by Austin Nivision for Inside the Red Raiders
With so much up in the air about college sports this fall, the NCAA is working toward a change that would allow athletes to play without losing their eligibility. If any athletes want to compete in sporting events this fall, they won’t have to worry about losing a season if they do.
The NCAA Division I Council decided today to allow athletes to play fall sports while not losing a year of eligibility, reports Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports. Independent sources confirmed the news to national 247Sports college reporter Brandon Marcello. The eligibility decision and other NCAA alterations because of the COVID-19 pandemic awaits NCAA Board of Governors approval.
“Sources: The NCAA Division I Council decided today that fall sport student-athletes can compete in any amount of competitions this year and it will not count as a season of eligibility,” Thamel tweeted. “This still needs to be approved by NCAA Board of Governors on Friday.”
The NCAA’s decision, if passed Friday, includes an exemption for active senior student athletes when it comes to a 2021 scholarship limit for fall sports, according to Nicole Auerbach.
For now it will let athletes participate in their respective sports without the fear of losing eligibility if the season cannot be completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NCAA is also looking at some other major changes as they pertain to the coming fall and spring seasons. As for football teams that won’t be playing this fall, which includes all those in the Big Ten and Pac-12, they will be allowed to get some work in throughout the semester. Thamel also reports that the Division I Council approved recommendations from the Football Oversight Committee that will allow teams whose season has postponed to get 12 hours of practices or other team activities per week. That policy will last until the spring semester.
Finally the NCAA approved the move of fall championships to the spring, per Thamel. While there are still decisions to be made about how many teams will be in each postseason and the logistics of some leagues playing in the fall and others in the spring, the NCAA is prepared to postpone those championship contests.
Last week, NCAA President Mark Emmert explained that it was unlikely that fall sports would be able to crown a champion, with the exception of FBS football.
“We cannot now, at this point, have fall NCAA championships because there’s not enough schools participating,” Emmert said. “The Board of Governors also said if you don’t have half the schools playing the sport, you can’t have a legitimate championship. We can’t, in any NCAA Division-I championship sport now, which is everything other than FBS football, that goes on in the fall. Sadly and tragically, that’s going to be the case this fall. Full stop.”
