NCAA approves one-year waiver of football scholarship limits

Arizona’s first full recruiting class under Jedd Fisch has the potential to be a pretty good one, based on early commitments. And it may end up being a really big one as well.

The NCAA on Wednesday formally approved a one-year waiver of football scholarships for Division I programs, enabling schools to sign as many as seven more players beyond the normal 25-scholarship limit.

The waiver is intended to help programs deal with the recent change to transfer eligibility, unofficially known as the one-time transfer rule, which allowed all student-athletes to able to play immediately after their first transfer rather than sit out a year.

Instead of being able to sign 25 high school and junior college recruits as well as Division I transfers, the 2022 class can be as big as 32 depending on how many players left the program after the end of the first term of school. That means it does not apply to in-season departures like offensive lineman Edgar Burrola and defensive lineman Myles Tapusoa, both of whom entered the NCAA transfer portal in the past few weeks.

FBS programs are still limited to 85 total scholarships for the 2022-23 school year, so each school’s actual class size will be dependent on how many slots they have left to fill.

Arizona has 16 seniors on its roster, most of whom are on scholarship, as well as 18 juniors, all of whom are in at least their fourth year in school due to all student-athletes earning an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UA’s 2022 recruiting class currently has 16 commitments and ranks 35^th in the country as well as fourth in the Pac-12, according to 247Sports.