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* Roster increased for 2021 season. Basically, returning seniors won't count against the 35/27 roster limit.



Division I Council extends eligibility for student-athletes impacted by COVID-19

Schools can authorize an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility


March 30, 2020 6:50pm Michelle Brutlag Hosick

The Division I Council on Monday voted to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility.

Members also adjusted financial aid rules to allow teams to carry more members on scholarship to account for incoming recruits and student-athletes who had been in their last year of eligibility who decide to stay. In a nod to the financial uncertainty faced by higher education, the Council vote also provided schools with the flexibility to give students the opportunity to return for 2020-21 without requiring that athletics aid be provided at the same level awarded for 2019-20. This flexibility applies only to student-athletes who would have exhausted eligibility in 2019-20.

Schools also will have the ability to use the NCAA’s Student Assistance Fund to pay for scholarships for students who take advantage of the additional eligibility flexibility in 2020-21.

Division I rules limit student-athletes to four seasons of competition in a five-year period. The Council’s decision allows schools to self-apply waivers to restore one of those seasons of competition for student-athletes who had competed while eligible in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 spring season

The Council also will allow schools to self-apply a one-year extension of eligibility for spring-sport student-athletes, effectively extending each student’s five-year “clock” by a year. This decision was especially important for student-athletes who had reached the end of their five-year clock in 2020 and saw their seasons end abruptly.

“The Council’s decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Penn. “The Board of Governors encouraged conferences and schools to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and their communities, and now schools have the opportunity to do that.”

Winter sports were not included in the decision. Council members declined to extend eligibility for student-athletes in sports where all or much of their regular seasons were completed.

The Council also increased the roster limit in baseball for student-athletes impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the only spring sport with such a limit.
 
I wonder how your 2020-21 freshmen will feel about this. They are essentially going to be losing a year, too, walking into a situation where there's 4 years of classes ahead of them on the roster. And then the 2021-22 class after that, and then 2022-23, and so on.

Got to end somewhere.
 
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I wonder how your 2020-21 freshmen will feel about this. They are essentially going to be losing a year, too, walking into a situation where there's 4 years of classes ahead of them on the roster. And then the 2021-22 class after that, and then 2022-23, and so on.

Got to end somewhere.
That's a fair point. Actually, I wouldn't be as concerned about next year's freshmen... It's this year's juniors that are getting the raw end of the deal. You're giving the 2020 seniors their senior year back, but taking it from the 2021 seniors.

(Edit: never mind. Sounds like everyone currently eligible for this season will get the option.)
 
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At some point, the extra money it will take to maintain the larger rosters will reset the numbers back to the original at most institutions.
 



Wonder how many kids will take advantage of this. Spring sports are partial scholarship sports and with redshirt years included not sure if its in the best interest of most kids to stick around for a 6th year of college. My son is a scholarship baseball player but still borrows some money to go to school. He has 7 teammates that were seniors at a D2 state school and thinks only 1 could be back. Most of them have jobs waiting or are graduating and another year of college doesn't make sense.

Also keep in mind that many of the D2 programs arent fully funded, so even if they NCAA allows 9.5 scholarships at that level their athletic departments budget allows for less then that. This may or not be true at the D1 level, I am not sure.
 
I wonder how your 2020-21 freshmen will feel about this. They are essentially going to be losing a year, too, walking into a situation where there's 4 years of classes ahead of them on the roster. And then the 2021-22 class after that, and then 2022-23, and so on.

Got to end somewhere.

I don't know about freshmen, as they aren't always the ones lining up to play right away. The junior college kid brought in to fill a graduating senior's position is one that's really getting the shaft.
 
Wonder how many kids will take advantage of this. Spring sports are partial scholarship sports and with redshirt years included not sure if its in the best interest of most kids to stick around for a 6th year of college. My son is a scholarship baseball player but still borrows some money to go to school. He has 7 teammates that were seniors at a D2 state school and thinks only 1 could be back. Most of them have jobs waiting or are graduating and another year of college doesn't make sense.

Also keep in mind that many of the D2 programs arent fully funded, so even if they NCAA allows 9.5 scholarships at that level their athletic departments budget allows for less then that. This may or not be true at the D1 level, I am not sure.

Most D1s are operating primarily on student taxes. If that tax base doesn’t increase, they likely can’t/won’t fund scholarships for an extra year. Most schools will be doing good just to maintain status quo.
 
I don't know about freshmen, as they aren't always the ones lining up to play right away. The junior college kid brought in to fill a graduating senior's position is one that's really getting the shaft.

Not really for a couple reasons:

1) JUCO players get an extra year as well.
2) JUCO player could be better option than the senior.

It'll be interesting to see how coach Bolt handles this.
 



Not really for a couple reasons:

1) JUCO players get an extra year as well.
2) JUCO player could be better option than the senior.

It'll be interesting to see how coach Bolt handles this.

You're right, I was thinking of it mostly incorrectly. With everyone getting a year, maybe the freshmen are more at a disadvantage. Any JC guy brought in to take over for a departing senior could end up in a bad situation - sitting the majority of the year instead of playing - but that's probably a small group. I was thinking if you're brought in to take over for a stud, not to replace a normal player. Many may even return to JC for an additional year. It'll be a headache for a lot of coaches for several years.
 
Wonder how many kids will take advantage of this. Spring sports are partial scholarship sports and with redshirt years included not sure if its in the best interest of most kids to stick around for a 6th year of college. My son is a scholarship baseball player but still borrows some money to go to school. He has 7 teammates that were seniors at a D2 state school and thinks only 1 could be back. Most of them have jobs waiting or are graduating and another year of college doesn't make sense.
Haven't seen much new on this but if a kid is a senior this year and gets drafted, has a degree in hand, he's likely to sign and go play pro baseball (or turn it down and go to work). If he hasn't been drafted up to this point and isn't picked up in June, has a degree in hand, its probably time to make the call that your baseball career is over and move on.

I would expect most (maybe not all) who were seniors this year to move on one way or another.
 
Looks like five of the six years of this year's senior class plan to come back

center fielder Joe Acker
left fielder Mojo Hagge
catcher Luke Roskam
first baseman Ty Roseberry
left-hander Gareth Stroh

Ben Klenke will not be returning


 





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