NCAA Will Grant Spring Athletes Relief For Extra Year Of Eligibility

The NCAA will grant student-athletes on spring teams relief for an additional year of eligibility after canceling winter and spring championships over concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus.

"Council leadership agreed that eligibility relief is appropriate for all Division I student-athletes who participated in spring sports," the NCAA said in a statement. "Details of eligibility relief will be finalized at a later time. Additional issues with the NCAA rules must be addressed, and appropriate governance bodies will work through those in the coming days and weeks."

The announcement comes a day after the initial NCAA ruling, as well as the Big Ten's decision to cancel all sports for the rest of the academic year.

Iowa's spring teams were off to strong starts.

The baseball team was 10-5 after taking two games from Kansas earlier in the week. The softball team was 17-5. The men's and women's track and field teams had qualified in nine events for the NCAA indoor track and field championships. The men's golf team was coming off a sixth-place finish in the Colleton River Collegiate tournament in Bluffton, S.C. The women's golf team was coming off a second-place finish at the Entrada Classic in St. George, Utah.

Iowa's men's tennis team was ranked 20th in the ITA Division I national rankings, the highest ranking in program history. The women's tennis team was 6-6. The women's rowing team was ranked 13th nationally and was getting ready to open its spring schedule.

A look at some of the seniors who would get one more season:

Baseball: The Hawkeyes have 10 seniors, including outfielder-first baseman Zeb Adreon (.333), catcher Austin Martin (.277), infielder Matthew Sosa (.316) and pitcher Grant Judkins (2-0, 3.00 ERA).

Softball: It's a young team, with only six seniors. One of those is pitcher Allison Doocy, who is 7-2 with a 1.54 earned run average this season. She had 102 strikeouts in 68 1/3 innings. Outfielder Haven Monteer was batting .324.

Men's golf: Alex Schaake was a preseason third-team All-American and was the Big Ten's men's golfer of the year last year.

Women's tennis: Elise van Heuvelen Treadwell is a three-time All-Big Ten player.

Men's tennis: Kareem Allaf was 20-7 this season.

Track and field: Eight of the Hawkeyes who would have been going to the NCAA indoor championships were seniors. Will Daniels was the 2019 USTFCCCA Central Region Field Athlete of the Year in indoor competition and was the 2018 NCAA indoor heptathlon champion. Laulauga Tausaga is ranked No. 2 nationally in the shot put in indoor competition. Jaylan McConico was No. 2 in the 60-meter hurdles. Jenny Kimbro was fourth in the pentathlon. Mallory King was the anchor on the 3,200-meter relay team that finished second at the Drake Relays last season.

Oh, and there's senior Allison Wahrman, who started a petition to get the NCAA to grant seniors an additional year of eligibility.

Rowing: Three seniors were returning All-Americans — Hannah Greenlee, Hunter Koenigsfeld and Contessa Harold.