NCAA Grants Extra Eligibility For Spring Athletes
The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all student-athletes participating in spring sports this year.
Those athletes, in everything from baseball and softball to men's and women's lacrosse, had the majority of their seasons wiped out when sports shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Athletes will get an extra year, meaning that seniors can return to school next year for another season. As S.I. writer Pat Forde points out, the implementation is more complicated than it may appear on the surface.
Most teams recruited with the expectation of losing those seniors, meaning that rosters will be top heavy with experienced talent, possibly limiting playing time opportunities for incoming freshmen.
Everything from meal planning to travel rosters will need to be decided as the sports cope with another impact of the pandemic.
Athletes in winter sports, who were about to embark on their season-ending championships, were not granted the same career extensions as those in spring sports.
Many teams had already ended their seasons, after being eliminated in conference tournaments. Even those athletes who would have participated in March Madness would have had only a handful of games remaining in their seasons.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski released a video before the NCAA made its decision, pointing out that "80 percent" of teams had finished their seasons. Coach K called for the NCAA to extend careers for spring athletes and then "look at" doing something for winter sports, but he seemed to be setting expectations for players and fans that an extension wasn't coming and there were people going through much tougher things than simply losing the end of their season.
