Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin and other league coaches speak out at SEC Spring Meetings on potential roster caps
OXFORD, Miss. — With the current House vs. NCAA settlement, one hot-button topic that has arisen from the settlement — in addition to revenue-sharing with players — is roster caps. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and other coaches, in Destin for the SEC Spring Meetings, are discussing potential roster caps and the concerns they have with those limits.
Commissioner Greg Sankey also spoke on the topic.
Currently, football teams can have more than 120 players on the roster, with an 85-scholarship limit. But the House v. NCAA settlement will call for a roster limit instead of a scholarship limit. The exact roster number has not been decided, but if 85 is the number, that would, in effect, mean the end of walk-ons.
This would have a number of implications, especially for football where walk-ons are frequently used in practice on scout teams and to provide critical depth for teams.
At this week’s Spring Meetings, Commissioner Sankey was asked what he would tell the conference’s football coaches who have concerns about potential roster caps in the future.
“I know other conferences have discussed it, coaches have then texted our coaches, they get fired up, and we said just wait. We’re gonna have a conversation, that’s where it is, that’s a concept,” Sankey said. “And understand that football captures the attention, but we have 21 championship sports, all of which need to have a level of conversation about that roster piece.”
As for Coach Kiffin, he discussed some issues he sees with limiting roster spots that could potentially reduce his Ole Miss roster by as many as 40 players.
“I think there’s some safety issues there,” Kiffin began.
“I mean, practice how you play and numbers could get low to where you have to overplay players compared to where you haven’t in the past. So, there are some very big safety concerns. And the ability to practice well enough to develop young players also.”
Lane Kiffin on roster caps
With fewer available bodies, players would get more reps at the same high-intensity level, thus creating more wear and tear and fatigue on the bodies as there is less opportunity for subbing. And with playoffs structured the way they are now, a season could be 17-games long for the eventual winner and runner-up.
Oklahoma’s Brent Venables and A&M’s Mike Elko both spoke out against the caps Tuesday.
“We’re going to expand the length of the season, we’re going to play more games, but we’re going to have a smaller roster?” Venables said.
“I’m strongly against it. I think it’s absolutely against what college football stands for, what it’s about. It’s something that’s really bad for the sport.”
A&M head coach Mike Elko
Having the additional 40-something players gives coaches options when it comes to allowing players to rest. Further, it allows the younger players on the roster to develop in practice to improve their skills.
“I think it hurts high school football, and football as a whole, when kids can’t keep dreaming about what they might be able to do if they don’t get a (scholarship) opportunity,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart commented in Destin.
Having a unit of scout team players is something the NFL is allowed to have. Keep in mind that although NFL rosters are set at 53 during the season, the league’s teams can sign new players throughout the season if needed. College coaches do not have that ability. When the semester starts, their rosters are set in stone. What would happen if a team suffered a rash of injuries without being able to replenish players? That is one of the many questions that roster limits creates.
Coach Kiffin explained it further.
“You want to be like the NFL in some ways but not in other ways. You want to make these limits but we don’t have practice squads, we don’t have the ability to have players just spring in, have them try out, and have players after injury.”
Lane Kiffin
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, whose son is a walk-on with the Longhorns, weighed in also.
“I’m hopeful we can find a common ground on something that is a reasonable number. I’m not opposed to change. Change is going to happen. But hopefully, we can find a reasonable number where we still feel like we can operate at a high level as coaches and for our players and still continue that tradition of walk-on football players on our teams.”
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian
Commissioner Sankey is discussing many of these issues with the coaches during the meetings in Destin.
“My recommendation to them was to think about the why. Let’s think about the why first. And that usually guides you to the what,” Sankey said. “I stayed longer than I anticipated.”
As of now, we don’t yet know whether the roster limitations will be decided on a conference-by-conference basis or via an NCAA-wide decision. But what we do know is the House v. NCAA lawyers said in their agreement that scholarship limits would be eliminated — they just didn’t say anything about roster limits.
Commissioner Sankey indicates that’s a part of the settlement still to be finalized.
“It’s not done. (But) the times they are a changing,” Sankey said.
Evelyn Van Pelt
Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn's love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.
