The art of managing a roster for college football programs is about to get very intense, not only as the next transfer window opens, but as schools prepare to abide by the NCAA’s new 105-man roster limit set to become official starting this season.
So much change so fast is going to result in a disaster for the sport, Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman has warned in new comments.
This. All of this. 👂👇 pic.twitter.com/Gv680xSZRb
— Ryan Wallace (@The_RyanWallace) April 2, 2025
“I still think the industry of college athletics is a disaster. It just is,” Klieman told reporters.
“We gotta remove a lot of kids from the program, and it sucks. I’ll be honest with you. There’s a lot of kids that want to be here, want to stay here, that we can’t have in the program.
“Kids that are paying their way. Kids that have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this place. Kids that are invested academically. Now those kids gotta make a choice. It’s frustrating to me, because I don’t understand why the number came to 105.”
Those new expected roster limits are part of the major structural changes due to hit college football this year as part of the historic House vs. NCAA settlement.
And while the terms of that pact will raise the number of scholarships from 85 to 105, most schools will still have to cut their number of walk-ons and see an overall drop in the number of players actually available to them in the locker room every week.
Most major programs are working with 120 to 130 players during an average offseason of spring and fall football camps, and the NCAA’s previous cut-off point was 120 players.
“I don’t even know who decided it, but as a lot of us coaches talk about, we’re not in those meetings,” Klieman added.
“We’re not in the rooms. The practitioners, the guys that have their boots on the ground every day, aren’t in the meetings that decide some of these things. I’m sure it happens in other sports, as well, but in football, in particular.”
With teams needing to cut down, the transfer portal windows can be expected to only see even more traffic, and with fewer roster spots available, some of those transfers may not find new teams.
Plus, this year’s spring transfer window was cut to just 10 days, which will likely make things even more hectic than usual.
“The negative, which you guys all know and can assume, is our best players are getting contacted every day right now,” Klieman said of the portal.
“It may be not them, in particular, but it’s going to be their agent saying, ‘Hey, we’re looking for this position.,’ or ‘We have some excess money we’ve gotta dump, let’s go get this kid.’ This month of April is going to be craziness.”
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