How NCAA Track & Field Recruiting Changed: 2021 to Today

TL;DR

In five years, NCAA track and field and cross country recruiting changed more than it had in the previous thirty. Name, image and likeness made athletes paid commodities. The transfer portal turned roster-building into a free market. The NCAA dropped its standardized testing requirement. The House settlement capped Division 1 rosters while removing scholarship limits. And a proposed five-in-five eligibility model could reset the clock for everyone. Here are the impacts of each change, in order, and what they mean for a recruit today.

A high school athlete who started getting recruited in 2021 was playing a different game, administratively, than one getting recruited in 2026. The objective hasn't changed, but everything around them has.

Five rule changes have stacked on top of each other over five years, each one rewiring some part of how college programs build rosters and allocate scholarships. Most families never got a clean explanation of any of them, let alone all five together. This is that explanation.

We will go in order because each change set up the next one.

1. Name, image and likeness (2021)

In July 2021, the NCAA began letting athletes earn money from their name, image and likeness. The shift came as a wave of state laws took effect and just after the Supreme Court's NCAA v. Alston ruling laid bare how vulnerable the NCAA's amateurism model had become.

For the first time, a college athlete could sign an endorsement, run a paid camp, or get paid for a social post without losing eligibility.

For football and basketball, the money was immediate and enormous. For track and field and cross country, NIL mattered less directly and more as the first domino. It established the principle that athletes were assets with market value, and it pointed money toward the sports that generate revenue. Everything that followed, the portal economy and the scholarship restructuring especially, traces back to that shift in how college sports thinks about athletes and dollars.

What NIL meant for a track and field recruit:

NIL didn't mean much, at first. But it started the clock on everything else.

2. The transfer portal goes wide (2021 onward)

The transfer portal existed before 2021, but a string of rule changes blew it wide open. Athletes could transfer once without sitting out a year, and the friction that used to keep rosters relatively stable mostly disappeared.

For track and field, this was the change families felt first. A coach with a roster spot and scholarship money now had a choice: recruit a high school athlete who might develop over two or three years, or bring in a proven college performer from a Division II, U SPORTS, NAIA, or non-Power Division I program who can score next season. More and more, coaches chose the proven option.

That is the squeeze. Every roster spot filled by a transfer is a spot not offered to a high schooler. The portal did not just add a recruiting channel. It started competing directly with high school recruiting for the same finite spots.

What transfer portal changes meant for a track and field recruit:

The bar for getting recruited out of high school went up. You are now competing against college athletes with college results.

3. Standardized testing requirements disappeared (2023)

For decades, a high school athlete's path into Division I or Division II relied partly on a standardized test score. The NCAA used a sliding scale, weighing your SAT or ACT result against your GPA to decide whether you qualified.

That is gone. The NCAA waived testing during the pandemic in 2020, then made the change permanent at its January 2023 Convention, effective for athletes enrolling in 2023-24. Today, a D1 athlete qualifies academically by earning a 2.3 core-course GPA across 16 approved core courses, with no test score required for eligibility at all. We cover what the tests still involve, who should take them anyway, and how to prepare in a dedicated guide: Navigating the SAT and ACT for Student-Athletes.

An important note some families miss: The NCAA dropping the requirement does not mean your target school dropped it. NCAA eligibility and college admissions are two separate gates. An athlete has to clear both. A program's own admissions office may still want an SAT or ACT score, and a number of selective schools have reinstated testing for their applicants even as the NCAA stepped away from it. You can be NCAA-eligible and still fall short of a specific school's admissions bar.

There are test-required, test-optional, and test-blind schools. If an SAT or ACT score is required, you cannot apply without it. At test-optional institutions, your SAT or ACT score can support your application; a strong test score can boost your chances of admission. Test-blind schools will not consider an SAT or ACT score as part of your college application.

What standardized testing changes meant for a track and field recruit:

There's one fewer hurdle to compete in the NCAA, but not a free pass. If you are targeting academically selective programs, check whether the school itself still needs a test score or if an optional test score could help you. If you're unsure and have time to prepare for and write an SAT or ACT exam, it's still recommended.

4. The House settlement (2025)

This is a big one.

In June 2025, the House v. NCAA settlement was approved, taking effect July 1, 2025. It did two things at once that pull in opposite directions. It eliminated the old sport-specific scholarship limits, so a D1 program can now put a scholarship on every athlete on its roster. And it capped roster sizes, so those rosters got smaller.

For track and field, the new cap is 45 athletes. For cross country, 17. The SEC went further on the men's side, capping men's track at 35 and men's cross country at 10. We break down exactly which programs are affected, the before-and-after numbers, and what it means for recruits and transfers in a dedicated article: How NCAA Roster and Scholarship Rules Changed in 2025.

These caps apply only to Division I programs. No D2 or D3 program has the same restriction on their roster sizes. Division II teams still have the same equivalency-based athletic scholarship structure and Division III teams still do not offer athletic funding (academic only).

