LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

Does anyone know of any roster limitations on how many people can dress in NCAA or MDIA lacrosse? I go to a tiny D2 school (do not play however) and the roster has 47 guys on it, with the coaches intending on keeping everyone. I thought there were some limitations to roster depth, and more importantly, who would want to be on that team? No PT at all.

KerrLax wrote:Does anyone know of any roster limitations on how many people can dress in NCAA or MDIA lacrosse? I go to a tiny D2 school (do not play however) and the roster has 47 guys on it, with the coaches intending on keeping everyone. I thought there were some limitations to roster depth, and more importantly, who would want to be on that team? No PT at all.

The NCAA men's lacrosse rulebook does not address roster size -- Only # of players on the field at any given time.

The Ivy League limits game day rosters to 35. They can have more on the team but only 35 can dress for games. No limit from the NCAA. At Illinois, we have 45 on the roster but could have kept more if we wanted.

This is similar to eligibility issues: no mention in the rulebook, but covered--if at all--in league bylaws or other league rules.

BTW, speaking of bloated rosters, Nebraska football used to dress 90 players for road games. I'm not sure what they do these days.

At Michigan State, we are going to carry between 40 and 45. Most high school players find this a huge roster, but esentially we do not have a "JV" so we have to carry our development players on the roster.

Any more that 45 and we have trouble getting busses big enough for them.

mholtz wrote:Any more that 45 and we have trouble getting busses big enough for them.

Yep... For those that travel on the road in charter buses, 45 seems to be the magic number. It's the max you can fit on one bus after you add in a few coaches, team managers, etc.

LaxRef wrote:This is similar to eligibility issues: no mention in the rulebook, but covered--if at all--in league bylaws or other league rules.

BTW, speaking of bloated rosters, Nebraska football used to dress 90 players for road games. I'm not sure what they do these days.

There was a time in the 70's when Dorsett was at Pitt that Pitt had 120 on scholarship.

For teams with such large rosters, how do the bottom 10-15 players deal with the fact that they are most likely never going to touch the field? I can't imagine shelling out the amount of money it costs to play today knowing that I would only be a spectator. When I was playing, I think our largest roster was 21 or 22 players. We would have liked a few more, but 45 seems a little much...

We cut to 40 - max. The bottom guys are working toward future playing time. We've never had a problem with them leaving. There's enough competition just to make the team that they value the opportunity. Plus, we only keep guys who have a real potential to contribute eventually. If we keep someone as a freshman project, and in the fall of their sophomore year they haven't improved enough to show the potential to contribute, we don't keep them. Cold, but our team has embraced this process.

They make charter buses that seat up to 56. Standard sizes are 45, 47, 53, 55 and 56. Most larger bus companies have a few of the really big ones if you need them.

BTW, speaking of bloated rosters, Nebraska football used to dress 90 players for road games. I'm not sure what they do these days.[/quote]


There is now an NCAA rule that you can only bring a certian amount of players on the road, i think the number is 53 but im not totally sure, either way its around that number. And also when they brought 90 guys on the road they were also all on scholarships, every D1 football program is limited to 85 becuase of title IX

Most D3 teams and I am saying most not all travel around 30.

At Lindenwood, they have added a JV team this year. The JV team will play exhibition games, but will not be eligible for playoffs/awards/etc. This allows a better outlet to develop the player, instead of cutting them, or having them ride the bench.

Current BYU roster lists 39 players and I know they expected 60-70 for tryouts...

Oregon used to try and have their developmental team play a B division schedule.

Coach Paul- Do they get their money back?!