Will spring sports athletes receive additional eligibility?

I’ve written and talked about whether college basketball players should get an extra year of eligibility many times since coronavirus canceled college basketball’s postseason. The vote is expected to happen later this afternoon, and I expect the NCAA to disappoint seniors of winter sports across the country with their decision. But what about the spring sports athletes? That will be voted on today as well.

Remember 18 days ago when the NCAA Tournament was canceled? Remember the next day when the NCAA sent out this tweet?

Division I Council Coordination Committee agrees eligibility relief is appropriate for spring sports: pic.twitter.com/u7hwYOyTDV

— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) March 13, 2020

According to Dennis Dodd of CBS, granting spring sports athletes an additional year of eligibility is not as much of a guarantee as people might think.

Writing this story it really sunk in how by and large athletic depts don’t have a rainy day fund or can expect a bail out. Like a lot of folks, they live year to year budget-wise. That said, those athletes deserve some kind of eligibility relief. https://t.co/cBizO73e9y

— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) March 30, 2020

Without money being a factor, it makes sense for every spring sport athlete to receive an additional year of eligibility, although this is not a good thing for every athlete. Expected playing time for non-seniors will be impacted, and anybody who already redshirted would need to attend college a total of 6 years to ever compete as a senior, and I’m not sure how many would be willing to do that.

Money is always a factor, and athletic departments are not in a position to be handing out additional money right now. The financial loss of the NCAA Tournament was huge and while I still believe we will have a college football season, we have no idea if that’ll happen at this point.

In that article on CBS, Dodd reported the vote could be pushed to a later date to give everybody more time.

We’ll see what happens, but apparently spring sports athletes getting an extra year of eligibility is not as much of a guarantee as we originally thought a few weeks ago.