Anon Recruiting - June 15th coming fast! Any tips or scoops?

[Anonymous (17ec)]

I think this whole thread is incredibly helpful for anyone hoping to compete at the collegiate level. Please keep sharing, and good luck to you and your daughter! I'm sure the perfect fit will be found.

 

[Anonymous (504e)]

This is super helpful. My kid is not in the same boat as yours, but we're hoping she'll get a spot on a team that she's happy with and this info is really valuable -even for a parent of a kid who won't be getting a D1 scholarship. It's great having these insights!

 

[Anonymous (947d)]

Your Updates are informative, helpful and Interesting. I am especially curious about what your learning about the changes due to the law suit and how that affects the future of the college gymnastics teams. From the information my daughter has received it seems that some school programs could be in trouble. It seems there is talk about it leading to the cutting of some “Olympic” sports depending, in large part, on how successful and lucrative the schools money making sports (ie football and men’s basketball) are. We were told it is really up in the air at the moment. They aren’t sure how title nine will affect things yet either. There are theories that some school may have enough money to give an entire team paid spots while others will have to cut non profiting sports to make up the money owed from the settlement . The only thing anyone seemed to know for sure at this point is recruiting will look different then it has in the past.

 

[Anonymous (7600)]

I dont think recruiting is going to look too different, just maybe the number of scholarships offered. I think the difference is going to be the widening gap between the haves (power conferences: SEC and Big 10 really, even the ACC and Big12 are at a disadvantage) and the have-nots (all the other conferences). Reading more about the settlement, there are 2 parts that can affect programs like gymnastics. The first is the $2.8 billion payment to past athletes. The NCAA will pay $1.2 Billion while the other $1.6 billion is footed by all the conferences with the larger conferences footing more. From the NY Times article
"Big Ten, Southeastern, Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Pac-12 — would pay about 24 percent, and the remaining five conferences that compete for the College Football Playoff would contribute about 10 percent.
The Football Championship Subdivision, which includes conferences like the Big Sky and the Ivy League and historically Black colleges and universities, would pay about 13 percent. And Division I conferences that do not play football, like the Big East, would foot 12 percent of the bill." So ALL programs are going to have to figure out how to scrap up this type of money to pay over a 10 year period (this seems really troubling for a program like Oregon State which did not get picked up by a conference so no conference $$$ to offset the payment).

The second part is the revenue share part and this is where they are talking about eliminating scholarship limits. ANY school can CHOOSE to share UP TO 20% of the revenue with athletes. So it is completely voluntary for the school. Of course, all the major conferences with huge TV contracts will share that maximum amount seeking competitive advantage with other teams. How this might affect gymnastics is a huge question. Because it is not clear how much Title IX will come into play here. If Title IX is fully followed then 1/2 of that 20% will go to female athletes. I spoke with an agent for college athletes, he believes that female athletes will see some of this revenue share, but more on a sliding scale so something like 5-10% of the total revenue share amount. So how do programs make up that 20% of the budget that they now have to share with athletes?! SEC and Big10 schools will have plenty of TV money to absorb most of it. The other conferences will probably resort to some sort of sponsorship revenue (cant wait to see the Gatorade leos lol, or the Staples Valerie Kondos floor) and/or perhaps not as much revenue share or as you mentioned, as a last resort, possibly cutting programs (I really am worried about Oregon State, but definitely schools like Illinois State, GW, etc). As I said at the beginning, the gap between schools in the SEC/Big10 from the others is going to get wider, even in gymnastics. These schools are going to become very attractive to the best recruits, this is tangible money we are talking about, above any regular scholarship and not even counting adding NIL on top of that.

So bottom line, I speculate that gymnastics programs in the SEC, Big10, Big12, and ACC should be fine. Programs outside of that could get interesting.

