NCAA Players Competing This Season Will Get Extra Year of Eligibility

The NCAA announced that winter student-athletes competing in the 2020-21 season will be granted both an additional season of competition and an additional year in which to complete it.

In other words, players competing in the 2020-21 season will have five seasons, instead of four.

This is the same extension that spring athletes were granted for missing the 2020 spring season.

“The pandemic will continue to impact winter sport seasons in ways we can’t predict. Council members opted to provide for winter sport student-athletes the same flexibility given spring and fall sports previously,” council chair M. Grace Calhoun said in a statement prepared by the NCAA. “The actions today ensure the continuation of local decision-making in the best interest of each institution and its student-athletes.”

The NCAA also announced that schools will not be required to sponsor the minimum number of sports to maintain NCAA membership.