Men's Lacrosse Scholarships After the House Settlement: An Honest Family Guide | RosterWise™

The headline change

Per USA Lacrosse magazine’s coverage of the House settlement (approved by Judge Claudia Wilken on June 6, 2025):

• Before the settlement: NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse operated under a 12.6 equivalency scholarship cap. Programs divided that 12.6-scholarship value across their entire roster, meaning most athletes received partial scholarships.
• After the settlement: D1 men’s lacrosse programs that opted into the settlement can offer scholarships to up to 48 athletes — matching the new roster cap. The previous 12.6 cap was eliminated. Equivalency rules still allow partial scholarships.

For scale on what those rosters actually look like: across the 77 Division I men’s lacrosse programs RosterWise analyzed for the 2025-26 season, the median roster carried 49 players, with the middle half of programs between 47 and 53. That sits just above the 48-player cap, which binds only at schools that opted into the settlement. Our roster data begins with the 2025-26 season, so it describes rosters under the new framework rather than the one it replaced.

Per USA Lacrosse magazine (August 2024), the change “in theory would create more than 2,500 additional Division I men’s lacrosse scholarships” — although whether programs actually fund up to the cap depends on their individual budgets.

The honest framing — three things to understand immediately

1. The 48 figure is a maximum, not a requirement. Maryland head coach John Tillman is quoted by USA Lacrosse magazine: “Some of the scuttlebutt of people saying, ‘Oh, teams will have 48 scholarships.’ … I just don’t see that happening.” USA Lacrosse attributes the reason to “massive financial ramifications, regardless of the school or conference.”

Former Denver head coach and current IMLCA president Bill Tierney described a five-way breakdown of how programs might respond, per USA Lacrosse magazine (August 1, 2024):

1. Programs that increase scholarships “to something like 25”
2. Programs that continue supporting what previously existed
3. Programs that remain in D1 but reduce scholarship funding below previous levels
4. Programs that drop scholarships entirely and move to a club model
5. Programs that drop lacrosse entirely

That was one coach’s forecast, made before the settlement was approved. We don’t have data on which programs have since landed in which category.

2. The roster cap tightened D1 men’s lacrosse opportunities. Per USA Lacrosse magazine, the average 2024 D1 men’s lacrosse roster was 52.7 players, against a new cap of 48. On the day the settlement was approved, USA Lacrosse estimated in June 2025 that this meant “an average of 4.7 players per team - approximately 362 players overall - will lose the opportunity to compete at the Division I level.” That was a forecast, not a count of what has since happened; the Designated Student-Athlete exemption also let schools temporarily exceed the limits.

In short: at schools covered by the settlement, the most a program may fund went up, and the number of players it may carry is now capped at 48.

3. Walk-on opportunities at D1 are now tighter. The previous framework allowed programs to carry walk-ons beyond the scholarship roster. Under the new framework, walk-ons compete for the same total roster spots as scholarship players — meaning some traditional walk-on opportunities at men’s D1 programs no longer exist.

The “wider separation” forecast

Tierney, in the same August 2024 USA Lacrosse magazine article: “Schools that decide to go big in lacrosse — Hopkins, maybe Northwestern women — they might do that. If they do, it’s going to make the separation even wider.”

That is a forecast, and we won’t add one of our own. We don’t have data on how D1 men’s lacrosse programs have funded scholarships since the settlement.

For families, the practical point is that the question “Where does my son’s competitive level fit?” now needs to be paired with the question “Which programs are actually funding scholarships at the level we need?”

What scholarship offers can look like in 2025-26 and beyond

We don’t have data on how D1 men’s lacrosse programs are funding scholarships under the settlement, so we won’t sort programs into groups. What the framework allows at a covered school:

• A program may fund more than the old 12.6 equivalencies, up to the 48 players on its roster
• It may also fund at or below its previous level; the roster limit is a maximum, not a requirement
• It can split what it funds into full or partial awards

Tampa men’s lacrosse coach J.B. Clarke, quoted by USA Lacrosse magazine in August 2024, put the comparison this way: “Many of our schools rely on sports like lacrosse to help fill the beds and fill the seats in classrooms. So I think Division II and III are in many instances safer in the Olympic sports than Division I.”

