After considering the action last year once the NCAA Tournament among other winter and spring sports were cut short, the NCAA has decided to award all Division One athletes an extra year of eligibility. With the uncertainty of how the season will play out because of Covid-19, the NCAA decided this would be best. The vote took place today with the Division One Council approving the decision.
The rule has previously already been approved for fall and spring athletes with their seasons currently having been affected. The spring athletes from last year had nearly their entire season canceled after only participating in a handful of events before things were shut down in mid-March.
Division 1 Council voted today in favor of winter athletes receiving additional year of eligibility, source told @Stadium.
There wasn’t discussion around roster size, but source said “those who exhausted eligibility will be exempted from counting against 13 scholarship limit.” https://t.co/Gp7mb6722T
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) October 14, 2020
The rule will allow seniors to come back next year and be exempt from the scholarship limit. For basketball specifically, it allows for teams to carry more than the 13 scholarships usually allotted for the 2021-2022 season. It will be interesting to watch who among power five seniors decide to return to play or how they navigate the grad transfer aspect of college basketball. This rule may also be huge for mid-major teams who traditionally have their best seasons with senior-laden rosters. Could be entirely possible you see some of those teams play with two groups of senior classes and really do something special. Keeping track of the ramifications of this will be incredibly fascinating.
