Roster limits have been tweaked over the past several months dues to Covid etc... what are the current rules?
Maximum roster size?
Maximum number of players on scholarship?
Maximum number of players on the travel roster?
Maximum number of players who can dress for a home game?
Allow me to reply to my own question with some information I've learned.
Seniors were given the opportunity to return for an extra year. For some this might be a fifth year, for others this might equate to a sixth year if they previously redshirted.
In essence every player was granted an extra year of eligibility, thus no one was penalized if they "opted out" of the 2020 season. If a player in the 2019 recruiting class redshirted his freshman year, that player will still be a redshirt-freshman in 2021, the players third year (see Steve Linton and Garrett Williams). Players in the 2020 recruiting class will still be freshman in 2021 regardless of how much they may have played in 2020 (see Sean tucker and Marlowe Max). And, of course, the recruiting class of 2021 will be true freshman. This is why the current roster shows 48 freshman of which 15 are listed as redshirt freshman. And this is before the entire 2021 recruiting class has even reported.
https://cuse.com/sports/football/roster
If 15 seniors decided to stay for the 2021 season, the scholarships limits and the roster limits will be increased by that number (the number of seniors staying - 15) for 2021;
100 scholarships (usually 85) and
120 total (the roster limit is usually capped at 105).
For the record, Syracuse appears to only have eight seniors on the 2021 roster. Does that mean our scholarship number will be 93, and the roster max will be 113?
From the outside looking in, this looks like a hot mess. If during the 2021 season we have 93 players on scholarship and at the end of the year we lose all eight of the seniors on our roster (yes, there are only eight seasons on the roster), how many scholarships will we be able to offer to the class of 2022?
Of course this will work itself out.
The following numbers are only as good as the rosters online are accurate, and I can see they are not 100% accurate.
All 8 of the redshirt juniors will have completed four full years of academic study before the season even starts, thus should be graduating. Some of the RS-Jrs will become grad transfers and leave. And, a couple may actually be draftable by the NFL.
The three juniors (only 3?) will be in their fourth year of academic study and may also graduate or otherwise transfer if they are not draftable or they are not expected to get much playing time in their season year (2022).
8 super seniors + 8 redshirt juniors + 3 juniors = 19. This would leave 11 scholarships in 2022 before we would reach the max of 85 for 2022.
Of course when you have close to 50 freshman, many of whom have been in the program for three years, some will choose to transfer out if they're not projected to play as much as they would like. Imagine being a RS-Sophomore and being buried on the depth chart behind three other freshman (see our secondary). These RS-Freshman, as well as the RS-Sophomores, will also be draft eligible. so we could lose a couple of high caliber young guys to the NFL and a few lower caliber young guys to transfers. Losing young players always hurts your depth.
Okay, enough of that. I cant wait to see the roster in August after everyone has reported.
Regarding travel rosters; in 2009 the ACC set a cap on the number of players who could travel
for conference games at 72. Does anyone know if there's limit on the number of players who can dress for non-conference games? Specfically, I'm wondering
how many of the kids on the roster will be able to suit up for our home game against Albany this year? Players can now appear in four games without jeopardizing their redshirt year. In the past we've had players play on the kickoff teams in four games and still redshirt that year.