The question that matters is the one for each program: How is your program funding men’s lacrosse scholarships under the House settlement, and what would an offer to my son look like?

Correction, October 9, 2026. An earlier version of this section sorted D1 programs into four groups — “programs investing heavily,” “maintaining previous levels,” “reducing or transitioning,” and “at risk” — and said programs “at major conferences with revenue resources are the most likely candidates” for the first group and that “partial scholarships remain dominant” in the second. It also called the settlement “one of the largest proportional scholarship increases of any sport,” described Bill Tierney’s forecast as “a key reality,” and said the “competitive gap between these tiers may widen.” None of that had a source, and it treated forecasts as facts. We kept the coaches’ attributed quotes, labeled them as what they are, and removed the rest. The page summary also said the roster cap “reduced the average D1 men’s lacrosse roster by several players”; that was USA Lacrosse magazine’s June 2025 forecast, not a measured result, and the summary no longer says it.

How D1 men’s lacrosse scholarships actually work

Several mechanical realities under the new framework:

Equivalency remains: D1 men’s lacrosse is an equivalency sport. The total scholarship allotment at a program can be split into partial scholarships in any combination as long as the total doesn’t exceed the program’s funded equivalent. Full, half, quarter — any mix is permissible.

The Designated Student-Athlete (DSA) exemption: Per USA Lacrosse magazine, the settlement’s transition provision allowed schools to identify rostered athletes (or incoming 2025-26 freshmen) who would have been cut under the new roster limits and grandfather them in. These DSAs do not count against the school’s 48-player cap during the remaining years of their eligibility. The DSA designation also remains with the student-athlete throughout their college career — meaning a DSA who transfers to another school continues to not count against the receiving school’s roster cap. This was a one-time exemption tied to identification by the July 6, 2025 deadline.

Not all D1 programs opted in: Schools that opted into the House settlement must abide by the new 48-player roster cap and can fully fund up to it. Schools that did not opt in continue operating under the previous framework. Families should ask each program directly whether it has opted into the settlement.

D2 men’s lacrosse scholarships

NCAA Division II men’s lacrosse operates under D2-specific scholarship rules that were not directly changed by the House settlement.

Per NCAA Division II Bylaw 15.4.2.1.1, D2 men’s lacrosse is an equivalency sport limited to 10.8 equivalencies. A program can split those into partial awards — for example, 20 athletes on a half scholarship each would use 10 of the 10.8 equivalencies.

Practical realities at the D2 men’s lacrosse level:

• 80 D2 men’s lacrosse programs are projected for 2025-26 in the NCAA’s own sport-sponsorship figures — smaller than the 112 D2 women’s lacrosse programs projected for the same year. (The NCAA labels these as projections and notes that actual numbers may change.)
• Funding is each program’s decision: 10.8 is a maximum. Ask each program how many equivalencies it actually funds.
• Partial awards combine with other aid: a partial athletic scholarship can combine with academic merit aid, need-based aid, and outside scholarships to form a total package; ask for a net-cost estimate.

Correction, October 9, 2026. An earlier version of this section said “many D2 men’s lacrosse programs operate below the maximum scholarship allotment,” that partial scholarships “are the norm,” and that “few D2 men’s lacrosse athletes receive full athletic scholarships.” We have no data on D2 funding or award sizes, so we replaced those statements with what the 10.8 limit allows.

D3 men’s lacrosse — no athletic scholarships, but…

NCAA Division III men’s lacrosse programs do not offer athletic scholarships. This rule has not changed with the House settlement.

