there are four mechanisms where a team that appears to be over their roster limit may in fact be fine.
1. A long-term injury where you know
before the season starts that an athlete will be out for the year.
- Current-Year Count: If an athlete is on the certified pre-season roster, they occupy a roster spot for that entire season, regardless of whether a medical hardship or injury prevents them from practicing or competing.
- Next-Year Exemption: A student-athlete who sits out an entire season due to injury or illness may be officially exempted from counting against the sport's roster limit beginning with the roster year following the injury.
- Financial Aid Exception: Schools are permitted to renew or honor an existing athletic financial aid agreement for a medically sidelined player without counting them toward the roster limit, provided the athlete does not participate in any countable, required, or voluntary athletically related activities after the roster deadline.
- Strict Roster Locking: Once a school certifies its roster in the Compliance Assistant internet (CAi) system before the season begins, only the athletes explicitly listed on that roster are allowed to practice or compete.
So, as an example, Lauren Malsom just announced she will miss this year in soccer. That means UNC technically gained a roster spot for the upcoming season. Coach Nahas could in theory go find a one year grad transfer to fill that roster spot.
in a sport like Women’s Lacrosse there are usually multiple season ending injuries every year. If a coach wanted to be really aggressive with their roster management they could assume at least one every year while recruiting. Obviously this would be pretty risky if you did not know already someone was out for the upcoming year.
note that there are now no more medical redshirts to bank a year for future use. So if you designate a player to be out for the year you better be sure there is little chance of recovery during the season or you are causing her to lose opportunity.
2. Grandfathered walk-ons (DSA’s aka Designated Student Atletes) from before the House v NCAA ruling who retain their walk-on status.
- Any student-athlete designated as "grandfathered" does not count against the team’s new roster limits. For example, if a football program has a roster cap of 105 players but retains 10 grandfathered walk-ons, they are permitted to carry 115 players on their active roster.
- Eligibility Criteria: To qualify for this protected status, the athlete must fall into one of these buckets:
Current Roster Members: They were on the school's active roster before the settlement took effect.
Re-hired / Cut Walk-ons: If a school prematurely cut a walk-on in anticipation of the new roster caps, the school was required to offer that roster spot back under the grandfather clause.
The 2025-26 Freshmen Class: Incoming freshmen who had a previously promised walk-on spot revoked or honored prior to settlement implementation are also eligible for grandfathered protection.
- Portability (The Transfer Rule): Grandfathered status is fully portable. If a legacy walk-on decides to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, they carry their "exempt" status with them to their new school. Their new program can add them without the player counting against that school's roster cap.
- Duration of Status: The exemption remains valid for the entire duration of the athlete's college eligibility. It only expires once the student-athlete exhausts their biological eligibility clock or graduates
- Important: schools had to last that player as a DSA in 2025-26; they had to be on an official list submitted to the NCAA.
The transfer rule is interesting: we may pick up players at any time who do not count. In theory, this may apply to any Ivy League transfer as an example, provided they were a DSA.
3. Grandfathered partial scholarship recipients from before the House v NCAA settlement: the NCAA used to divide sports between those that only allowed full scholarships (Examples: Football, Men's & Women's Basketball, Women's Volleyball, Women's Tennis, Women's Gymnastics) and Partial Scholarship Sports
(pretty much everything else- Examples: Baseball, Softball, Track & Field, Soccer, Lacrosse) These sports have always used the "equivalency" model, where a coach would split a small pool of scholarships (like baseball's old 11.7 limit) across a much larger roster. The impact post House v. NCAA:
- The key point here is that DSAs were not just limited to walk-in’s; it also could include anyone on partial scholarship.
- If a grandfathered player ( DSA) was already on a 25% athletic scholarship (as an example), that specific partial scholarship financial agreement is protected. The school can maintain that exact partial aid without the player counting toward the sport's new maximum roster limit.
- Once a DSA, the transfer portal does not limit the compensation you could receive in the portal. So, if for example, your pervious school gave you 25% scholarship, you could transfer to a new school on full scholarship, and still retain your DSA status, not counting against the roster at your new school.
I did not know this before researching today: teams like Women’s Lacrosse likely had tons of women on partial scholarship. The NCAA only allowed 12 scholarship equivalencies but teams routinely carried rosters around 40 or more. So logically we could have a large handful of women grandfathered in at a their former partial scholarship level, provided they were willing to stay at UNC with that same partial. This of course would also apply to many women transferring in to UNC.
It is worth noting that all sports are now allowed partials: there are no more head count sports. But starting with the 2026-27 incoming class all newly enrolled HS athletes and transfers who are not DSAs will count against your roster limit regardless of walk-on, partial or full scholarship status.
UNC is working toward fully funding a scholarship for every athlete at UNC, we added 200 new scholarships after the house v NcAA ruling eliminated scholarship caps. But we still have a long way to go: over 200 scholarships still not funded. So it is logical that a sport like lacrosse may not yet have every roster spot covered. So it is also logical that Levy may choose to handle this by still having some partials to spread the wealth.
4. Greyshirts: UNC has not used deferred enrollment for athletes too often but it has happened in the past. If a team has a mistake with roster counts we may find in rare occasions where an athlete is asked to enroll in the spring or an entire year later. Assuming they have not yet turned 19 this will not affect their 5 year eligibility.
In about 4 years the last of those grandfathered players will graduate. At that point options 2 & 3 will disappear and coaches can only use Options 1 & 4.
TL;dr: there are tons of ways our roster may be totally fine. Assume the UNC staff knows what they are doing. Don’t worry about it too much.
