BILLINGS — The plan always was for the University of Montana to opt in to the House settlement — the landmark class-action antitrust lawsuit ushering sweeping changes to NCAA Division I athletics.
The Grizzlies just didn't intend to take the plunge for the 2025-26 academic year.
But Montana has since changed course, and last week officially joined the list of the reported 82% of D-I athletic departments agreeing to directly compensate student-athletes through revenue sharing, eliminate scholarship limits and institute roster ceilings for its 15 varsity sports.
In an interview with MTN Sports on Wednesday, Montana athletic director Kent Haslam confirmed UM's plans and said a late change to the settlement structure regarding roster limits is what swayed the Grizzlies to change their minds.
The terms of the settlement went into effect on Tuesday.
"The initial settlement had no provision for accommodating roster limits through what's now called 'designated student-athletes,'" Haslam explained. "But as it unfolded, there was an opportunity to preserve our (current) roster limits by grandfathering in your current squad sizes. That completely changed our mindset.
"Like a number of institutions, we reversed course and decided to opt in for '25-26 with this provision of managing your rosters, and being grandfathered in allows us to do that."
According to the settlement, which was officially approved on June 6 by U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken, the roster caps for certain sports are as follows: 105 for football, 15 for men's and women's basketball, 18 for volleyball, 28 for soccer, 25 for softball, 45 for track and field, etc.
But the Grizzlies, by virtue of being "grandfathered" into the agreement and having the ability to "designate" certain student-athletes, aren't required to comply with the NCAA's roster limits until those particular athletes filter out via graduation, eligibility exhaustion or by transferring or retiring.
In short, Montana isn't faced with the tough decision of having to cut athletes from its rosters.
"What it means by being 'designated' is you do not count them against the roster cap," Haslam said. "So a designated student-athlete in soccer, for example, if one of them is a senior, once she has expired her eligibility at the end of the season, then that designation is gone."
"The roster limit for football now is 105, and we are above that," Haslam continued. "So we will designate certain student-athletes that, as long as they are here and as long as they are competing and eligible, they won't count against our roster limit."
As for scholarship requirements, Montana and every other school that has opted in to the settlement can now provide full athletic financial aid to all athletes. (Note: The Big Sky Conference has instituted a 63-scholarship limit for its member football programs, retaining the status quo of previous years.)
Regarding the revenue sharing piece, athletic departments can now fundraise for and set an institutional budget as high as $20.5 million to directly compensate student-athletes. Montana and its ilk won't ever reach that lofty budget total, but the point is that the schools themselves can now share their athletic revenue with those most responsible for generating it.
The Good Ol' Grizzly Collective, which previously managed name, image and likeness for UM athletes, will still exist. But it can now operate in coordination with the athletic department and raise as much money as possible for athlete compensation.
Ultimately there's too much minutiae to comb through — if the aforementioned information isn't already too much — but Haslam believes it's all a good thing for the Griz.
"Everything surrounding the House settlement we were ready for," he said. "We were excited for everything around revenue sharing and scholarship and financial and how that's restructured.
"The hesitancy was around roster limits, and once that got resolved and we could make sure that we were ready to do it, we opted in."
Montana is just the latest among the low/mid-major/FCS athletic departments to do so. Montana State already announced its intention to opt in during the spring, and the likes of North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State — who were initially opting out — later changed their minds.
Underneath all of it, however, is the fact that dozens of Division I schools have cut non-revenue sports in an effort to remain competitive where the money is made. St. Francis (Pa.), which was an upset-seeker in a football game against the Grizzlies nine years ago, went so far as to drop from D-I to D-III in all sports due to financial constraints.
It's a concern. But it is not a problem affecting the Grizzlies right now, Haslam said.
"The reason is because, to be a division one institution, you must sponsor 14 sports. So that's your bare minimum. We sponsor 15," he said. "The most recent one we added was softball.
"We did that to keep ourselves compliant with Title IX. And so really there's no sport that we could cut right now, so we do not anticipate cutting any sports."