D3 men’s lacrosse, however, remains a meaningful pathway:

• D3 is the largest men’s lacrosse division by program count — 236 NCAA D3 men’s lacrosse programs projected for 2025-26, against 80 at D2 and 77 at D1
• No athletics-based aid: D3 schools may not award financial aid on the basis of athletics (NCAA Division III Bylaw 15.01.3). A D3 package is built from academic, need-based and outside aid, and what each school offers differs, so ask each school’s financial aid office for a net-cost estimate
• The “harder to pass up” view: Middlebury women’s lacrosse coach Kate Livesay, quoted by USA Lacrosse magazine in August 2024: “Now with the scholarship money that’s out there, it makes our job harder to pull in that person who’s teetering on the fence of D-I or D-III. It becomes harder to go D-III and pass up on what could be a really nice scholarship.”

Correction, October 9, 2026. An earlier version of this section said “many D3 schools offer substantial academic merit aid,” named NESCAC schools as offering it, called the NESCAC “elite competition,” said “Middlebury, Tufts, RIT, and other top D3 programs have produced NCAA D3 men’s lacrosse champions,” and said Kate Livesay’s point “applies to both men’s and women’s lacrosse.” None of that is in our fact log, and ranking programs is outside what we publish. It also described Livesay as “Middlebury head coach” on a men’s page; she coaches Middlebury’s women’s team. We corrected the attribution and removed the rest. The section on NAIA below also said NAIA limits “operate as equivalency awards similar to NCAA D2”; we replaced that with a pointer to the NAIA’s own handbook.

NAIA and NJCAA men’s lacrosse scholarships

NAIA men’s lacrosse: The NAIA sponsors men’s lacrosse and runs a national championship. It does not publish a current program count we could verify from a primary source, so we don’t state one — check NAIA.org for the current field. NAIA athletic scholarships are available at schools that sponsor the sport, and funding varies by school. The NAIA sets its own scholarship limits; check the current men’s lacrosse limit in the NAIA’s official handbook on NAIA.org, or ask the program.

NJCAA men’s lacrosse: the NJCAA sponsors men’s lacrosse at the junior-college level. It publishes no program-sponsorship count, so we state none — check NJCAA.org for the current field. What it does publish is the scholarship structure: Division I colleges may grant full athletic scholarships (tuition, books, fees, room and board, plus up to $250 in course-required supplies and one round trip a year), Division II is limited to tuition, books, fees and the $250 supplies allowance, and Division III may not offer athletic scholarships at all. The NJCAA additionally caps the number of Letter of Intent signees and scholarships per sport — 24 in men’s lacrosse — and that cap is identical in all three divisions. A signee counts against it regardless of how much aid they receive.

For families considering the JUCO pathway specifically, see JUCO Volleyball as a Recruiting Pathway for the broader JUCO framework, which applies similarly to men’s lacrosse.

What this means for family scholarship planning

Several practical implications shape how families should approach scholarship conversations:

The scholarship math now varies by program. The previous uniform 12.6-scholarship cap created a relatively predictable framework for understanding what to expect from D1 programs. Today, programs at the same competitive level may offer very different scholarship structures. Families need to ask each program directly: Under the House settlement, how is your program funding men’s lacrosse scholarships?

Walk-on opportunities at D1 are tighter: The new 48-player roster cap means some traditional walk-on spots at D1 programs no longer exist. Families considering walk-on pathways should ask each program directly whether walk-on opportunities exist under their current roster construction.

Every division is worth understanding: D2, D3, NAIA and NJCAA programs each operate under their own aid rules, set out above. Compare the total cost of the offers your son actually receives.

Consider the total financial picture, not just athletic aid: A scholarship offer is only one component of the total cost of college. Academic merit aid, need-based aid (FAFSA), the Pell Grant exception (which allows Pell to stack on top of full athletic aid per NCAA Bylaw 15.1.1), and outside scholarships can all change the net cost. See How Athletic, Academic, Need-Based, and Outside Aid Actually Stack for the integrated approach.

The transfer portal: if a program’s roster or funding changes after your son enrolls, the transfer portal is the standard pathway to another program. See The Transfer Portal Explained.

