📍Located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The NCAA House Settlement and What This Means for College Baseball/Beginning of Summer Recruiting Updates
On June 6th, 2025 the NCAA House Settlement was granted final approval. So what does this mean for college baseball and recruiting going forward? In this article we will be highlighting some key takeaways from this landmark agreement along with some other ongoing developements in the college baseball recruiting world.
Some key takeaways. Keep in mind these are some basic highlights of the settlement:
- All schools that are in P4 Conferences have been automatically “opted-in” to the settlement. In clear terms, this means that they will be abiding the NEW roster sizes(38 in the fall and 34 by December 1 for their spring roster along with other mandates)
- schools will now have the ability to Full Scholarship the entire roster of 34. That does not mean they will, as most will NOT.
- schools that have opted-in can now provide UP TO $20.5M in direct financial benefits/payments in the form of revenue sharing to student-athletes. The exact amount can/will be determined by each conference with an estbalished floor.
- student-athletes of opt-in schools can still earn additional NIL money as well. Anything over $600 must go through the proper channels for approval
- Non P4 schools/conferences have until June 30th of this year to decide whether or not to “opt-in”. Schools that do not opt-in will revert back to the previous roster sizes and scholarship limitations(11.7).
- some examples of conferences that have indicated they will opt-in are but not limited to: American Athletic Conference(with the exception of Army and Navy), Big East, Big 5Philadelphia(with the exception of Penn), Conference USA, Horizon League. These are some examples, but not all of the conferences that are expected to opt-in.
- The Ivy League has officially said that they will NOT be opting-in
The above key highlights will clearly benefit all student-athletes financially. This may aslo potentially further separate the bigger conferences/schools in the college sports landscape. With the P4 schools having a distinct advantage when it comes to recruiting and what financial incentives from their pool of revenue sharing they may be able to provide a prospective recruit, along with the additional NIL money that may be more accesible, and in larger amounts.
SUMMER BASEBALL
Moving along to the start of the high school summer travel season for the 2026-2029 classes, we have seen a similar trend that really started last summer with fewer college coaches in attendance on the recruiting trail. Now its, early in the summer, and I would expect those attendance numbers to pick as the summer moves along.
There are a couple of factors that are contributing to college coach attendance at this point, the number one culprit without question is the transfer portal. As of June 9/10 there were already close to 6,000 players in the transfer portal with close to more than half coming from the D1 level, 1,700 from the D2 level, and approximately 800 from the D3 level. And these numbers do not even include the JUCO players looking for a home, NAIA players, and in some cases players that have been granted that one year of NCAA extra eligibility (within their 5 year window) because they spent 1 year playing at a non NCAA school. So as you can see, the supply of experienced and older players is pretty crowded. This has really put the focus on college coaches attending college summer leagues looking for players that are in the portal, along with the potential on campus visits of those type players, in addition to having to deal with their own roster management. I do believe that as the summer moves along and the transfer recruitment begins to settle down we will see more college coaches in attendance at the various summer tournaments. All the more reason to make sure that you are playing for a quality travel organization that gains admission to the better and more heavily scouted/attended tournaments.
At the end of the day, summer exposure is still a core component of the recruiting process. these initial evaluations in game situations by college coaches may generally be the first time coaches have seen a player in a live, game duress, type setting. Depending upon grad year, this may provide some initial dialogue between player and coach. in the case of the 2027 class, August 1st is the first time a college coach may communicate with you in a direct manner. In the case of the 2026 grad. This is obviously the last summer of travel baseball as a high school player. Your last chance at exposure. Going into the summer without a specific plan of attack will eventually lead to finishing the summer without a plan moving forward to find the right opportunities. There is still a way to continue the dream of playing college baseball, as long as a clear, defined plan, is being put in place. We have had a lot of succes even as late as the early fall with finding the right fit for the senior class player in part because of the tools we use analytically, along with our abilities to correctly evaluate the player and target the right programs.
We here at Florida Diamond Recruiting Services have very specific paths/plans for all grad years. There are various contributing factors that go into the plans that are created for each individual player and family. The most critical one by far is the evaluation of the player and what level(s) need to be pursued. From there we use state of the art data and analytics with our partner company Eagle Claw Analytics to help streamline the process. Again, the correct evaluation is the key/first step. With the todays landscape being so different than the pre-portal era, time is of the essence more than ever. A miss evaluation of a player for the next level will potentially lead to missed opportunities at the correct level(s) of play. Our staff excels at this, as we have the years of experience/success at the games highest levels of play. From the evaluation we then, depending upon grad year, come up with a path and plan moving forward that produces real results for our players and families. Keep in mind. The level chooses you. You don’t choose the level. Which continues to emphasize the point of having a quality, credible evaluation from the start. With over 200+ years experience on staff, 4 World Series Rings, multiple championships at the college and high school levels, and pro and college coaching experience, we here at FDRS feel that we have the tools, resources, and networks to find the right fit for our players and families.
We hope this article has provided some insight to what is happening in the world of college baseball along with the early ongoings of the summer travel season.
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Best of luck to all this summer season!
