What Clark Lea Said About the NCAA Five-for-Five Eligibility Rule and the Class of 2022 Ruling

Despite it being the offseason for college sports games, it has not been a quiet offseason for college athletics news.

In late June, the NCAA created the Five-for-Five eligibility rule, which states that all student athletes have five years of college eligibility with the clock beginning after an athlete turns 19 years of age, or at the beginning of the athlete’s first academic year if he or she turns 19 after Sept. 1.

The rule that was enacted earlier this summer provides clarity in terms of roster makeup and possible roster decisions. In other words, teams will no longer have to track players with redshirts. Players will be designated as a “first year,” “second year,” “third year,” “fourth year” or “fifth year” athlete.

Vanderbilt football head coach Clark Lea spoke publicly in favor of the ruling for the first time Tuesday in his pre-fall camp press conference.

“Well I love it for this reason: I now can list the roster as year one, year two, year three…I mean, that is way cleaner than redshirt. Trying to figure out eligibility for the past few years has been really challenging,” Lea said.

The fog that was cleared from the Five-for-Five rule also eliminates the headache that teams have to go through in terms of strategizing when to play their redshirt players. Instead of figuring out which four games the redshirts would get to participate in, coaching staffs now get to play whoever they want without “burning” a player’s redshirt.

If a young player that has ability to impact, but was redshirted, that player would not get as much opportunity to see the field as he or she would with the new eligibility rule. Lea – and presumably other college coaches – are in favor of the Five-for-Five rule for that reason. Not only is there clarity, but a lot of stress no longer exists.

“It opens up the opportunity, especially with roster limits, to have access to your entire roster. The dilemma in the past has been the four-game threshold and where do you use those games. How do you best work in service of the mission, but understand the constraints that it puts on the student athlete if they’re participating in the fifth game,” Lea said. “So, I think it is a way cleaner approach and I think it gives us a chance to not put limitations on the impact freshmen can have.”

But there is more eligibility news that has made its way into college athletics recently.

Last week, a Colorado judge ruled that all student athletes from the 2022 class have a fifth year of eligibility. It has paved the way for senior student athletes that graduated this past academic year to come back for a fifth and final collegiate season, though the eligibility of those players is subject to change depending on what the NCAA determines.

The focus of Lea and his coaching staff has been on fall camp, however, Vanderbilt is always open to bringing players back and finding ways to improve the roster, but that does not seem to be the main discussion within the program.

Lea did mention that the roster does have some space and also made sure to note that there would not be anybody cut to make space for a player should something come up.

“We have room. We don’t have unlimited room. And I would not think about cutting a player to add room. This is our team. If we can enhance it with the space we have, great. We’re somewhere in the ballpark of 115 players, but it’s a big room,” Lea said.

What truly ends up happening to a fifth year of eligbiliity to the 2022 class is up in the air. Lea and his program is not too worried about it. They are focused on continue the build on the history they made in 2025.

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