However, teams in D2, D3, NAIA, U SPORTS, and even the NJCAA, have all felt the trickle-down effects.

An important note that recruits and parents often miss: A Division I program opting into the settlement does not mean it has an unlimited scholarship budget. The NCAA now lets schools fund as many scholarships as they want, but it didn't hand athletic departments the money to do it. Plenty of D1 track programs now carry a roster limit of 45 and the same department-set budget they had under the old equivalency model, where a capped pool of scholarship money got split into partial awards across the roster however the coaching staff chose.

What capped rosters and uncapped athletic scholarships meant for a track and field recruit:

At the D1 level, and especially within the Power Four conferences, there were immediately fewer total roster spots and fewer developmental opportunities, especially for true freshmen. Coaches began to favor athletes with the highest potential to score right away.

5. The proposed five-in-five eligibility model (pending, 2026)

This section covers a proposal under active consideration. It has not passed. Last updated June 2026; we will update it when the Division I Cabinet votes.

The newest change is not yet a change. The NCAA Division I Cabinet is considering an age-based eligibility model, commonly called "five-in-five" or "5-in-5," that would give athletes five years of competition within a five-year window, as opposed to four years of eligibility under a more flexible clock. As of June 2026, a vote is expected at the Cabinet's June meetings, though the timeline has moved before and could move again.

What five-in-five would mean for a track and field recruit

Early versions of the proposal started the eligibility clock at high school graduation or an athlete's 19th birthday, whichever came first.

The current version starts the clock at initial full-time college enrollment or the academic year following the athlete's 19th birthday, whichever comes first. The model would also eliminate most redshirts and waivers, with narrow exceptions.

A tighter, age-based clock changes how programs value incoming high school athletes versus older transfers. If five-in-five passes, some of the value the portal pulled toward proven older athletes could swing back toward true incoming freshmen, who would have a full, clean five-year window. A crunch in one direction can become a reset in another.

For international athletes, including Canadians, an age-based window can be especially consequential, since athletes who take a gap year, repeat a grade, or enroll later may find their clock starts ticking before they ever set foot on a campus.

What all of this means for recruiting today

Put the five changes together and you get the situation families face.

The transfer portal and the House caps tightened the top of Division I and pushed coaches toward proven, immediate-impact athletes. NIL pointed the sport's money toward revenue programs. Five-in-five, if it passes, may tighten eligibility while quietly making clean-timeline high schoolers more attractive again.

None of that means the opportunities are gone. It means they moved, and the old map no longer matches the territory. A few things have not changed:

• There are more than 1,700 post-secondary institutions offering track and field or cross country across the NCAA, NAIA, U SPORTS, and junior college ranks. The roster spots exist.
• Track and field and cross country operate on verified data. Fast times, far throws, and big leaps will be rewarded. How, when, and where are the variables that have changed, are changing, and will continue to change.

The job for a recruit is no longer learning a fixed set of rules. It is understanding a landscape that keeps moving, and building a target list based on where you could best fit: academically, athletically, by location, and by what your family can afford.

Get 1:1 expert guidance for your recruiting process

These changes are still unfolding, and the programs reacting to them are reacting in real time. That is exactly why a results page or a standards chart can only take a family so far. Knowing whether a specific program has the spot, the money, and a coach who recruits the way you need is a moving target, and it is different for every athlete.

That is the work we do at Streamline Athletes every day. If your family wants help turning all of this into a recruiting plan built around where you fit, book a recruitment advising session with me.

FAQ

What is the biggest recent change to NCAA track and field recruiting?

The House v. NCAA settlement, effective July 2025, capped Division I roster sizes while removing the old scholarship limits. It is the change with the most direct impact on how many high school athletes Division I programs can recruit.

What is the "five-in-five" rule?

It is a proposed NCAA eligibility model that would give athletes five seasons of competition within a five-year window, with the clock starting at initial full-time college enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever comes first. As of June 2026, it has not passed and is awaiting a Division I Cabinet vote.

How does the transfer portal affect high school recruits?

It increases competition for roster spots. Coaches can fill a spot with a proven college transfer instead of a high school athlete who needs time to develop, which raises the bar for getting recruited directly out of high school, especially at the Power Four level.

Do I still need the SAT or ACT to play NCAA sports?

A standardized test score is not required for NCAA eligibility. The NCAA permanently removed the standardized test requirement in 2023; Division I and Division II eligibility is now based on GPA and core courses. Individual colleges may still require a test score for admission, and some selective schools have reinstated testing for applicants, so check each school's own admissions requirements.

Are there still scholarship opportunities in NCAA track and field?

Yes. The House settlement removed scholarship caps for Division I programs. There are also full and partial scholarship opportunities across Division II, NAIA, and other collegiate athletic associations.

Did NIL change recruiting for track and field athletes?

Indirectly. NIL had the largest direct effect on revenue sports like football and basketball. For track and field, it mattered most as the first step in a broader shift toward treating athletes as assets with market value, which set up the changes that followed.