 

[Anonymous (7600)]

August 1st started the in-person contact period, so "home visits" have started. We have had a couple already. A few things that we have learned during this stage:

• While they may be called in-home visits, they seem to be more like dinners or lunches. At least all of ours have not been at our home. Programs seem to come to watch practice and then go have dinner or lunch nearby.
• If you do have dinner or lunch, the coaches cannot pay for it so be prepared to pay your own way
• I have to admit that after intensely following college gymnastics these several years because of daughter, it is kinda neat to sit and talk with these coaches that I have only seen on TV. I know its cliche, but they are real people and very approachable.
• The dinner I believe is more for the parents, as the coaches have been talking frequently about the program already via the phone calls to the gymnast. But we learned about how to make line-ups, the practice schedules, off-season work-outs, travel during season, academic support. Some have come with audio/visual stuff like iPad and glossy binders, others just have a conversation.
• Learned that right now with the NCAA settlement, gymnastics will be allowed to increase their scholarship numbers to 20 versus the current 12 BUT it is not certain if athletic programs will support that number since its dependent on Title IX and budget constraints. This goes into effect for the 2025 season.
• Havent directly talked about NIL nor asked about it, but it has come up in conversation. The larger programs seem to guarantee anywhere from $10-30k minimum. This is in addition to scholarship and cost of attendance stipend. Not sure what the revenue sharing from the NCAA settlement will also add. I suspect specifics will be covered during official visit.
• Also, as long as you are in school you get your stipend. So if you go home for summer and don't take classes, no stipend.

One nifty trick to see where programs are targeting athletes is looking on socials and what gyms have tagged them for visiting. Especially during this time period, these visits are going to be for prospective in-home visits. That's about it for right now. Starting to plan for the official visits, which look like travel on Thursday night, and return early Sunday. Would love to hear or compare with any other experiences other 2026/2025 families are having!

 

[Anonymous (ace1)]

This is very interesting and I appreciate your sharing. I think your experience is definitely not typical and is likely reflective of what happens with the top say 20-30 recruits of a given class. What do others think?

I'm really curious about the $10-$30k NIL number. Is that per year, or over four years? It explains why the scholarships will become somewhat less relevant, or at least less crucial, over time.

One question: Do you have a sense for how many athletes the various programs are planning/hoping to support in the coming years, or how they are planning to handle the new world of up to 20 scholarship but no more than 20 spots? Will it completely vary from school to school? Does each school decide how to interpret Title IX? Or is everything completely up in the air right now?

Thank you again for sharing! I think the main reason that others are not chiming in is because very few are in the recruiting situation that your daughter is in. (As a point of reference, of the many/10+ recruitable 2025s and 2026s at my daughter's gym I know of only one who had a "home visit"/dinner with a coach. She is an elite/former national team member and had only one dinner that I know of. The rest of the recruits (most are reasonably strong L10s, multi-year national qualifiers, scoring 37s, some 38s) are not seeing anywhere near the type of interest that your daughter is seeing. It's more like phone calls, some official visits, the occasional coach visiting the gym, and an offer here and there.

 

[Anonymous (f59f)]

This is very interesting and I appreciate your sharing. I think your experience is definitely not typical and is likely reflective of what happens with the top say 20-30 recruits of a given class. What do others think?

I'm really curious about the $10-$30k NIL number. Is that per year, or over four years? It explains why the scholarships will become somewhat less relevant, or at least less crucial, over time.

One question: Do you have a sense for how many athletes the various programs are planning/hoping to support in the coming years, or how they are planning to handle the new world of up to 20 scholarship but no more than 20 spots? Will it completely vary from school to school? Does each school decide how to interpret Title IX? Or is everything completely up in the air right now?

Thank you again for sharing! I think the main reason that others are not chiming in is because very few are in the recruiting situation that your daughter is in. (As a point of reference, of the many/10+ recruitable 2025s and 2026s at my daughter's gym I know of only one who had a "home visit"/dinner with a coach. She is an elite/former national team member and had only one dinner that I know of. The rest of the recruits (most are reasonably strong L10s, multi-year national qualifiers, scoring 37s, some 38s) are not seeing anywhere near the type of interest that your daughter is seeing. It's more like phone calls, some official visits, the occasional coach visiting the gym, and an offer here and there.

Yes, this is my experience too. My daughter has had 3 phone calls and a few emails so far. But we weren't really expecting a whole lot this summer.. hoping for more interest next year. But we have other recruitables at our gym that have had more phone calls and interest. And probably 4-5 schools have come to visit. The strongest of them has 2-3 official visits scheduled. I have no idea about in home visits, etc, but I don't think so. I agree that the OP must have a top 20 recruit which is awesome. But definitely not something I can relate to. Very exciting though!

 

[Anonymous (7600)]

This is very interesting and I appreciate your sharing. I think your experience is definitely not typical and is likely reflective of what happens with the top say 20-30 recruits of a given class. What do others think?

I'm really curious about the $10-$30k NIL number. Is that per year, or over four years? It explains why the scholarships will become somewhat less relevant, or at least less crucial, over time.

