I wonder if the D3s will try to have roster sized similar to the new D1 limits? Some of them are insane (too big) like lax, soccer, TUMBLING! It doesn’t make sense to me to have rosters of 35 when only 15 ever see time in a game.
It makes no sense for D3s to have huge teams. Most don’t have the facilities to have 80 kids in the weight room at once, or buses to cart 35 soccer players from Maine to CT for one game. Sure they can leave 15 at home, but does that promote ‘the team’?
Agree. I think for some schools, sports recruiting of student athletes is part of the schools plan to compete vs other schools for students, and is a way for the school to stay viable. This seems to be the case in particular for schools that are not quite as difficult as say high academics to get accepted, still fine schools often offering merit scholarships to be competitive when competing for students against high academics.
I still recall when a NESCAC football coach mentioned how they limit their roster size to 75, which I thought sounded fairly large. Until heard that many D3 teams routinely have 100+ rosters with many players not dressing or traveling to away games.
When I was in college (ages ago), the swim team had no roster limits. Only 15 of us traveled for most meets, but it gave a number of swimmers an opportunity to work out, improve, and swim at home meets (as a second heat or third and fourth relays.) We always celebrated personal bests - for everyone. Many of those “never travel” swimmers loved swimming, perhaps more than some of the travel team.
Some teams like having big squads for scrimmages in practice. Given the disappearance of JV squads (who often served the same purpose), that doesn’t seem unreasonable.
I see no harm in it if the school has the resources for it. If there’s space and coaching staff, and if the athlete is aware of the arrangement, what’s the problem? My guess is that few persist as bench-warmers for 4 years, but they get to give it a whirl.
The proposed roster limit in D1 is 105, and many teams are facing significant cuts. I have no issue with large rosters if the program can support it. The issue with the size of football squads is that many schools kill other men’s programs to stay Title XI compliant.
Forcing a limit and reducing access to teams goes against the premise that sports in college, specially in D3, are there to enrich students lives.
That was the case at the college where I swam too, although we all got to compete in all the meets because our conference (MIAC) was geographically small enough that no overnight trips were needed. I was a very bad swimmer (never competed in swimming at any level prior to college) but I loved, loved, loved my time on the swim team.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has actually developed a report on Athletics which they sell: How intercollegiate sports can rejuvenate D-III colleges which touches on many of the issues being discussed in this thread.
I expected large rosters for D1 football. It was the 100-110 roster size for the typical regional D3s (not high academic) that surprised me. For some reason I did not expect to see rosters that size in local D3s, and learned many players do not dress or travel for games.
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