NCAA Proposes Additional Eligibility To Spring Athletes

The NCAA took unprecedented steps yesterday when it cancelled championships for all spring and winter sports. Multiple conferences have also postponed, and in some cases, cancelled spring sports.

In response, the NCAA has done the right thing and proposed legislation for an additional year of eligibility to all spring athletes.

Division I Council Coordination Committee agrees eligibility relief is appropriate for spring sports: pic.twitter.com/u7hwYOyTDV
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) March 13, 2020

As the statement makes clear, the specifics of this will be revealed at a later time.

One issue that will have to be addressed is roster/scholarship numbers in those sports. The NCAA will have to look at possibly expanding rosters and scholarship numbers, as many teams have already received commitments and/or have signed players for next season with the thinking certainly athletes would be gone.

In many spring sports they don't hand out full scholarships. Instead, they have a certain amount of money to give to players. Will that need to be expanded for the same reasons I just discussed? Does that mean the NCAA making changes, the leagues, or individual schools devoting more scholarship money.

This isn't just an easy "one more year" decision, it will requite a great deal of nuance.

For Notre Dame, this includes the baseball, softball, lacrosse (men's and women's), outdoor track and rowing. I am not yet sure how this impacts sports like tennis and fencing, whose seasons are quite different and were also impacted by the cancelations.

There will likely continue to be a push for winter athletes whose seasons had yet to conclude. I doubt the winter sports programs are just going to take this without pushing for assistance with their sports as well.