One question: Do you have a sense for how many athletes the various programs are planning/hoping to support in the coming years, or how they are planning to handle the new world of up to 20 scholarship but no more than 20 spots? Will it completely vary from school to school? Does each school decide how to interpret Title IX? Or is everything completely up in the air right now?

Thank you again for sharing! I think the main reason that others are not chiming in is because very few are in the recruiting situation that your daughter is in. (As a point of reference, of the many/10+ recruitable 2025s and 2026s at my daughter's gym I know of only one who had a "home visit"/dinner with a coach. She is an elite/former national team member and had only one dinner that I know of. The rest of the recruits (most are reasonably strong L10s, multi-year national qualifiers, scoring 37s, some 38s) are not seeing anywhere near the type of interest that your daughter is seeing. It's more like phone calls, some official visits, the occasional coach visiting the gym, and an offer here and there.

Thanks, we feel incredibly humbled and blessed that she is in this position. We realize this is probably closer to the upper percentile, but at least it gives everyone a sense of the upper bounds. On a side note, she is not an elite, nor is she a 5 star 2026. So everyone should not have to feel like either is required for this level of attention. Good form, a good gym are what I attribute it to, but that is my opinion.

In regards to NIL, that is for the year. As I mentioned we have not directly asked specifics but between what has come up in conversation and what we know from 2025 girls that went through this, I believe that is the floor. Each school seems to have an office dedicated for entrepreneurial athletes to hook up with more opportunities to potentially earn more. My understanding is that every school can interpret and apply Title IX as they see appropriate, but of course that could leave them liable for lawsuits. Kinda a murky messy area. It will probably ultimately end up in court regardless to create some guidance for schools to apply it.

Point of clarification, my understanding is that with the NCAA settlement, the increased number of scholarships IS the roster limit. So teams are limited 20 girls on a team. So NIL is just something that will be different and potentially added on to the girls with scholarships. NIL will now also be managed by the school and no longer the collectives. All the coaches have been very uncertain how this is ultimately going to shake out Especially the revenue sharing and Title IX. BUT one thing is for sure, the large well funded programs that are fully supported by the university are going to be the best to weather whatever it looks like in 2025.

 

[Anonymous (3e00)]

All of this is very interesting and helpful. Our daughter is a 2028 grad and the 2025 season will be her 3rd year as a level 10. We have two more years so hopefully all of the dust settles and things will be ironed out and more clear. To me, the more I can learn and understand about the process should make me more prepared to offer guidance and support. Seems like a lot of things happen rather quickly.

 

[Ty’s Dad]

August 1st started the in-person contact period, so "home visits" have started. We have had a couple already. A few things that we have learned during this stage:

• While they may be called in-home visits, they seem to be more like dinners or lunches. At least all of ours have not been at our home. Programs seem to come to watch practice and then go have dinner or lunch nearby.
• If you do have dinner or lunch, the coaches cannot pay for it so be prepared to pay your own way
• I have to admit that after intensely following college gymnastics these several years because of daughter, it is kinda neat to sit and talk with these coaches that I have only seen on TV. I know its cliche, but they are real people and very approachable.
• The dinner I believe is more for the parents, as the coaches have been talking frequently about the program already via the phone calls to the gymnast. But we learned about how to make line-ups, the practice schedules, off-season work-outs, travel during season, academic support. Some have come with audio/visual stuff like iPad and glossy binders, others just have a conversation.
• Learned that right now with the NCAA settlement, gymnastics will be allowed to increase their scholarship numbers to 20 versus the current 12 BUT it is not certain if athletic programs will support that number since its dependent on Title IX and budget constraints. This goes into effect for the 2025 season.
• Havent directly talked about NIL nor asked about it, but it has come up in conversation. The larger programs seem to guarantee anywhere from $10-30k minimum. This is in addition to scholarship and cost of attendance stipend. Not sure what the revenue sharing from the NCAA settlement will also add. I suspect specifics will be covered during official visit.
• Also, as long as you are in school you get your stipend. So if you go home for summer and don't take classes, no stipend.

One nifty trick to see where programs are targeting athletes is looking on socials and what gyms have tagged them for visiting. Especially during this time period, these visits are going to be for prospective in-home visits. That's about it for right now. Starting to plan for the official visits, which look like travel on Thursday night, and return early Sunday. Would love to hear or compare with any other experiences other 2026/2025 families are having!

