SEC'S Sankey open to spring athletes being granted extra year of eligibility

It is an unprecedented time across the world due to the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

That obviously includes the landscape of Southeastern Conference athletics, where the final championships of the winter sports were all canceled and the rest of the regular season and postseason championships were called off for the spring sports.

So exactly where does that all leave the athletes in regards to their eligibility – particularly in spring sports where seasons were still in the early stages? Should this season count against all student-athletes' eligibility?

The NCAA Division I Council Coordination Committee

announced its recommendation last week that athletes who participated in spring sports are to be granted eligibility relief, meaning those players should be granted an extra year. Sankey

On Friday, the NCAA Division II Compliance Council announced that all spring sport student-athletes in Division II will be granted an additional season of eligibility as a result of the cancellation of the spring season.

Nothing has been completely decided in that regard for the SEC, but commissioner Greg Sankey said in a teleconference on Wednesday that he is open to players in spring sports being granted another year to play college sports, if desired. However he admits, there are challenges.

“I've seen the national messaging,” Sankey said. “I actually printed about eight pages of analysis from our conference compliance staff. Myself and my colleagues have had just preliminary discussions about what might this mean. I know among the conferences, there's conversations as well. You know, the first read is, (granting an extra year is) an appropriate step. From my perspective, we have to understand the full set of implications and I hope we'll move through those rapidly because I think one of the assets for our young people is knowing definitively what their eligibility status will be going forward.

“I do want to say, I don't think this is simply a senior issue. Everybody in our programs, particularly spring sports, had their season disrupted, so my encouragement is we take a broad look at what type of opportunities we offer going forward.”

Sankey said he wasn't sure when a final decision on players' eligibility would come down. When it does though, Sankey believes it's the spring athletes that have to be considered first over those who competed in winter sports, as most of those sports got in the majority of the season.

“I think (a possible extra year of eligibility) applies to a set of winter sports and we'll just observe my view that we need to deal in a time efficient manner with the spring sport situation,” Sankey said. “There does need to be a conversation about the disrupted winter sports, which, for us, would include both men's and women's basketball, swimming and diving, gymnastics, and equestrian.

I don't have the answer to that right now, even in my mind.

“We have some sports that played their entire regular season – swimming and diving, indoor track and field – but had their national championship disrupted. We had some that completed their conference championship as well. In women's basketball, they (played) the whole (SEC) tournament, then, you know, men's basketball, gymnastics and equestrian had more disruption. I know that's an agenda item nationally. I don't have a prediction right now. Just like with spring sports, I'm certainly open to the conversation, but I think spring sports needs to move forward in a time-efficient manner. Perhaps there's a deeper look into what happened with what happens with winter sports eligibility.”

Of course granting an extra year of eligibility for athletes in any sport opens up other questions. For instance, if seniors stay in school another year, and incoming freshmen classes show up, rosters will be jammed. Teams are likely to exceed NCAA scholarship limits. Obviously those rules could be relaxed or overlooked or changed. That's all part of the conversations that must be had moving forward.

“There are a number of sensitivities here that merit the kind of discussion that I know is occurring right now,” Sankey said.