Due to the unprecedented affects and uncertainties of the coronavirus, the NCAA shut down the balance of winter sports and cancelled all spring sports this week.
Now the NCAA has announced that student-athletes for spring sports will be granted a waiver for an additional season of eligibility.
“Council leadership agreed that eligibility relief is appropriate for all Divisiion I student-athletes who participated in spring sports,” the NCAA released in a statement. “Details of eligibility relief will be finalized at a later time. Additional issues with the NCAA rules must be addressed, and appropriate governance bodies will work through those in the coming days and weeks.”
The coronavirus is an unprecedented event and to the credit of the NCAA, took immediate and unprecedented measures. Granting the relief to student-athletes does create several logisitcal issues and costs could be substantial. With every sport having scholarship limits, the NCAA will have to elevate scholarship limits for the next four years.
And who and how will that extra year of scholarships be paid by? Most athletic programs are underwater financially and don’t have the means to fund additional scholarships. Will the NCAA step in and help fund those programs?
As for winter sports, particularly men’s and women’s basketball, the committee “will also discuss issues related to seasons of competition” for those athletes who were not able to play in conference and NCAA championships.
With the exception of women’s tennis, spring sport athletes are overwhelmingly on equivalency scholarships and thus additional seasons of playing eligibility would come with an additional cost not only to their athletic departments or the NCAA, should it finance the cost, but to the athletes and their families.