My daughter is class of 2027 and I seriously can’t wait until we start this process. Listening to all the stories from her teammates parents is making me so anxious. Thank you for sharing

 

[skschlag]

My daughter is class of 2027 and I seriously can’t wait until we start this process. Listening to all the stories from her teammates parents is making me so anxious. Thank you for sharing

It is the most stressful, exciting time ever. Looking forward to hearing your experiences!

 

[Anonymous (ebc3)]

It is extremely stressful over here! We had no idea what to expect and are still playing the game. My daughter is a 2026 and didn't have calls on July 15, but did the following week. She has now had 2 calls from each school she has spoken to and its still clear as mud. I find it to put a lot of stress on these girls. No officials have been set up, but they keep chatting etc. Anyone have any experience with this? Is it a good sign that she has continued phone calls? What do you think should be her next step? Any great advise? She also has several emails going with schools that say hey keep sending up videos of your events.. one was we filled all our spots, but would you consider a walk on? She replied but hasn't hear back ( that coach was at the Olympics with his athlete). Would love your thoughts and ideas!

 

[Anonymous (7600)]

It is extremely stressful over here! We had no idea what to expect and are still playing the game. My daughter is a 2026 and didn't have calls on July 15, but did the following week. She has now had 2 calls from each school she has spoken to and its still clear as mud. I find it to put a lot of stress on these girls. No officials have been set up, but they keep chatting etc. Anyone have any experience with this? Is it a good sign that she has continued phone calls? What do you think should be her next step? Any great advise? She also has several emails going with schools that say hey keep sending up videos of your events.. one was we filled all our spots, but would you consider a walk on? She replied but hasn't hear back ( that coach was at the Olympics with his athlete). Would love your thoughts and ideas!

Sounds like she is in a good spot even if it is stressful. It seems she is in that 2nd group of targets for schools, maybe not their top target, but someone they would like on their team. Unfortunately it is a bit of a waiting game to see which of their targets might decline officials/offers. It is perfectly within reason to respectfully ask where she sits with a school. You can either go the direct route like "how many athletes are ahead of me" or more indirect "do you have scholarship spot for me". The coaches are pretty upfront about those things.

Continue the communication, and have her coach involved, he/she may have closer relationships with different staffs. I know it's a frustrating waiting game, but the fact that they are communicating at their most busy recruiting time is a good sign. She is important enough that while they may not have an open scholarship for her now, they want her if they do get one. Also, I might dig deeper on schools that talk about walk-on spots. Mainly I would ask if they think they will still have walk-ons in 2026 given the changing rules. Nonetheless, walk-on spots as they exist in 2024 are just about full scholarships.

 

[Anonymous (7600)]

First official visit completed! Great weekend. First the logistics.

In general, fly in on Thursday night, probably picked up by a staff/coach taken to hotel and check-in. Early Friday morning start the visit, depending upon when/if there is a football game on Saturday dictates what you do Friday and Saturday. But between those two days are tours and meetings (academic support, dorms, weight training facilities, injury recovery, nutrition, general campus, NIL, bookstore, and of course, photo shoot!). Watch a practice. Friday night dinner with coaches and hosts for DD. DD goes with host for evening with host and other team members and stays with her overnight (Although one of her teammates went on an official that did not have an overnight with a host). At one point on Saturday, a one-on-one meeting with head coach. This is where scholarship is typically offered or discussed(sometimes an offer has already been made, sometimes they just tell you where you stand). Football game, which DD and/or parents get to go on the field during warm-ups, take in game, a final farewell meeting/dinner (depending on game time) and goodbyes. Fly out early Sunday morning. In between there are lots of opportunities for parents conversations with coaching staff between sharing golf cart around campus, driving to different venues and hotels. The staff rotated between families on visit which is nice to be able to talk and get to know them.

