While it moves forward with a plan for all college athletes to be granted five years of eligibility, the NCAA appears intent on such a rule not applying to competitors who exhaust their eligibility under the current rules in 2025-26.
The Division I Board of Directors on Monday directed the Division I Cabinet to advance an age-based eligibility concept that, if adopted in its current form, would permit student-athletes up to five years of eligibility beginning the regular academic year after they turn 19 or graduate from high school, whichever happens earlier.
Under that model, Division I student-athletes would no longer be limited to only four seasons of competition within their five-year eligibility window.
The board is expressing support to maintain existing rules — allowing four seasons of competition in five years of eligibility — for student-athletes competing in the 2025-26 academic year; new rules are not expected to retroactively apply to student-athletes whose eligibility is or will be completed by the spring of 2026.
This latter update is significant news for college coaches, who have been attempting to complete rosters while wrestling with the concept of players previously thought to be out of eligibility returning to college.
The proposed rule would mark the end of redshirt seasons and medical hardship waivers.
The five-year eligibility rule would be more impactful in college basketball, where an appearance in even one game burns a full year of eligibility. Under the new rule college basketball players would get a full five years of eligibility irrespective of how many games they appear in.
College football currently allows a redshirt season if a player appears in four or fewer games. That rule would no longer apply if the five-year model is adopted.
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