Between extra years because of a global pandemic and countless state-court lawsuits, eligibility for college athletes has never been as fluid as it’s been over the past five-plus years. The NCAA last week took a big step toward – it hopes – curtailing all the eligibility madness by adopting a five-year, age-based eligibility model that gives all athletes five seasons of eligibility from the start of their college careers (or after they turn 19 years old, whichever comes first), rendering redshirt rules moot and putting an end to the need for eligibility-extension waivers. Since current players are being grandfathered in, several Tennessee football players – a large portion of the 2026 roster, really – stand to benefit and will have the option to use an additional year of eligibility if they want.
This major change in the NCAA rules comes just months after the Vols had 24-year-old quarterback in Joey Aguilar legally pursuing what would have been his eighth year of college football, though a second year at Tennessee would have been just his fourth at the NCAA level after his winding route began in junior college.
Players who used their final season of eligibility under the previous rules in 2025-26 will not receive any additional eligibility, but current players with eligibility after the 2025-26 academic year and incoming freshman who enroll during the 2026-27 academic year “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,” according to the NCAA.
In other words, the 5-for-5 rule benefits players who have yet to use a redshirt, because a redshirt year grants them that fifth year.
It will apply to all of Tennessee’s incoming freshmen, but also to 28 current players yet to use a redshirt – here’s a look at those players with an emphasis on the seven 2026 seniors who now will have the option to play another season (at Tennessee or elsewhere) in 2027:
