Under the settlement, football programs can have 105 players on roster and all can be — though they are not required to be — on scholarship.

However, the federal judge overseeing the case said the parties must allow athletes who were on teams last year or were promised spots for this season to stay without counting toward the roster limits. Schools were required to report a list of “designated student-athletes” by July 6.

“It’s nice to be able to retain our walk-ons that we could retain and have a roster that is 125 players,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said. “I think that’s the right thing for college football. Player safety is supposed to matter. And when you shrink the roster, you’re basically saying that that doesn’t matter.”

Doeren, entering his 13th season with the Wolfpack, has put more than 40 walk-ons on scholarship during his tenure in Raleigh, including wide receiver Thayer Thomas and punter Trenton Gill. When asked, Doeren declined to specify how many of the 125 players are on scholarship.

“Those guys are an integral part of our team,” Doeren said.

The “designated student-athlete” is only expected to last until the current batch runs out of eligibility. The rule stipulates that incoming athletes must have been promised a roster spot by a school before April 7, 2025 for the 2025-26 academic year.

The new rules will cost players 105 to 125 on a roster their spot on the team. But the rules could aid players from 85 to 105. North Carolina coach Bill Belichick, who is in his first year as a college coach after decades in the NFL, said he sees that as an upside to the new rule.

“A lot of those kids that walked on between 85 and 105 previously are now [on] scholarship,” Belichick said. “So I would actually say it’s a better situation for, let’s call it, 20 kids per school times how many schools we got. You’re talking about a lot more scholarships. Granted we lose some walk-ons, but we also gain the scholarship for some of the kids who weren’t financially able to do the walk-on program. … I’m not sure the trade-off is a bad one.”

Schools don’t have to give a scholarship to every member of the team. But they are allowed to — a huge change in sports other than football and men’s and women’s basketball. In baseball, for example, schools had to split 11.7 scholarships among the 40 to 50 players on the roster. Under the new 34-man roster, all are eligible for a full scholarship. North Carolina announced that it would increase its number of scholarships from 338 to 532 across its 28 sports.

For coaches like Doeren, who has seen more change in the last few years than during decades earlier in his coaching career, there’s little hope for total stability on any of the rules.

“I don’t think anything’s final,” Doeren said. “This is going to change more and more.”