My takeaways:

• It is a FULL weekend. 12 hour type days, but it is so much fun and even more for parents to get to see their DDs experience it. I mean c'mon who doesn't like getting VIP treatment as the burly guard lets you on the field? I really wish everyone would get an opportunity to go through it all of them deserve it.
• Definitely take multiple visits if you can, even though we have only done one, you need at least two to have some comparison. Plus it really is a time that you only get to experience once.
• Spending time with the team and staff is great, you really get an appreciation of the culture and cohesiveness of the program.
• On this visit, no NIL was specifically discussed, we never asked, but I am sure if we did they would have been more direct. They did tour us with the NIL group but their presentation was about how they could help get deals or do podcasts or social media etc. In off-hand conversations, they did mention how some gymnasts signed large NIL deals and that can be available.
• My one interpretation and might be just coaches flattering us, so take it as you want. While there is some threshold of gymnastic skill that a recruit has to meet, coaches (at least these) really are watching what happens in between, the stumbles, the interactions with other teammates, and the way they practice. They specifically told us that they did not seek out some of the other recruits because of what they saw from them and how they felt they would not be a good fit for the culture of the program. So make sure your DD has a positive attitude in the gym and supporting other teammates. And don't obsess about having to have the highest scores or being a 5* recruit. Coaches value more the fit than the skill (at a threshold of course).
• We had a small visit of recruits, not sure if the dynamic is different with a group of say 5 recruits. Future visits will have numbers like that so we will see.
• Cut the coaches some slack. It hit me during the visit, how many balls in the air they have. As we were being driven between campus and events, you could see their phone getting messages from team members, other coaches, 2026 recruits, 2025 recruits, etc. So if they happen to forget you had mentioned that you once had a dog named Wolverine, don't be offended. I barely remember names of people I just met. Taking a step back it really is a ton of coordination and constant contact.

That's all for now. Happy to try and answer questions or would love to hear if anyone else had similar experiences.

 

[Anonymous (225f)]

Thanks for the detailed write up of the experience! What an exciting time for you and your daughter. My daughter is a 2028 but her gym bff is a 2026 and went on her first official visit over the weekend too and gave her a similar report.

How many visits is she planning on going on before making a decision?

 

[Anonymous (7600)]

Thanks for the detailed write up of the experience! What an exciting time for you and your daughter. My daughter is a 2028 but her gym bff is a 2026 and went on her first official visit over the weekend too and gave her a similar report.

How many visits is she planning on going on before making a decision?

She has 5 planned

 

[LemonLime]

Some decisions are final already, and will greatly impact Women's NCAA Gymnastics.

Women's gymnastics has been protected as a headcount sport, but in the future all NCAA sports will be "equivalency" sports. The headcount protection led to D1 NCAA women's gymnastics teams offering 12 spots, fully funded. In the future, women's gymnastics teams can offer scholarships to 20 athletes instead of 12, but gymnastics will have to fight with other female sports at their schools for a share of the entire female-allocated Title IX financial aid pool. Applying this logic and understanding equivalency sports today, gymnastics teams will offer stars full scholarships, but most of the team will be offered partials.

Because gymnastics requires 6 athletes per event, there is little incentive to grow rosters to 20. Walk-ons increase budgets by at least $30,000 per athlete, per year. With 22% of future athletic department money being paid to athletes instead of into the athletic department budget, there is even less money in the overall pool to fund team sports. Expect fewer team retreats and less team-sponsored meditation sessions.

NCAA Women's gymnastics loses incredible amounts of money. No program (?) is profitable and many lose high 6 figures or more every year. Now that there is no headcount protection for gymnastics, it's financially smarter for colleges to fund scholarships on female teams that earn money or break even. Thinking practically, a school can choose to fund scholarships for its inexpensive female lacrosse team that wins national championships instead of its expensive women's gymnastics team that does not qualify to regionals. Unlike the past, now gymnastics, lacrosse and maybe ultimate frisbee each contribute equally to Title IX parity. Just look at what happened to Men's NCAA Gymnastics for a scary roadmap of the future.

The upcoming Revenue split is governed by Title IX, but it is unlikely to be considered "Financial Aid." For that reason, even though Revenue Share must be treated equally between men and women, the allocation may end up legitimately favoring big-name talent. Trickle down to athletes 6-12 on a gymnastics roster is unlikely.

The best path for rank-and-file athletes is either for universities to agree on a core payment system for all athletes or for the athletes to individually harness NIL to pay their tuition and extras. Universities can now facilitate NIL arrangements which does more to help NCAA rank-and-file roster athletes than star athletes. This is a loss for private sector startups, but a win for athletes.

Although it doesn't look great for gymnastics, the only way women's sports could be starved to death is if Revenue Share is allowed to be treated like wages earned. Under simple economics, if a star football player gets 5% of the Revenue Share and the entire collective of female athletes shares 5%, gymnastics will suffer. This approach is legally possible, but risks years and years of litigation. By settling, the NCAA and universities have signaled a desire to end the cycle of litigation. Each wants the other (and the Department of Labor or Congress) to set the standard, but no one is signaling they want to be the adjudicator and stick their head up to get sued. Litigation at this level easily costs $120,000 per month.

