The only maximum is 25 scholarships a year. Dozens of team have more than 25 Letters of Intent signed but due to players not making it because of grades, players enrolling early, and greyshirting they make the 25 scholarship limit in the fall. For example Miami signed 30+ in February but 6 enrolled early and back counted to their previous year where they had room to spare.
Trying to figure out how many guys a program can take in is next to impossible because we never know all of the things that effect the numbers. Some kids can be back counted if they enroll in December/Jan, but only if that program did not have 85 guys on scholarship in September/Aug and only if they did not reach the maximum limit of 25 new scholarships for that period. Add to that transfers, injured players staying in school but not staying on a football scholarship, academic casualties, etc. and it is pretty much impossible for someone without inside info to figure out exactly how many a team can take. Then of course coaches plan on some of the signees not making it in school and grayshirting or going the juco route and we don't always know which ones are going to do that either.
And veteran players quit football or transfer every off season, two already in the last month. We never really know if the players was unhappy here due to low PT or if the coach encouraged them to find some greener pastures because he needed room under the 85 limit for some younger, more promising prospects.
