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NCAA eligibility is about to look a lot different than it has in previous years.
On Tuesday, the NCAA Division I Cabinet unanimously approved what it called a “sweeping overhaul of eligibility rules for student-athletes.”
Under the new rules, Division I players across all sports will have five years to play up to five seasons, with no waivers or redshirt years.
If healthy for their entire collegiate career, the new eligibility rules mean that players can now play in five seasons, up from the previous four. The new rules, however, have eliminated any redshirt years or injury waivers, meaning an injury-riddled player could now have fewer than four full seasons of play.
“With these changes, the Cabinet has taken decisive action for the benefit of student-athletes and the system of NCAA Division I athletics,” said Josh Whitman, athletics director at Illinois and chair of the cabinet, in a statement.
“For many student-athletes who enroll in college immediately after high school, these changes will result in the opportunity to potentially compete for an additional season in their chosen sport. For campus officials and coaches, this change provides rules that are simpler to administer and easier to predict for roster management decisions.”
The new rules attempt to streamline an increasingly complex eligibility landscape where certain players, such as Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, were playing college football for as many as six seasons after winning a lawsuit.
The big test for the NCAA will be if the new eligibility rules will hold up in court, or else we’ll be right back where we started with exemptions and extended eligibility.
The new eligibility rules will go into effect for all new players enrolling in fall 2027 or later. For current players with remaining eligibility after the 2025-26 season, “Division I schools will apply the previous rules (allowing four seasons of competition within five years) or the age-based model, whichever results in the most favorable outcome for each individual,” per the NCAA.
Currently approved waivers for the 2026-27 season will remain in place.
“While previous NCAA rules have served college sports well for a long time, we heard also loud and clear from NCAA members and student-athletes that eligibility rules should be easier to understand,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement.
“This change to an age-based model eliminates aspects of the rules that have proven difficult to administer in the current litigious environment and clearly defines the exceptions available in limited circumstances, while preserving the long-intended alignment of eligibility with typical college enrollment and graduation patterns, because 98% of the 550,000 NCAA student-athletes will go pro in something other than sports.”
The eligibility clock for those enrolling in fall 2027 or later starts “when they first enroll in college full-time or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever takes place first,” per Yahoo Sports.
There are very few exceptions to the age-based eligibility rule, but one important carve-out of interest to Utah and BYU is religious service.
Many athletes that are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serve church missions either before enrolling in school or a year after enrolling in school. Under the new rules, a player’s eligibility clock will be frozen if a player is on an “official religious mission.” The other exemptions are pregnancy and active-duty military service.
