Colt Brennan, Ashley Lelie, Chad Owens and Rich Miano began their University of Hawaii football careers as walk-ons who paid for their own tuition, meals and school expenses and eventually reached the NFL.

In a sport allotting the equivalent of 4.5 scholarships — 2.5 short of a starting lineup — the UH men’s volleyball team won two national titles.

The NCAA limits baseball teams to the equivalent of 11.7 scholarships. Coach Rich Hill often uses at least 12 players by the fourth inning.

But all that will change with the expected approval to set roster limits and increase scholarship distributions. When a federal judge signs off on the measure this week, NCAA Division I teams — if they choose — may disperse more scholarships to more players. The rule would go into effect beginning with the 2025-26 academic year.

The proposal calls for changes to many sports’ roster limits. Baseball teams would be allowed to offer full rides to all 34 players on the 2026 roster. Last season’s UH team had 40 players, with the value of 11.7 scholarships spread among 32 players. Under the measure, the ’Bows could award up to 34 scholarships, dispersing full, partial or a combination of both.

“It allows us to go as high as we can,” Hill said. “It’ll allow us to offer bigger scholarships and more of them. I see it as a super positive for us and the Big West.”

Football currently is limited to offering 85 scholarships. There are 123 players on this season’s UH roster. Under the proposal, next year’s football scholarship and roster limit will be set at 105. With all sports becoming “equivalency” programs — scholarships can be full or partial — a football team can decide how to distribute the 20 additional awards.

Hawaii athletic director Craig Angelos said: “The question is: how is everybody, even the power four, going to navigate this?”

UH men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade anticipated the NCAA moving toward a hard roster limit. Through the 2023 season, the Warriors’ roster averaged 20 players, with as many as 24. Last year, Wade reduced the roster to 18 — the proposed limit for the 2025 season.

“There are schools with way more than that (this coming season),” Wade said. “I’ve got guys calling me all summer saying, ‘Hey, I want to transfer (to UH).’”

But with the expected roster reduction and the talented incoming recruiting class, Wade told them: “I’m not loading up my roster if I’m going to have to cut you (in a year).” Wade added: “And they never heard of this. I said, it’s coming, and it’s coming quicker quicker than you would think, and as early as this summer. And here we are.”

UH’s football, men’s basketball, women’s and men’s volleyball, and baseball programs are considered profitable sports when factoring all revenue streams. With a full ride valued at about $40,000, UH would be able to cover the additional 62.8 scholarships for those sports. It also would be manageable for teams from the power-four conferences, which also cover players’ expenses — even walk-ons’ — through name, image and likeness deals.

But with an NCAA settlement asking schools to share up to $22 million of revenue with student-athletes, there are concerns about the future status of an athletic department’s Olympic sports. Will a school drop a non-revenue team because it cannot keep up with more financially invested counterparts? Will a school reallocate scholarship money from one program to subsidize another? Will the power-four football teams become more powerful, using the extra scholarships to lure more transfers.

“It’s going to start to define who’s committed and who’s going to have a hard time,” Hill said. “The great thing about baseball, other than any sport I can think of, it really doesn’t matter. The margin between a full scholarship guy and a half-million-dollar NIL guy is not that much between the next guy. There are always developing guys so late in the sport of baseball. It just makes it a lot of fun. (In pro baseball) a huge payroll doesn’t guarantee success. Sometimes those teams finish in last place and sometimes a team like the Oakland A’s finishes in first place. That’s what makes it fun.”

For a sport like men’s volleyball, Wade said the proposed 18-player limit would deprive opportunities to some developing players.

“Eighteen is a whole different world for the teams that always loaded up with 20 something,” Wade said. “And part of their success is sheer numbers. The old adage ‘nobody ever beats you from your bench,’ where you can just stockpile guys because you’ve got the logo people like, how many of those guys — 19 through 24 — will never walk into your gym? It’s just not going to happen. It’ll be interesting.”