The landscape of college sports was forever changed when name, image and likeness rules were put in place. For the first time ever, athletes could earn money by signing sponsorship deals with companies.

The NIL era has been crazy, as players regularly hit the transfer portal to seek as much money as possible. This has led some of the country’s top coaches to choose to retire instead of adapting to the new rules.

Even if the Mike Krzyzewskis of the world had the choice to retire, some coaches fear their jobs could be in jeopardy because of budget cuts.

A new legal regulation being developed would allow universities to share revenue with athletes for the first time. This appears to benefit all sports, but 95 percent of the backlog that would come from the settlement is expected to go to football and men’s and women’s basketball.

If budgets are to be reduced, it will not be to the detriment of higher revenue sports. Instead, it could be Olympic sports, like track and field and cross-country, that are about to take a hit.

Existing might be a challenge in some schools. It’s a fear that USA Track & Field CEO Max Siegel and the organization’s president, Vin Lananna, expressed in a letter the day the settlement was filed.

“The threat of potential cuts to the NCAA looms darkly over sports like track and field, which has the strongest high school and college programs in the world,” reads the letter, obtained by The world of runners. “The ability to compete at the collegiate level in programs as high a caliber as those in the United States has undoubtedly led to USA Track & Field’s historic and unprecedented success on the world stage.”

While also serving as the director of athletics and cross country at the University of Virginia, Lananna believes this is a pressing issue.

“Anyone who thinks these changes won’t be dramatic is not paying attention,” he said in a phone call with World of runners.

The roster limits that are put in place seem like a good thing when you first look at them. The increase in the number of scholarships to be offered is certainly a benefit for athletes looking to earn a spot.

But it is not obligatory to use the 45 places per gender for athletics and the 17 for cross-country. A majority of coaches believe their schools will be well below those numbers because there will be less money for smaller, non-revenue-generating sports.

“(The regulation) has some implications for what we’re doing right now,” said Ed Eyestone, men’s cross country coach at BYU. “When we’re in the middle of recruiting, it’s difficult to make (scholarship) offers to individuals without knowing exactly what those numbers are going to look like. »

Roster limits are something that everyone considers a fair way to go. But schools will have the authority to determine the number of players on the sports roster.

Having to follow the rules of Title IX, an equal opportunity for men and women, if the football team’s roster is maxed out at 105, these cuts must come from somewhere in men’s sports.

As shared by Théo Kahler on World of runnersthere are fears that men’s athletic programs could be eliminated altogether.

“Some coaches are concerned that roster sizes in the men’s track and field and cross country programs, in particular, could be reduced. Or entire teams could be cut. Meanwhile, women’s programs could expand, to offset increased scholarships in men’s sports like football or baseball.

A saving grace for people who currently coach or participate in Olympic sports is the number of sports required to be a Division 1 school, which is 14. To participate in the Football Bowl Subdivision, you must have 16.

This should help maintain programs at some schools, but Sam Seemes, USTFCCCA CEO and former coach of LSUbelieves that universities could begin to push for this number to be reduced if the regulation were adopted.

This could potentially be seen as the beginning of the end for sports such as track and field and cross country, as they would be at the top of the list of sports to be cut.