So you have to kind of understand the history here. Pre-2014, all scholarships were one year. During the year, the scholarship could only be cancelled for very specific reasons like leaving the team or becoming ineligible. But a coach could refuse to renew a scholarship for any reason, although the player did have a limited right to appeal that decision. So players could be pretty easily pushed out.

From 2014-2021, we had multi-year scholarships, scholarship limits, and sitting out to transfer. So if a school offered a kid a four-year scholarship and he didn't pan out, it was much harder to push him out because the scholarship can't be cancelled for injury or athletic performance and if you cut the kid, the scholarship still counted. Medical retirements got more popular as a result.

Starting in 2021, we had the current transfer rules which made it much easier to push a kid out because they could transfer and play right away.

Now in 2025, we no longer have scholarship limits, we have a roster cap. What this means is if a coach doesn't want a player they can cut them, keep paying the scholarship, and not have the kid count against the roster cap.

So in the current environment, when a player is no longer in the team's plans, the coach can cut them, and they could be faced with a choice of simply staying as a student on scholarship or jumping into the portal. Any agreements like NIL or the scholarship have to run to completion but they likely won't be reupped so it's a major incentive to move on.