Seniors get reprieve
NCAA grants another year for spring sports athletes.
FAYETTEVILLE — Spring sports athletes whose seasons were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic will receive an extra year of college eligibility, the NCAA Division I Council ruled Monday.
The NCAA also relaxed spring roster and scholarship limits for the 202021 school year to account for returning seniors who would have otherwise exhausted their eligibility this spring. NCAA rules allow athletes to have four seasons of competition during a fiveyear period.
All athletes, no matter their classification, who competed this spring can appeal to restore the lost season, but scholarship and roster limits will apply to all athletes again after the 2021 spring season.
For seniors who choose to return in 2021, colleges will not be obligated to honor this year’s scholarship agreement, but can offer a scholarship equal to or less than the amount that was promised this year. Most spring sports function as equivalency sports, meaning most athletes receive partial scholarships as opposed to full rides in sports such as football and basketball.
Programs that are already feeling a financial pinch will have the ability to utilize an NCAA assistance fund to help pay for scholarships for returning spring seniors. The NCAA last week announced it would distribute $225 million among its 300-plus Division I schools this year, $375 million less than budgeted after the cancellation of its biggest moneymaker, March Madness.
There are five Arkansas universities that compete in Division I — University of Arkansas, Arkansas State University, University of Central Arkansas, University of Arkansas at Little Rock and University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Spring sports include baseball, softball, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s and women’s tennis.
Coaches have been in a holding pattern for the past two weeks, awaiting the NCAA vote.
“Really, our main concern is trying to figure out our roster for this coming fall,” Arkansas baseball Coach Dave Van Horn said March 18. “What are the new stipulations? What’s going to go on with the scholarships? What’s going to go on with counters and number we can have on the roster?
“I mean how unfair would it be if you were a freshman and you had seven at-bats or two at-bats. If you don’t get this year back, it doesn’t make any sense. It shouldn’t be just for seniors. It should be for everybody that is on the team.”
Coaches reached by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Monday were either unavailable for comment or
wanted to wait to comment until they had a better feel for how the decision would affect their teams. Van Horn is scheduled to address the NCAA’s decision on a teleconference today.
UA Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek wrote on Twitter that he appreciated the Division I Council’s decision, with “several important details to be clarified and decided by institutions, coaches and student-athletes.”
“We had long discussions around the fact that this does not avoid substantially difficult circumstances, but what we felt was important was to localize decision-making and to ensure that we were as permissive as possible,” said Penn Athletic Director Grace Calhoun, who chairs the Division I Council.
A similar decision to restore blanket eligibility was approved for NCAA Division II last week, but the Division I vote was expected to be tight. The 34-member Division I Council is made up of college sports administrators representing all Division I conferences, plus two members of the student-athlete advisory committee (SAAC).
Prior to Monday afternoon’s
vote, SAAC representatives from Power 5 conferences — the SEC, ACC, Big
12, Big Ten and Pac-12 — released a joint statement that recommended most of the same eligibility and scholarship parameters that passed the Division I Council.
“Eligibility relief should be accessible,” they wrote. “Roster limits and competition fields should also be expanded to accommodate returning seniors and incoming freshmen.”
Athletes also had requested an extra year of eligibility for winter sports, such as basketball and gymnastics, because their NCAA postseasons were canceled. The NCAA’s ruling did not apply to winter sports because those sports had concluded all or most of their regular seasons at the time of the shutdown earlier this month.
The NCAA announced it was canceling its postseason championships in all winter and spring sports on March 12, and college sports in the U.S. had essentially ceased as of the next day. Some conferences, such as the SEC, waited until last week to call off their regular-season competitions.
Sports such as tennis and golf were in the second half of their regular seasons at the time of the shutdown, while baseball and softball were in the first half. The outdoor track and field seasons had yet to begin.