Seniors, coaches glad for extra eligibility
ASU athletes, programs unsure how it will work
The Arizona State softball team was two hours into its bus trip to Los Angeles for what was to have been the first Pac-12 series of the season against UCLA. Coach Trisha Ford then got word that spring sports were being put on hold while the threat of the coronavirus was being assessed. The Sun Devils turned around and headed right back to Tempe.
The season would eventually be canceled, marking the end of the careers of a lot of senior athletes whose spring sports were just a month old.
A week later came a reprieve as the NCAA announced it would grant an extra year of eligibility to athletes from Division I schools who compete in spring sports. It sounded like the fair thing to do but it really isn’t that simple. There are a lot of logistics the NCAA needs to flush out and some clarification could come this weekend at a meeting of the Division I council, a panel of administrators tasked with making rules affecting day-to-day operations in those sports.
Colorado Athletic Director Rick George is the Pac-12 representative in that group but ASU Athletic Director Ray Anderson has thoughts on the issue as well.
Anderson has reached out to his athletes and coaches on Zoom, in an effort to answer their questions. Athletes and coaches have applauded the school’s effort and filling them in on the latest developments.
“It is the fair thing to do but there are a lot of things that need to be worked out,” Anderson said. “It’s urgent that we get some clarification on how this is all going to work but there are some important decisions to be made and everything needs to really be thought through carefully so there are the right decisions for everyone involved.”
Perhaps the biggest question to be answered is how the players who opt to return affect the roster and whether their spots will count toward scholarship limits for each sport.
Ford has five seniors on her squad and says most of them have indicated to her they would like to return. She typically has a roster of between 20 and 23 players and has 12 scholarships to dole out. She has signed seven incoming players, all of them from the high school ranks.
“I would think there has to be some sort of exception,” said Ford, whose team was 22-7 and ranked No. 15 by the NFCA when play ceased. “Those girls have signed so we have contractual obligations to them and them to us. We’re talking about a very unusual set of circumstances that have gotten us to this point.”
The situation is even more complicated for baseball. Coach Tracy Smith has only two seniors in catcher Nick Cheema and outfielder Myles Denson. But several other Sun Devils could be selected in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft, although there is some speculation that could be canceled this summer as well.
Smith’s squad was off to a 13-4 start and ranked in the top 10 in multiple national polls when play was halted.
“Colleges and universities do not have the luxury of just looking at it from an individual athlete perspective. They have to consider a much broader array of issues. We have to sit back and see what the top level decision makers feel is the best interest of the entire landscape, not just spring sports,” Smith said. “I don’t like the predicament our seniors are in but I don’t think its as simple as just give them an extra year.”
The financial repercussions are farreaching. A USA TODAY analysis of financial reports to the NCAA shows that giving an additional season of eligibility to seniors on spring sports teams alone could cost public schools from the Power Five conferences anywhere from $500,000 to $900,000.
ASU has 11 spring sports - baseball, softball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field, women’s beach volleyball, women’s lacrosse and women’s water polo.
Some say athletes from the winter sports should be compensated as well with their postseasons cut short but Anderson doesn’t see anything coming of that notion.
“It’s unfortunate that some athletes didn’t get a postseason,” said Anderson, whose school had teams primed for runs in men’s and women’s basketball, ice hockey and wrestling. “But when it come to winter sports most athletes still had 90, 95 percent, and in many cases 100 percent of their season. It’s going to be hard enough just to figure out what to do with the spring sports.”
Anderson added that he can’t see the NCAA extending the year of eligibility to athletes at the Division II level because very few produce any revenue in any sports making that measure even more cost-prohibitive.
He also can’t see the NCAA extending an extra year to underclassmen for the same economic reasons.
The cost of scholarships isn’t the only financial obstacle institutions will be facing. The cancellation of the men’s Division I men’s basketball tournament means some loss of revenue for participating schools with USA Today singling out that those profits make up anywhere from two to five percent of athletics departments’ operating revenue.
Athletic departments could face further hardships when it comes to ticket revenue and donations. With the full impact of the COVID-19 epidemic yet to be determined, that is an area in which most administrators are expecting a significant hit.
“There is a lot of uncertainty,” Anderson said. “We have never deal with anything like this. No one really knows how this will all play out.”
Among those planning to take advantage of the extra year are twin sisters Kindra and Maddi Hackbarth, key players for the softball team. Maddi Hackbarth said she planned on coming back next year, most likely as a grad assistant because she wants to get a master’s degree and plans to get into the coaching field. So the extra year will work out perfectly for her.
“I thought my career was over here,” she said about her thoughts on that bus ride back. “All of our sports were doing so well. I think most of the seniors are going to want to take advantage of that extra year. It’s a great time to be a Sun Devil.”
All have the bigger picture in mind though. Cheema says he plans to return as well in pursuit of a masters in sports journalism or organizational leadership.
“It really did hurt that our season got shut down the way it did but at the end of the day, it’s just a game,” he said. “We’re talking about people’s lives. I’m sure the people in charge of making the decisions are going to do what is best for everyone involved. “