If the pressure on college student-athletes wasn’t enough, it’s about to be turned up to 11 with the NCAA’s changes to roster limits coming for 2025-26 school year.
As we’ve previously discussed, student athletes from Division I already face extremes amount of pressure thanks to social media and NIL deals.
Now their performances will be scrutinized more than ever with coaches having to make tough decisions on not just who plays but who stays.
In case you’ve missed it, here’s what’s changing:
- Scholarship caps have been removed for DI schools, eliminating previous sport-specific caps. This means that schools have more flexibility when it comes to financially supporting athletes by being able to offer more scholarships.
- Roster limits are being introduced however, meaning that while schools can have more athletes on scholarships, they cannot allow for any non-scholarship athletes. For example, basketball scholarships have risen from 12 to 15 but any walk ons or athletes paying their own way won’t be permitted to play in DI competitions.
This may sound like a good thing – more scholarships means that potentially more athletes are getting a full-ride education.
However, the flow on effect is massive.
Due to these hard roster caps, athletes may be forced to move schools and Divisions in order to get game time.
This means more competition for places within all programs across all divisions.
More competition means more pressure.
The changes also create uncertainty for athletes.
An athlete can have their scholarship removed due to their athletic performance, with their coach choosing to not renew their scholarship as they are about to recruit the next high school star and need to make room.
All of this external noise and pressure can lead to poor concentration, anxiety, low confidence and a greater fear of failure.
Athletes who experience even one of these are unlikely to perform at their peak.
As a result, it is more important than ever for student-athletes to have access to resources that can help them navigate these changes and cope with the pressure that comes with it.
If you want to know how OMP can be one of these resources, reach out and book a discovery call.
