DESTIN, Fla. — You can see how concerned SEC football coaches are about extending roster limits: They risked incurring the wrath of Paul Finebaum.
Finebaum had planned to broadcast a show for the SEC Network live from the beachside Hilton Tuesday afternoon featuring Kirby Smart, Steve Sarkisian, Cullen DeBoer and Billy Napier, but they were forced to cancel when coaches meetings dragged on.
“I just think we were late. We took a long time to discuss roster numbers,” Lane Kiffin said.
Currently, football teams can have more than 120 players, with a scholarship limit of 85. But the scholarship limit will be eliminated as part of the NCAA-House settlement, and roster limits will be implemented as a cost-saving measure. But it's unclear what that number will be exactly, and 85 hasn't been ruled out, which would effectively eliminate walk-ons.
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Coaches interviewed before the meeting were divided: some hated the idea, others hated it even more.
“We're going to extend the length of the season, we're going to play more games, but we're going to have smaller rosters,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said.
“I am very against this. I think it goes completely against the philosophy and purpose of college football,” Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko said of veteran players not being able to play as walk-ons. “It's really bad for the sport.”
Lane Kiffin is in his fifth season as coach at Ole Miss. (Seth Emerson/ Athletic)
Georgia coach Kirby Smart brought in walk-on Stetson Bennett as a coach and then as his quarterback, leading the team to back-to-back national championships, citing other walk-on-turned-coach examples such as Dabo Swinney and Will Muskamp.
“I think it's a disservice to high school football, and football in general, that kids can't continue to dream about what they can do if they don't have a scholarship opportunity,” Smart said.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey discussed the matter with the coaches during the conference and said he was “pretty thoughtful.”
“I encouraged them to think about why. First think about why, and then you'll usually know what you're going to do,” Sankey said. “I stayed longer than I expected.”
It's unclear whether the roster limits will be decided at the conference level or across the NCAA. In a statement, lawyers for House v. NCAA said scholarship limits would be lifted but made no mention of roster limits. Sankey suggested that's part of the settlement, but that it hasn't been finalized yet.
“We're not done yet,” Sankey said.
However, there is a limit.
“Times are changing,” Sankey said.
Going deeper
The next big change in college football: Will walk-ons be eliminated?
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, whose son was a walk-on for the Longhorns, was initially realistic: “Throughout it all, we have to adapt. … At the end of the day, if it's a number, it's a number.” But as he continued, it became clear he had concerns, agreeing with other coaches that walk-ons help make college football special.
“I'm hopeful we can find common ground on a reasonable number,” Sarkisian said, “I'm not against change. Change happens. But I'm hopeful we can find a reasonable number that allows us to feel like we can operate at a high level as coaches and as players and continue the tradition of having walk-on football players on our team.”
NFL rosters are fixed at 53 players for the season, but teams can sign new players at any time during the season. College teams don't have that luxury. Rosters are set at the start of the semester. If injuries continue to occur, rosters can be thinned and there may not be room to add new players.
“You can't always add players, that's the problem,” Venables said. “I just hope we get to a situation where the game continues to grow and we don't drop the quality of the game or the play, because if the numbers aren't right it could be a disaster.”
Coaches also expressed concern that a smaller roster would hinder development, as they want players who may not play to be on the scout team so they can learn and improve.
There's also the time component: NFL teams spend a lot of time with their players because that's their job. At the college level, it might be unofficially a job (this is about roster limits, not employment), but officially players have to attend classes and limited practice time.
“I know it's going to cost more. The more players you have, the more it costs and somebody's got to foot the bill somewhere,” Venables said, “but I don't want it to hurt the game or the development because college isn't the NFL as far as development goes. These are young guys who are still growing and maturing.”
Going deeper
Emerson: What Greg Sankey didn't say may be just as important as what he did say
Would players be able to develop and mature at other programs? Absolutely. Would lower roster limits allow talent to be spread among more programs? That might be part of the idea. But as Alabama's Karen DeBoer pointed out, even smaller programs prefer larger rosters. He started his head coaching career at the NAIA level and has spent a lot of time at the Group of Five level.
At smaller schools, his roster size was a minimum of 105 players and a maximum of 135. Last year at Washington he had 120 players, but at Alabama he'll have a few more than that.
“People say we can only have 11 guys on the field at one time,” DeBoer said. “A lot goes into development. A lot goes into structuring practices to be efficient. Health and safety issues definitely come into play with roster sizes.”
Asked whether the team could still operate safely and effectively at age 85, DeBoer paused before answering.
“Obviously, there's always a way. Any question you ask, I'll answer it, (and) there's always a way to figure it out,” DeBoer said. “Will it be a lot different than what we're doing in terms of coaching and executing practice plans? Absolutely. But I'm always the type to adapt with the times and I'll always do what I have to do.”
(Top photo by Kirby Smart: Seth Emerson/ Athletic)
