“changing the clock to start when the athlete turns 19 or enrolls in college”
This is good. It helps people who graduate young and take a gap year.
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It also has the benefit (if adopted) of limiting eligibility of “super seniors” who find their way to the US at age 23 to play until 27. Sounds like capping eligibility at 24 could solve some of these edge cases, while allowing younger HS graduates to do some additional work/travel/study abroad/etc. before enrolling without losing NCAA time.
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Do current players adopt this new ruling of a 5th year or is this only for incoming kids ? IE all players can take an additional year if they want and are under the age requirement ?
The article cited above doesn’t make it clear whether the proposed NCAA age-based eligibility rule applies to the earlier or the later of the two triggering events. I assume it’s the earlier of the two events but has anyone seen the full text of the proposed rule?
Here’s a better description of the rule change that addresses @Jeff’s question:
The Cabinet modified the age-based model to start a student-athlete’s eligibility clock upon initial full-time enrollment in college or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs earlier. This adjustment would be applicable for all sports if the model is adopted.
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It looks like they have the option for whatever is better for them. So, we will have a few older players for a few more years. I guess September birthdays can effectively be 20 year old freshman. I’d maybe lower 19 to 18. It’s the academic year after they turn 18. The normal kid graduates HS at 18. If someone graduates early, give them some time before college.
It’s whichever occurs earlier, so yes, it’s possible that a kid with a Q4 birthday finishes HS at 18 years and 9 months, does a gap year and turns 19 that fall, then starts Uni at age 19 y 11 mo, and turns 20 fall of Freshman year.
This might be the first instance of a benefit bestowed on Q4 birthdays! I’m sure any such benefit would be unintentional.
I’m kidding about the ‘outlier’ q4 benefit in case it was not patent.
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I know you said you were kidding about the outlier benefit but it could be pretty real. Especially in individual sports like swimming.
I look at my daughter. She is a November birthday and is young for her grade. Would be 18 in November of her freshman year of college. Let’s say she is throwing some fast swim times on the board in high school and thinks she can or has made Trials. It would make all the sense in the world to take a gap year, train the entire time and start your college career/eligibility at 19. Then you get five years of college. I can see a lot of folks taking advantage of this.
I wonder about the effect in water polo. Only because you want to play high level games. I guess a player if young enough could try to play in Europe for a year and then start college.
From conjecture online, it appears hockey and lacrosse are the two sports not thrilled about this rule as they seemingly have older freshman recruits.
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I see that Long Beach just signed a guy that graduated in 2017! I assume if 5 for 5 passes it will be short lived, but thats a bit crazy. He was a pro baseball player the last decade or so.
It’s a shame that a college coach would even entertain giving a roster spot to a guy like this, that already played pro and is in his late 20s, regardless of what sport
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4 year is easy to graduate if you taking underwater basket weaving. No offense, adding an extra year could help many athletes choose a degree that’s not completely worthless or over saturated. This coming from someone that has had to struggle getting through a bachelors that’s took me (6 years BSN), Masters 2 years, Post grad 2 years. Why should athletes be pigeonholed into taking the same studies that only help with getting through the sport. Seems like a lot of waterpolo coaches out here barely making it by cause the bachelors degree choice was very mediocre and limited
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Still curious if they will adjust roster size limits to accommodate players staying on team longer…
I am hoping not. The roster limits make for more competitive polo through the divisions as teams can’t tuck away players that could’ve played on other teams.
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@PoloPolo Great question
If roster limits aren’t expanded even fewer freshman will get spots at top tier schools as coaches will certainly will look for older transfers first in order to be competitive. There aren’t many 5th year transfers available under current rules, but with the new rule, there will be a large pool of older players. While in some situations transferring is a good thing (not the right initial fit, etc.), transferring over all is less than ideal and leads to a disjointed college experience. Stinks for solid players out of high school to start at a “feeder college” only then to leave after a few years to play at a top tier program. Adding spots back to the roster size would alleviate this. Top tier coaches could still bring in a freshman cohort to develop them, while remaining competitive with a group of older players.
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I doubt that they will change the roster limits. These rules aren’t designed to benefit incoming freshmen, they are designed to give consistency to the athletic directors. There are fewer opportunities for HS players. I do agree that we are moving toward a two-tiered system of schools who develop and those who take transfers. Lower tiered D1 schools are a step between JCs and the big programs. It comes down to what college experience a student wants. Transferring to win a few more water polo games for one year doesn’t make sense to me. Transferring so your degree is from a more respected institution might be more interesting. Re-inserting transfer restrictions will be required to solve this problem.
I understand the concerns. I don’t think it will be as big of an issue in water polo as some parents think. I understand though why a parent of a current HS player would feel this way. The perspective here is obviously from a water polo slant, but when you think about the landscape across all sports I don’t think caps will be, or even need to be, adjusted. If you expand it in water polo the big 4 will just store players away again and the competitive landscape gets more watered down.
Agree, and this is already happening just look at the transfers to date this year. Both womans and mens programs lots of movement to big 4’s.
The 5-in-5 rule just passed the NCAA Division 1 Cabinet: https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/\_/id/49156177/ncaa-division-cabinet-ok-5-year-age-based-eligibility
As mentioned, will be interesting to see how the dynamic with roster limits affects recruiting. Smaller classes maybe?
@getiit2theset
The prior link had a phantom backslash in it. All credit to OP.
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