When the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the nation, college athletics were tremendously impacted.
In an effort to make up for lost time, the NCAA granted an additional season of eligibility for student-athletes to utilize. For North Carolina fans, this meant that student-athletes, such as Armando Bacot, Leaky Black, RJ Davis and Alyssa Ustby had the ability (and chose to) play a fifth season with their respective team.
While there's been plenty of talk about the "unfair advantage" of fifth-year student-athletes re-writing the record books (such as when Davis passed Marcus Paige on the UNC basketball program's all-time three point scorers list, it seems that the NCAA is considering a change to its current eligibility rules.
The NCAA is considering allowing five years of eligibility for players in all sports moving forward, per an NCAA official.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) January 3, 2025
The topic will continue to be discussed in early 2025.
Expected to be discussed in the early portion of the new year, the NCAA is considering allowing five years of eligibility for players in all sporting events moving forward. This would mean that five-year student-athletes would now become the "norm" in college athletics.
While this idea is interesting, it's one that leaves plenty of questions for certain sports. The transfer portal, which is considered a "mess" at this point in time, adds layers to this, as this will allow even more movement to be had.
For example: former UNC football player Tony Grimes is set to play for his fourth school in five years this upcoming fall.
In the case of men's basketball, the "one-and-done" is already a rarity among college athletics. Does this change lead to the rule being altered (maybe we see high school athletes being able to declare for the draft right away?) or maybe it's time that the NCAA treats men's basketball similar to other sports by mandating that student-athletes stay a specific amount of time in college (ex: three seasons).
Additionally, how would this affect redshirts?
While the idea of granting a fifth year of eligibility seems like a solid one on the surface, there are many layers that will go along with it once the discussions do begin to start.
After witnessing how the fifth year of eligibility following COVID-19 has impacted the sport, granting an additional year of eligibility doesn't seem like a wise idea.
However, I do think that this could open up discussions on other related items that definitely could use some refining.