Gonna’ Need a Bigger Bus: Big Ten Votes to Expand Football Travel Rosters
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Friday afternoon, it was announced by Pete Thamel online that the Big Ten had voted to expand the travel roster for football teams from 74 players to 80.
This comes on the back of the new eligibility rules. The NCAA has implemented a groundbreaking new 5-in-5 rule that allows players from the 2023 high school graduating class and beyond to now receive up to five years of eligibility, no matter what. Injury-riddled seasons will not play into getting a year back. Also, there will be no more redshirting players due to this change.
So, a player who once would “redshirt” a season and play in minimal games before receiving a fifth year of eligibility due to not playing much may still only play in minimal games in a season, but it will not be considered a redshirt season. It will simply be one of the five years.
Now, ultimately, does that sound like it’s a parallel move? It’s not, but it is in the sense of redshirt players. Still, it now allows guys who played well for four years and didn’t redshirt to get a fifth year no matter what.
With the addition of this rule, the Big Ten is now looking at the size of the roster that football teams are allowed to bring with them when they travel to road games.
The roster travel size limit was once 70 players, with 80 players allowed for bowl games. Then it went up to 74 players, and now the Big Ten has moved it yet again to 80 players.
Will all 80 players play? Not at all.
College football is notorious for having huge-sized rosters, and now the travel roster is only growing. But this does allow the chance for younger players to make it onto the field. It’s not a big chance or a huge move, but even the smallest moves can allow for one player to make a name for himself who may not have had the chance otherwise.
This is something Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald was advocating for while at Big Ten Media Day. Now, it seems like he wasn’t the only one in favor of opening up the rosters.
With roster sizes in general reaching over 100 players per team, getting young, incoming talented players time on a field that only has 11 players per team at a time is a hard and chess-like task.
When you have to limit young players from even joining the team on the road, eliminating any chance at them playing, it’s even more tough to watch and surely, as a coach, hard to do.
Now, there’s a little brighter of a light as the travel roster size expands to 80.
For a young player, that extra spot on the bus could mean a lot more than simply getting to travel with the team. It could mean getting a chance to step onto the field, get a few reps and show that he belongs.And sometimes, that’s all a player needs.
It’s just a way to get more players to have a better shot at showing their head coaches just how good they can be when the lights are the brightest.
The Big Ten decided it was time, possibly with the help of Pat Fitzgerald not only returning to the Big Ten but then pushing for the chance to expand the rosters.
For a young player, that extra spot on the bus could mean a lot more than simply getting to travel with the team. It could mean getting a chance to step onto the field, get a few reps and show that he belongs.
And sometimes, that’s all a player needs.
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