Penders applauds NCAA decision on spring athletes

The NCAA, better known for preventing studentathletes from raising money for charity or hindering their ability to transfer closer to a sick relative, finally got one right.

At least that’s how UConn baseball coach Jim Penders sees it.

The NCAA Division I Council voted on Monday to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes an additional season of

competition and an extension of their period of eligibility. Student-athletes in baseball, softball, lacrosse, golf, tennis and other sports who had their final season of eligibility wiped away by the coronavirus pandemic will be able to return to play next spring. They will also be able to retain their scholarship money, though that decision will ultimately be made by each individual school.

Division II and III institutions had already voted to allow seniors to return for another year. Monday’s decision did not extend to student-athletes in winter sports, many of whom had their careers ended abruptly a couple of weeks ago.

It’s a complex decision that will lead to a lot of hard decisions in the coming weeks and months. But it’s a good one, according to Penders.

“Overall, I think the NCAA did right by the student-athlete today, providing relief and flexibility and leaving it up to the institutions,” Penders said. “We don’t know exactly what it’s gonna look like on an institutional basis just yet, because this is all fresh and new. I’m sure there are going to be budget implications.”

Penders added that he sent out a group message to his players on Monday evening, saying, in essence, “The NCAA did right here.”

“Now,” he said. “we’ve got to navigate that and find out what it means to the institution from a budget perspective.”

Baseball may face the most complications. It is the only spring sport that has roster limits (35 players, 27 must be receiving aid). Those limits can now be exceeded, but only by current seniors. The sport also is only able to dole out 11.7 scholarships carved up among those 27 players. UConn, which boasts numerous Connecticut residents on its roster, has rarely had any player on full scholarship.

As Penders understands it, senior players receiving scholarship money this season will have the opportunity to receive the same amount next year without having any affect on what incoming players are slated to receive. UConn currently has 14 incoming players for next season.

Of course, all of that is at the university’s discretion.

Seniors could return to play next season but not receive any aid at all, or less than what they received this year.

“If you have 50 players instead of 35, there are budget implications to that. Big ones,” Penders said. “There are gonna be some seniors, I would anticipate, that want to graduate and move on. There may be some players that didn’t play an awful lot that are seeing this happen and say, ‘Wow, I’ve got to probably make a move to another program, because I didn’t play this year, am I gonna play next year with more than a dozen newcomers coming into the program?’ I think guys have to digest this and sort out exactly what it means.”

Another factor is the MLB Draft, which may be cut down to only five or 10 rounds this year. UConn typically has at least a few players selected, often in the later rounds. A much shorter draft could compel seniors to return for another year of school.

Penders said he will begin having virtual conversations with all of his players over the next couple of weeks.

“Some of those conversations are gonna be difficult,” he said, “because they’re gonna have to be real and you’re gonna have to tell them the truth, with the best information at the time.”

“As many questions as we had today,” Penders added, “we’ve got even more now that the decision is here. Now, we’ve got to act.”

Still, at least players in their final season of eligibility get a year back.

“I think that’s the most important thing to happen today,” Penders said. “Now, the institutions are gonna have to figure out on their own, ‘What can we afford to do?’ That’s a really tough question to ask right now.”

“Overall, it’s good news, because it’s doing right by the student-athlete,” Penders continued. “And the NCAA sometimes struggles to do that. They get a lot of grief from member institutions and coaches and student-athletes. I think today, they did what was absolutely right by the student-athlete. It was student-athlete centered, as all their legislation should be. It’s now our job to figure out, What does that look like? And how can we implement that?”