Remember, kids, just because you can doesn't mean you have to.
The Division I Council on Friday approved a proposal from the Football Oversight Committee to increase the number of allowed official visitors from 56 to 70. The increase comes on a trial basis, for now, for a 1-year period beginning April 1, 2023.
The change comes hand-in-hand with the Council removing the limit on official visits that recruits can take. Players are still limited to one visit per school, unless that school undergoes a head coaching change.
Additionally, the Council extended the waiver removing the initial counter limit for Division I football programs, which now lasts through the 2024-25 athletic year, according to Sports Illustrated. Programs are permitted to sign as many players as they want, provided they remain at or under the 85-man scholarship limit (or 63 for FCS schools). The change was initially made last May for a 2-year period. This extension continues the experiment for another season.
The 25-man initial counter limit came about in the early part of the previous decade in an attempt to curb the practice of oversigning. Ole Miss infamously signed 37 recruits in 2009, but Houston Nutt's Rebels weren't the only school to sign more players than they had room for.
A decade-plus later, though, other rule changes rendered the 25-man rule obsolete. The 1-time waiver exception and the creation of the transfer portal left many schools with more scholarship openings than they could legally fill. What began as a player-fairness measure evolved into a player-safety issue.
Clearly, the Football Oversight Committee and Division I Council are monitoring the scholarship market to ensure programs can handle this temporary freedom before handing it to them on a permanent basis.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.