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NCAA reportedly considering allowing athletes to play in 5 seasons, other drastic rule changes
By Crissy Froyd
Published:
The winds of change continue to blow in the NIL era as the NCAA is reportedly considering multiple drastic rule changes that would significantly alter college athletics.
The changes could include allowing athletes a 5th year of eligibility for all sports and doing away completely with the national letter of intent.
There is expected to be a year-long process to comprehensively review NCAA athlete-eligibility rules to reflect the House settlement details, according to the report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports:
“In one of the more notable potential changes, athletes in all sports could participate in up to a certain amount of contests during a sports season while still preserving their redshirt,” Dellenger wrote. “Such a policy is only currently permitted in football and wrestling. In football, for instance, a player can play in up to four regular season games and still preserve his redshirt season (the NCAA recently updated this rule to exempt all postseason competition from the four-game policy).”
Currently, football players are able to play in up to 4 games during the regular season while maintaining their redshirt.
The new signing model that includes the elimination of the NLI could arrive and be fully approved in October, which stands just one month away. The Early Signing Period for the class of 2025 is currently scheduled for December.
How this plays out and what continues to shift in an evolving world of college athletics will be something to keep an eye on.
Crissy covers SEC football news for Saturday Down South.
