After a vote by the Division I council, the NCAA announced Monday that spring athletes will qualify for an additional year of eligibility.
However, individual schools will determine how much aid will be granted to each student-athlete.
This comes after all NCAA spring sports were canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Council chair M. Grace Calhoun released a statement on the matter.
“The Council’s decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level,” Calhoun said in a statement. “The Board of Governors encouraged conferences and schools to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and theirs and their communities, and now schools have the opportunity to do that.”
Financial implications were added to the waiver, which would allow teams to support more athletes with scholarships.
According to the NCAA, schools will also have access to the NCAA’s Student Assistance Fund, which was created to help athletes with non-athletics-related costs to help pay for scholarships.
SDSU athletes who play spring sports will have the option to play for an additional year, although not all athletes may take advantage of this opportunity.
After initially announcing on March 13 that eligibility would in fact be available to Division I spring athletes, the NCAA clarified that it only said this measure would be “appropriate” and that the final decision would be made at a later date.
Now, it’s official. The NCAA has granted student-athletes participating in spring sports an extra year of eligibility.
Players from SDSU’s baseball team shared their thoughts with The Daily Aztec back on March 13 if the ruling did come into fruition.
Senior center fielder and second baseman Mike Jarvis said he agrees with the ruling.
“I definitely think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “Seniors should be given the opportunity to come back and have another go if they want.”
NCAA said while spring sports athletes are eligible for another year of playing, winter sports participants will not be granted the additional year.
There were talks about SDSU men’s basketball seniors coming back after their opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament was taken away. That included guard KJ Feagin and forward Yanni Wetzell, but the two made it public it wasn’t something they were vying for anyway.
Jarvis told The Daily Aztec, despite the opportunity to come back, he feels prepared to move on from collegiate competition.
“As for me, it’s nice to have that as an option, but I don’t know whether I’d take the extra year or not, he said. It will take some time to get a better idea of how it will play out,” Jarvis said in a message.
Additionally, the roster limit for baseball student-athletes has been extended by the NCAA but has yet to specify those parameters. Baseball is the only spring sport that has roster limitations.
Daniel Guerrero contributed to the reporting of this story.
