College athletics is caught up in a tangled web of change and trying to figure itself out at the moment.
Eligibility has been a major point of contention for several years, and the NCAA seems to be headed down a path it hopes will provide some simplicity and clarity while keeping it out of the courts.
The organization is exploring a new policy that grants athletes five years of eligibility from the time of their 19th birthday or high school graduation, whichever is earlier, and eliminates the ability for a player to redshirt or file a waiver.
This week the NCAA’s DI rule-making group reviewed the concept and agreed to continue work on the matter and implement it potentially as early as this coming academic year.
One of the major questions with any potential five-year eligibility rule is whether current four-year seniors would be grandfathered in and allowed to play in a fifth year in 2026-27.
In an email sent this week to member schools reported on by Ross Dellenger for Yahoo Sports, NCAA president Charlie Baker described the age-based, 5-year eligibility concept. It does not specifically address grandfathering current athletes.
The NCAA communication does include the following language, however: “We are evaluating all options to ensure a smooth transition to the new eligibility framework, including for current student-athletes who matriculated under the current framework.”
Dellenger describes the possibility of current four-year seniors being grandfathered in and thus provided a fifth year as “likely but uncertain.”
So what would this mean for IU basketball?
IU basketball has six players who are at this moment out of eligibility after the 2025-26 season: Sam Alexis, Reed Bailey, Lamar Wilkerson, Tayton Conerway, Tucker DeVries, and Conor Enright. Of those six, Alexis, Bailey and Enright were only with college programs for four seasons and thus each of them could be eligible for a fifth year if grandfathered in under a new rule.
DeVries already played a fifth season via a medical hardship waiver, so he couldn’t get another year under the proposed change.
Another unanswered question in this developing situation — how are junior college or Division II, III, or NAIA years treated in this scenario?
Take guys like Wilkerson, who has only played four seasons at the Division I level, but also spent a year at the junior college level. Under this new five year rule, does that JUCO season count as his fifth? Players have successfully argued in court that JUCO years don’t count as it relates to eligibility rules. Conerway has similar uncertainty due to JUCO years, and he already put his name in the transfer portal.
And don’t assume the new rule would necessarily mean someone like Alexis — who seems like a great fit for IU’s new roster as currently constructed — would be bound to the Hoosiers if given another year. If the new five-year eligibility rule came into effect, there would likely also be a special transfer portal window this summer so the grandfathered-in players had the option to find a new home. We saw something similar last summer for athletes who were cut from their NCAA teams because of new roster limits.
What about football?
We covered this topic when it first began surfacing in December. Here are the players from the national championship football team who exhausted their eligibility in just four seasons.
- Aiden Fisher, linebacker
- Stephen Daley, defensive end
- Kellan Wyatt, defensive end
- Elijah Sarratt, wide receiver
- Holden Staes, tight end
- Jonathan Brady, wide receiver
- Mitch McCarthy, punter
Fisher and Sarratt are well down the path towards next week’s NFL Draft.
Daley and Wyatt would both likely benefit from an extra year of college after suffering season-ending injuries. It isn’t clear if they’d be ready for the season and/or if IU would have roster spots for them at an already crowded position.
Staes could be really interesting for IU and their inexperienced tight end room.
Brady and McCarthy would likely jump on the opportunity to play a fifth year somewhere, although Indiana might not be the best fit in 2026.
And don’t forget about Shay Ciezki from the women’s basketball team. She’d be eligible for a fifth year under the new rule as well.
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