NCAA DI Council makes decision on eligibility relief

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Athletes in spring sports who had their seasons cut short because of the global COVID-19 pandemic will receive an extra year of eligibility, the NCAA Division I Council voted Monday.

The decision comes just 17 days after the committee released a statement that it “agreed that eligibility relief is appropriate” in the wake of the NCAA canceling all spring championships because of the coronavirus, effectively ending those athletes’ seasons just as they were beginning.

It falls in line with measures already approved by the Division II and Division III levels of the NCAA, as well as the NAIA and NJCAA.

According to the NCAA's press release, seniors will not be required to receive the same amount of aid in 2021 as they received in 2020, instead leaving that up to each individual school. Scholarship limitations were also adjusted and the roster limit in baseball - the only spring sport with such a limit - was increased.

Schools will have access to the NCAA Student Assistance Fund to help pay for scholarships in 2020-21, as well.

"The Council's decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level," said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, the athletics director at Penn. "The Board of Governors encouraged conferences and schools to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and their communities, and now schools have the opportunity to do that."

A few days after the College World Series and other championship events were called off, the SEC announced March 17 that it was canceling competition through the remainder of the academic year. All conferences have since made similar decisions.

The Razorbacks were less than halfway through their seasons in baseball, softball, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s and women’s tennis, while the men’s and women’s outdoor track and field season had not yet started.

Other than outdoor track, baseball was the most impacted, as it was just 4.5 weeks into a 14-week regular season and Arkansas had played only 16 of 56 scheduled regular-season games. The softball team had played 25 games and had 27 games remaining on its regular-season schedule.

The men’s golf team had played in three of six guaranteed spring events, while the women’s golf team had played in just two of five. In tennis, the men’s and women’s teams had played 12 of 25 and 11 of 23 matches, respectively.

That is why a group of 60 Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) representatives from the autonomy - or Power Five - conferences met over the weekend and released a joint letter in favor of eligibility relief for all impacted athletes.

Arkansas softball player Sydney Parr was not among that group, but she released a similar statement via a video on Twitter.

“Please rule in favor of eligibility relief for me and all of my fellow Division I student-athletes,” Parr said. “Your vote will change my life and impact the sport that I love forever. We all deserve a chance to play and we are united.”

Speaking to the Starkville Rotary Club via a Zoom call Monday afternoon, Mississippi State athletics director John Cohen said SEC commissioner Greg Sankey would vote to restore eligibility for all student-athletes.

Despite extensive financial and logistical issues created by such a move, the DI Council - made up of ADs, other administrators and athletes from all conferences - "overwhelmingly" voted in favor of the broad blanket waiver, according to D1Baseball's Kendall Rogers, who is also reporting that the SAAC's letter made a "sizable impact" on the decision.

According to a study by USA Today, just granting seniors in spring sports an extra year of eligibility will cost Power Five programs between $500,000 and $900,000. Giving athletes of all classifications an extra year would undoubtedly cost even more.

Making that added expense more difficult to absorb, news broke last week that the NCAA’s annual distribution to Division I schools would be just $225 million instead of the expected $600 million because of the cancellation of March Madness. There is also uncertainty surrounding football season - most schools’ primary money-maker - and boosters could be less willing to donate because of the threat of a looming recession.

On top of that, adding the 2020 freshman class without the usual turnover created by the graduation of seniors would create logistical problems with roster sizes and scholarship limits. Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn said the Academic Progress Rate (APR) formula would also need to be adjusted because of a likely influx of transfers.

When they spoke with local media via a teleconference earlier this month, however, several of the Razorbacks’ spring sports coaches seemed willing to figure out those issues and grant all athletes an extra year.

“I was on a conference call yesterday with the SEC just trying to navigate through roster sizes, travel squad sizes and I think that there would have to be some kind of changes,” softball coach Courtney Deifel said. “As I said before…it’s a problem I’d like to tackle that they all get their year back. I don’t mind working through that.”

Although it was always considered a long shot, the statement by the SAAC also called for eligibility relief for winter athletes who were unable to participate in the postseason. At Arkansas, that would include men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, gymnastics, and swimming and diving.

All six teams were unable to compete for NCAA Championships, while the men’s basketball team also had its SEC Tournament cut short and the gymnastics team lost its final regular-season meet and the SEC Championships.

“I think you go through the grind of the season, everything is tilted toward getting to the NCAA Championship - that’s what we’re about, that’s in our DNA,” Arkansas men’s track coach Chris Bucknam said. “You do the grind and you battle and fight and then you can’t compete at the highest level. That’s why I don’t think it should be just spring sports talk, I think it should be winter sports, as well.”

With those seasons mostly complete, though, athletes in winter sports were denied any eligibility relief.