The recent ruling in the House v. NCAA lawsuit sent shockwaves through the world of college athletics, fundamentally altering how high school athletes approach the recruiting process.
With the NCAA and Power 5 conferences now accepting a settlement from House v. NCAA and multiple other antitrust cases, college sports have changed dramatically.
Junior Wynn Generally, a forward for Sporting Blue Valley’s 2008 ECNL team, recently committed to the University of South Carolina for soccer. She notes that although these rule changes are impacting high school athletes, the recruitment process is never linear.
“I think it’s important to understand that everybody’s recruitment process looks different,” Generally said. “It really depends on who you are, what sport you play and what your goals and aspirations are.”
Muriel Gamble, an STA junior and one of Generally’s teammates, notes that a major consequence of the lawsuit is roster capping.
“Many high school seniors in the class of 2025 are having their offers revoked because of the roster limits that were changed,” Gamble said. “Let’s say a school recruited about nine women’s soccer players from the class of 2025. While this would have been fine last year, it isn’t this year because the new roster cap for that sport is 28. For women’s soccer, schools are now looking for about seven girls per class, so they’re having to revoke certain athletes’ offers to make sure they are meeting that limit.”
Student-athletes who have de-committed or gotten their offer revoked are needing to find a new college at the last minute.
“I’ve seen on the social media platform X that there are lots of soccer players from the class of 2025 posting things that kind of say, ‘Hey, My name is blank and I play this position. My offer has been revoked. I’m looking to find a new home,’ ” Gamble said. “Coaches might even comment on their posts saying things like, ‘Hey, we’re still looking for 2025s’, which helps athletes in their search for a new school.”
The influx of athletes who are de-committing is impacting younger classes who are beginning the recruitment process.
“I feel like right now everyone is kind of rushing to commit,” Gamble said. “As of last year, athletes would be committing as late as the end of the school year. Most people my age don’t know what they want to do for their career. While I have a good idea of what I’d like to do, I feel like it’s still so early to decide. If you want to go to a school that has a good program for what you want to do, rushing to commit can really limit your options.”
STA’s athletic director, Kat Williams, noted that another major impact of the lawsuit were changes to NIL, a policy that allows student-athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness.
“Future student-athletes will have more flexibility when it comes to recruiting and their ability to make money off of NIL,” Williams said.
Prior to the lawsuit, student-athletes were not able to make money off of their NIL without putting their scholarships in jeopardy. Now, there are looser policies in terms of the sponsorships and endorsements student-athletes can accept and be paid for while keeping their spot on the team.
Under the new system, scholarships are no longer a concern. Quite possibly the biggest change caused by the lawsuit is the shift from scholarships to direct payment. Student-athletes are now being paid as employees, and are able to handle their own money.
Junior Libby Scanlon, an outside hitter for STA’s varsity volleyball team, is excited at the prospect of being able to manage the income she might make in college.
“I think paying student-athletes like they are working a job is a great idea,” Scanlon said. “They put in lots of work, and their sport might prevent them from being able to have a job outside of it. I think paying them directly works well, because they can decide where they put that money, whether it’s to school, housing, food, etc.”
Along with paying student-athletes comes the expectations of a real job. They are paid and employed on a semester-to-semester basis. If a student-athlete is unhappy with their situation, or they get removed from their team, they have the opportunity to enter the transfer portal.
According to 247 Sports, the transfer portal is an NCAA database in which players who have opted to transfer are listed. Those with access to the portal are coaches, athletic administrators and compliance officials. The database can be sorted by year, division and sport.
Audrey Coppinger, a junior at STA who plays with Generally and Gamble, is also going through the recruiting process.
Coppinger’s older sister, Grace Coppinger, who graduated STA in 2022, plays soccer at Texas Christian University. With women’s soccer being heavily impacted by the transfer portal, both sisters have valuable insight on what it looks like now.
“Colleges will look through that player’s film, stats, grades and various other factors when considering picking up an athlete from the transfer portal,” Coppinger said. “Now, they also have to consider how much money they have to pay that athlete. If the college really wants that person, they are going to have to offer more potential money than the other colleges in hops for the athlete to commit to their school.”
With all these changes, it can be hard for student-athletes to navigate what school is best and where they will find the most success.
“This is coming from my friend, because she’s in compliance with the NCAA, and I totally agree with what she said,” Williams said. “Her advice during the recruiting process is to do research and to pick the school that fits you and not the one that has the most popular name. Make sure the school has the major you desire and the coaching staff that cares about you. Pick a school you feel comfortable with, and would be willing to stay at if something happens and you can no longer play the sport that you went to that particular college to play.”