Correction, October 9, 2026. An earlier version of this section said D2 and D3 “may be in some ways more stable than the bottom tier of D1,” attributing that framing to J.B. Clarke, and predicted the transfer portal “may see more men’s lacrosse activity than before.” Clarke’s quoted words compare Division II and III with Division I as a whole; “bottom tier” was ours. The portal prediction had no source. We quote Clarke directly elsewhere on this page and removed the rest.

Common questions about men’s lacrosse scholarships

“Will my son get a bigger scholarship now because of the settlement?”

Maybe. The settlement increased the maximum scholarship potential at participating D1 programs, but how much each program funds is its own decision, and we don’t have data on what programs are doing. The answer depends entirely on which specific program is offering, so ask it directly.

“Will my son be able to walk on at a D1 program?”

At schools covered by the settlement, every player — scholarship or walk-on — counts toward the 48-player roster limit (NCAA Division I Bylaw 17.2), so walk-on spots compete for the same places as scholarship players. Families should ask each program directly about walk-on opportunities under their current roster construction.

“Do all D1 men’s lacrosse programs offer full scholarships now?”

No. The roster limit allows a covered program to fund up to 48 athletes, but it is a maximum, not a requirement, and partial scholarships are still allowed. Maryland coach John Tillman, quoted by USA Lacrosse magazine in August 2024, said he does not see teams carrying 48 scholarships. Ask each program what it funds.

“What if my son’s D1 program drops lacrosse?”

We won’t predict which programs might drop the sport. If your son has committed to a program that subsequently drops lacrosse, the transfer portal is the standard pathway to a new opportunity. See The Transfer Portal Explained.

“Should we be more open to D2 or D3 now?”

That’s your family’s call, and every division is worth understanding. Tampa men’s lacrosse coach J.B. Clarke, quoted by USA Lacrosse magazine in August 2024, said Division II and III are “in many instances safer in the Olympic sports than Division I.” Division III schools may not award aid on the basis of athletics (NCAA Division III Bylaw 15.01.3), so a D3 package is built from non-athletic aid; compare total net cost across offers.

“Are there walk-on or developmental opportunities for late-developing recruits?”

This depends on the specific program, and we don’t have data on how programs use their roster spots. Nothing in the NCAA rules ends recruiting in junior year, and programs outside Division I recruit under their own rules. Ask each coach how they handle players who are still developing.

Correction, October 9, 2026. Earlier versions of these answers said actual program funding “varies dramatically,” that “programs that previously carried 50-55 players may now cap at 48,” that “most athletes … likely will continue to receive partial rather than full scholarships,” that “a small number of D1 men’s lacrosse programs may eliminate the sport,” that “for many families” the answer to considering D2 or D3 “is yes,” and that late developers “often find better opportunities at D2, D3, NAIA, and NJCAA programs.” None of it had a source, and some of it told families what to choose. We rewrote the answers around the rules and the questions to ask.

Every recruit’s financial journey is different

No two men’s lacrosse families have the same scholarship experience under the post-House settlement framework. An offer might come from a D1 program funding more than the old cap allowed, a D3 school with academic and need-based aid, a D2 or NAIA program with a partial scholarship that combines with other aid, or an NJCAA program before a transfer. Use this guide as context to inform conversations with each program your son is considering. Ask direct questions about each program’s specific scholarship structure under the new framework. Evaluate offers based on total financial outcome rather than headline percentages.

House settlement implementation is still moving. This article reflects the 2025-26 academic year — the settlement’s first year. Program counts are the NCAA’s projected 2025-26 sport-sponsorship figures, as of September 2025 — the most recent the NCAA has published — verified on 2026-08-26; the NCAA notes that actual numbers may change. Verify current scholarship and roster limits at NCAA.org, check USA Lacrosse for coverage of lacrosse-specific implementation, and confirm what a specific program actually funds with its coaching staff. Roster-size figures come from RosterWise’s analysis of 2025-26 Division I men’s lacrosse rosters, computed 2026-08-26.