Pulling it all together, it will be difficult to earn a spot at an NCAA gymnastics team until not only the Revenue Share split standards are decided, but also until colleges look hard at their budgets to best recoup their lost 22%. I can't complain because star athletes will earn what they should have been paid all along. Rank-and-file athletes will need to do more work to get funding, but the possibilities of NIL are literally endless.

 

[Anonymous (7600)]

Some decisions are final already, and will greatly impact Women's NCAA Gymnastics.

Women's gymnastics has been protected as a headcount sport, but in the future all NCAA sports will be "equivalency" sports. The headcount protection led to D1 NCAA women's gymnastics teams offering 12 spots, fully funded. In the future, women's gymnastics teams can offer scholarships to 20 athletes instead of 12, but gymnastics will have to fight with other female sports at their schools for a share of the entire female-allocated Title IX financial aid pool. Applying this logic and understanding equivalency sports today, gymnastics teams will offer stars full scholarships, but most of the team will be offered partials.

Because gymnastics requires 6 athletes per event, there is little incentive to grow rosters to 20. Walk-ons increase budgets by at least $30,000 per athlete, per year. With 22% of future athletic department money being paid to athletes instead of into the athletic department budget, there is even less money in the overall pool to fund team sports. Expect fewer team retreats and less team-sponsored meditation sessions.

NCAA Women's gymnastics loses incredible amounts of money. No program (?) is profitable and many lose high 6 figures or more every year. Now that there is no headcount protection for gymnastics, it's financially smarter for colleges to fund scholarships on female teams that earn money or break even. Thinking practically, a school can choose to fund scholarships for its inexpensive female lacrosse team that wins national championships instead of its expensive women's gymnastics team that does not qualify to regionals. Unlike the past, now gymnastics, lacrosse and maybe ultimate frisbee each contribute equally to Title IX parity. Just look at what happened to Men's NCAA Gymnastics for a scary roadmap of the future.

The upcoming Revenue split is governed by Title IX, but it is unlikely to be considered "Financial Aid." For that reason, even though Revenue Share must be treated equally between men and women, the allocation may end up legitimately favoring big-name talent. Trickle down to athletes 6-12 on a gymnastics roster is unlikely.

The best path for rank-and-file athletes is either for universities to agree on a core payment system for all athletes or for the athletes to individually harness NIL to pay their tuition and extras. Universities can now facilitate NIL arrangements which does more to help NCAA rank-and-file roster athletes than star athletes. This is a loss for private sector startups, but a win for athletes.

Although it doesn't look great for gymnastics, the only way women's sports could be starved to death is if Revenue Share is allowed to be treated like wages earned. Under simple economics, if a star football player gets 5% of the Revenue Share and the entire collective of female athletes shares 5%, gymnastics will suffer. This approach is legally possible, but risks years and years of litigation. By settling, the NCAA and universities have signaled a desire to end the cycle of litigation. Each wants the other (and the Department of Labor or Congress) to set the standard, but no one is signaling they want to be the adjudicator and stick their head up to get sued. Litigation at this level easily costs $120,000 per month.

Pulling it all together, it will be difficult to earn a spot at an NCAA gymnastics team until not only the Revenue Share split standards are decided, but also until colleges look hard at their budgets to best recoup their lost 22%. I can't complain because star athletes will earn what they should have been paid all along. Rank-and-file athletes will need to do more work to get funding, but the possibilities of NIL are literally endless.

Some of what you are saying is inconsistent with what we have been told by several major programs. There are two things at play here. The first, roster numbers, has been decided at the NCAA level. The second, revenue sharing, has not been determined other than the 22% number identified in the settlement. All the programs that we have talked with have said that the settlement raises the scholarship number to 20 and that all these scholarships are full scholarships. There will be NO partial scholarships. All these programs said that they advocated for 18 roster limit to help the smaller programs, but the final number landed on 20. The question now becomes if individual athletic directors will fund that number of scholarships. Football was raised to 105 and baseball went to 34, also with no more partial scholarships. So for all programs the balancing act becomes do they want to increase the men's sports scholarship numbers by X amount and have a corresponding increase in women's sports scholarships to maintain Title IX compliance? Just because the roster limit has been increased doesn't mean schools have to increase those numbers. As a matter of fact, these major programs have all said that they intend to keep their rosters at about 18 and are recruiting with this number in mind. This change is slated to go into effect in 2025, which means that some programs like LSU and Georgia will have to cut gymnasts from their roster to get to that 20 roster limit (assuming that they have the support to fund 20 scholarships).

