ALL WINTER ATHLETES GET EXTRA YEAR OF ELIGIBILITY
Senior-laden Aztecs could have everyone back next season
San Diego State’s basketball team could put a lineup on the f loor this season of five seniors.
The Aztecs could do it again next season … with those same five guys.
The NCAA’s Division I Council voted Wednesday to grant all winter sports athletes an extra year of eligibility at their current school, no matter how many games their teams play in the coronavirus-abbreviated season, no matter how many minutes they play in them, no matter whether they’re a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior.
That could profoundly alter the complexion of college basketball, which already was expecting a major facelift with impending transfer legislation that no longer requires players to sit out one season. The Division I Council approved the new transfer language this week and forwarded it to the full NCAA Congress for a final vote in January.
That much, college basketball coaches expected.
The extra year of eligibility for everyone on their roster, not so much.
“It could have a dramatic effect,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said.
In his case, in a good way. Dutcher was facing the prospect of filling six of his 13 allotted scholarships for the 2021-22 season with the departures of seniors Matt Mitchell, Jordan Schakel, Trey Pulliam and grad transfers Terrell Gomez and Joshua Tomaic, plus an unused scholarship from this season. Instead, all five will have the option to return but only at SDSU.
“The additional eligibility,” an NCAA spokesperson told the Union-Tribune by email, “is only at the current school (and) cannot be used at a different school.”
The NCAA offered similar waivers to spring and fall athletes. The difference is that their seasons were either completely or partially wiped out by coronavirus shutdowns. Basketball could have as many as 27 regular-season games in 2020-21, down only four from past years, plus conference and postseason tournaments.
Not in favor is famed Connecticut women’s coach Geno Auriemma.
“I think you’re going to have a lot of coaches that are going to go, ‘You’re putting me in a tough spot here,’ ” Auriemma told ESPN. “Because now you’re going to have some seniors go, ‘Hey, I want to stay.’ And then you’ve got a coach going, like, ‘ I wasn’t planning on you staying.’
“Now what are you going to do, turn the kid out? I don’t like it. If you lose your season, I can see that. … That makes sense. But how are you going to let somebody play a whole season and then give them another year?”
The biggest losers likely will be those not yet in college. For the first time in recent memory, SDSU does not have a prep commitment in October and might not solicit one before the November signing period.
The timing is tricky. College seniors don’t have to declare whether they’ll use their extra year until after the season, and the top high school seniors typically sign letters of intent in the fall.
“The challenge for everybody is how many freshmen do you take knowing that you might have guys who want to come back,” said Dutcher, whose team opened preseason practice Wednesday. “Maybe they don’t know if they’re coming back and want to check the pro opportunities and wade through all that (next spring and summer). It presents challenges, obviously.”
Compounding it is the NCAA’s in-person recruiting moratorium for Div. I coaches since March. Some AAU tournaments have moved to “open” states like Arizona and Utah, and they provide web streams so coaches can watch remotely. But many of the biggest events of the spring and summer were canceled.
Now layer in the prospect of a transfer free-for-all with a glut of current players able to stay in college an extra year. Teams will be getting older and staying older, limiting playing time for all but the most talented freshmen.
“If you can get the exact high school kid you want, I think you still take him,” Dutcher said. “But it’s going to be hard because they didn’t get seen in the summer, they didn’t get seen in the fall. Now if your current players come back and keep their scholarships for another year, there is not going to be the opportunities available to them that normally would be.
“This senior (high school) class has been hurt on a lot of levels.”
The Div. I Council also adjusted two rules about postseason eligibility. It had set a minimum of 13 games to be eligible; now a team need play only seven. And in past years, a .500 record or better was required; this season, it is not, which likely favors lower-tier teams from power conferences with losing league records.
“... how many freshmen do you take knowing that you might have guys who want to come back.”
Brian Dutcher • Aztecs coach