With several of our players leaving this offseason

[I35]

We now have more scholarships to offer right? If so, how many do we have now?

 

[jayakris]

No, we can only offer 31 in any case. 25 guys maximum can be counted under 2015 and 6 guys can be counted under 2014 when we only took 19. That makes up the 31 and that is the maximum possible. But before the scholarships up to 31 can be given in summer (by May actually) we need to get down to 85 scholarship players in total. That means we needed some players to leave the team anyway. The various counts I had seen seemed to say we needed 6 guys to leave. Now that there is news today that Harrison and one more OL would be leaving (along with Mcfarland and Riser already leaving), we may need about 2 more guys to leave by June for us to be able to give out all of these 31 scholarships this year. But 31 is the maximum we can do.

 

[OrangeClad]

Yes, Jay is correct. 31 is the maximum unless there is a grad transfer (that counts only against the 85 limit) or blueshirt(which would count forward to the 2016 25 limit despite enrolling and participating in fall 2015).

 

[eastexhorn]

Texas took 23 in 2014. Did some of these apply to 2013's number?

 

[jayakris]

^^ No, my understanding is that it is only between consecutive years that you can count the players to be in one year or the other. So 2013 is immaterial, unless we had counted anybody in 2014 against the 2013 total (I don't think we did). Basically 50 total can be counted against two consecutive classes, as long as no more than 85 scholarships are handed out at any point in time. So, by the time the spring semester ends and summer starts, we need to be at 85 or under. If we take 31 this time and count 6 to 2014, we can do up to 25 next year, BUT it will be tough to get under 85 and we may only take 20 or so next year. That is my understanding, but the NCAA rules are written in convoluted language, so don't hold me to it

 

[OrangeClad]

Shorter never made it back from injury so the total for 2014 was 22. 2013 only had a total of 15 and three early enrollees of 2014 were counted back against the 2013 numbers, resulting in 19 of 25 being used for 2014. 2015 has another 25 plus availability to count up to 6 early enrollees back against 2014. Including Tim Irvin, Texas expects to have 7 early enrollees so it should easily be able to take advantage of the 6 available back from 2014. Merrick grey shirting means he doesn't count against the 25, or in this case, 31.

Of course, none of this allows circumventing of the 85 limit, which overrides everything.

There are still several more (have not counted them but off hand think the # is 4) attrition departures needed to make 31 fit into the 85. Keep your eye on WR, DB and OL as there are some prime candidates there.

 

[eastexhorn]

As I count now there is room for 32 and not go over 85 limit.