Ivy presidents nix extra year for spring sport athletes

The NCAA may have done the right thing by granting a fifth-year of eligibility to spring sport athletes who had their seasons cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Ivy League isn’t following suit.

The eight university presidents voted against granting the fifthyear of eligibility, a move that would have broke from a longstanding Ivy League decree of not granting a fifth-year to student-athletes.

“After a number of discussions surrounding the current circumstances, the Ivy League has decided the League’s existing eligibility policies will remain in place, including its longstanding practice that athletic opportunities are for undergraduates,” the league said in a statement.

When an athlete is injured and misses a full season, they don’t get that year back for a redshirt. They can withdraw from school and return the next year or graduate and transfer to another school, which is the route many basketball players have taken in recent years.

Now spring sport seniors will have to do the same. The Associated Press reported on Thursday that 70 spring sport Ivy Leaguers are already in the NCAA transfer portal.

Princeton men’s lacrosse star Michael Sowers, the program’s all-time points leader, has already withdrawn from school, which would make him eligible to play for the Tigers as a second-semester senior. Princeton was 5-0 and already had victories over Virginia, Johns Hopkins and Rutgers when the season was canceled.

The NCAA Division I Council voted on Monday to give spring sport athletes, regardless of their graduation class, an extra year of eligibility because of the virus pandemic that has brought the sports world to a screeching halt.

The Council declined to provide the same relief for winter sport athletes, many of whom’s seasons had ended.