Clark Lea would be open to adding a player to the Vanderbilt football roster after a recent court ruling, but there are complications.
A Colorado court ruling granted a fifth year to all players who were part of the high school class of 2022 who were 23 or younger, completed four seasons without using a redshirt and did not sign a professional contract.
However, that ruling, for now, did not allow an extra transfer window for those players and said that the players would still count against the roster limits. This means these players can only transfer if they previously went in the portal during the January window, otherwise they can only return to their previous school.
The only fourth-year senior who was on Vanderbilt's 2025 roster who did not
redshirt was Langston Patterson, but Patterson was not made eligible by this ruling because he signed an undrafted free agent deal with the Dallas Cowboys and is currently in their training camp.
"I had conversations with our coordinators about where our needs are, what we'd be looking for," Lea said Aug. 4. "There's still some things that need to be settled, who's covered in the ruling. ... There's a lot of restrictions involved in that so we just have to let that sort, but in the meantime, we can prepare for different approaches depending on what's available to us."
Vanderbilt already has 115 players on its roster, which is over the roster limit of 105. However, the Designated Student Athlete rule allows teams to be over the roster limit with certain players who would have otherwise been cut once the roster limits were implemented. DSAs are players who were on a roster during the 2024-25 season or who were committed as part of the class of 2025 who were cut or would have been cut from a roster due to the roster limits being implemented.
Lea said that the Commodores do have a few roster spots open if an opportunity presents itself, but he will not cut anyone to add a player.
"We have room," Lea said. "We don't have unlimited room, and I would not think about cutting a player to add room. So this is our team. If we can enhance it with the space we have, great."
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Will Vanderbilt football add players to roster after court ruling? What Clark Lea said
