The NCAA Board of Directors has adopted the Division I Council's recommendation to pause the eligibility clock for all fall student-athletes for the 2020-21 athletic year, the NCAA announced Friday. Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic first reported the news.
The move was a mere formality after the Council's move on Wednesday, as it would be highly unlikely for the Governors--a group comprised primarily of presidents and chancellors--to block a move recommended by the Council--a group populated by ADs.
As I wrote Wednesday, this move was necessary to make the 2020-21 football seasons viable.
Otherwise, players likely would have opted out en masse from fall or spring seasons that few would view as legitimate. Now, players can play 10-game seasons this fall or 8-game campaigns in the spring without sacrificing a precious year of eligibility.
The problem--if you want to call it that--will come down the road, as it's not just seniors who will compete as seniors again in 2021, but juniors, sophomores and freshmen in 2020 will get to compete as juniors, sophomores and freshmen again in 2021. All while a new crop of freshmen arrive in 2021.
Thus far, the NCAA has only agreed to relax the 85-man scholarship limit for the 2021 season, though they're aware of the coming roster logjam. I reached out to the NCAA on Wednesday and was told this on Thursday:
The Council has noted the issue you raised, and will continue to work through that and other effects of the new flexibility provided to student-athletes in this challenging time.
To get through 2020, the NCAA created a massive challenge for 2022 and beyond--not only from how to handle the extra players on scholarship, but, at the campus level, where to house them and how to finance those extra scholarships.
But 2022's problems can wait for 2022. We've got to get through 2020 first.
Elsewhere, the Board also rubber-stamped the Council's recommendation to hold fall sports championships in the spring, though winter and spring championships are expected to take precedent from a resources and manpower standpoint.
Other rules approved on Friday:
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.