Regarding revenue sharing, no one knows yet and the programs have said their ADs won't have any idea until the spring. It is unclear, though expected that some of that revenue sharing will go to women's programs but the exact split is tbd. Currently, with NIL deals, some of the programs we talked with pay more for girls competing and even more for girls that compete as all-arounders, so it is reasonable to expect the same allocation system with whatever revenue share gets to gymnastics (regardless if they are a star or not). Yes, that 22% will put a dent in some budgets, but it is expected that most programs will make up that shortfall with licensing and naming rights. We will probably start seeing your favorite grocery store, auto, financial services, etc prominently displayed on uniforms and arenas.

Based upon our conversations with these major programs, even with these changes unknown, several things are clear to me. First, the programs that are in major conferences, SEC and Big 10, will probably see little impact and will probably even benefit in regards to talent acquisition. Second, the programs that are in these major conferences AND are identified as a priority program at these universities will do even better since they will be the first women's sports in line when it comes to allocating additional scholarships and revenue sharing. The pressure is going to come on programs that are in the Group of 5. NIL will still be available, but it will be more in line with its original intention, which was to allow athletes to leverage their names and positions to make money. NIL as it exists today (at the major programs), particularly in football and a much lesser degree in gymnastics is a pure pay-for-play. Meaning come to our school to compete and we will pay you $X.

 

[Anonymous (ebc3)]

Help! ha ha! So my kiddo has had several conversations with a few coaches. ( both D1 ) She has a 4th call coming up with one this week and has run out of questions to ask! What should she start to ask at this point? She has not been invited on officials to either yet. One of them has gone over their process and has said they are waiting on more info with the NCAA lawsuit to see the exact number of girls they are able to get... The other in which is on call 4 with has said they take their time recruiting which we have noticed to be true with past years recruits. Now she isn't sure what else to ask or talk about? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Anonymous (7600)]

Second visit completed! The logistics of the visit was consistent with the first one. Only additional information I can provide is on a subject that most parents are concerned with, which is $$. As a scholarship athlete, there are now 3 sources of money that gymnasts have access to above the scholarship which covers tuition, student dining, and rooming (if living on campus):

1. Cost of attendance: This amount adds up to about $12-15k of direct cash payments to the athlete. Student must be in school and enrolled to receive this monthly payment. The intention of this money is to provide a stipend to cover incidentals, weekend dining, etc, just those little costs that add up for any student going to college away from home. Factors that influence the amount depends on location of university (think city versus rural) and if student lives on campus or off-campus. (off-campus gets a higher stipend)
2. NIL Collectives: These collectives are primarily booster/alumni-driven regarding funding and are really focused on football and basketball. While the university does not run them they are affiliated with the university. These collectives are responsible for the stories you hear about with some college football player getting $1 million to play for a school. Some of the larger big conference gymnastics programs get money allocated from collectives. This is money that is provided to ALL gymnasts generally on a sliding scale (all-arounders/stars get a bit more than a non-starter). An example is the Utah gymnasts all get "free" cars to use while they are on the team. These cars are from the collective. The average amount that I have been told (and again remember this is for large top 10 programs) is $20-50k with top end close to 100K per year. Athletes sign an actual contract with the collective that typically requires them to maybe post once a month in support of the collective or show up to a fan signing twice a year, etc. There is an initial payment, then monthly payments, and a final lump sum payment after the transfer portal closes.
3. NIL Contracts: Think Livvy Dunne here. If an athlete wants to go out and sign a contract with Lululemon to promote that brand, they can. All these large programs have NIL offices available to the students that help facilitate these deals. They can be as large as something with Lulu or as small as the local sub shop. While they might not be big money contracts it can add up and can provide some additional money if a student needs it. Ultimately its about how much a student-athlete might want to invest in working on it.

A potential 4th is the revenue sharing that is supposed to go into effect in 2025, but it is still very much in the air and unknown what type of $ amounts that might trickle to gymnastics, but it can reasonably be assumed that some additional funds will come as a result of the revenue sharing ruling.