With so much on the air about college sports this fall, the NCAA is working on a change that allows athletes to play without losing their eligibility. If athletes want to participate in sporting events this fall, they do not have to worry about losing a season if they do.
The NCAA Division Council today decided to allow athletes to play fall sports while not losing years of eligibility, reports Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports. Independent sources confirmed the news to national 247Sports college reporter Brandon Marcello. The NCAA qualification decision and other changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic are awaiting approval from the NCAA Board of Governors.
“Sources: The NCAA Division I Board decided today that fall student-athletes can participate in any number of leagues this year and it will not count as a season in consideration,” he said. Thamel tweeted. “This has yet to be approved by the NCAA Board of Governors Friday.”
The NCAA decision, passed Friday, includes an exemption for active athletes for senior students when it comes to a 2021 limit for bankruptcy, arecordings by Nicole Auerbach.
For now, it will allow athletes to participate in their respective sports without the fear of being eligible if the season cannot be completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NCAA is also considering some other important changes, as they relate to the upcoming fall and spring seasons. Some football teams that will not play this fall, which include all those in the Big Ten and Pac-12, will be able to get some work done throughout the semester. Thamel also reports that the Board of Division I has approved recommendations from the Football Review Commission, allowing teams whose season has been postponed to receive 12 hours of practice as other team activities per week. That policy will last until the spring semester.
Finally, the NCAA approved the move of fall championships to the spring, per Thamel. While decisions have yet to be made on how many teams will be in each postseason and the logistics of some leagues playing in the fall and others in the spring, the NCAA is ready to postpone these championship games.
Last week, NCAA President Mark Emmert declared that it was unlikely that fall sports could be crowned champions, with the exception of FBS football.
“We can’t drop NCAA championships at this point because there are not enough schools participating,” Emmert said. “The board of directors also said that if you do not have half of the schools that do the sport, you can not have a legitimate championship. We can now play in no NCAA Division-I championship sport, which is anything but FBS football, which continues into the fall. Sad and tragic, that will be the case this fall. Full stop. ”
