NCAA Rulling big impact on winter sports

[mslacat]

I missed this but a little over 2 weeks ago the NCAA granted an additional yer of eligibility for all winter sport athletes (why only winter I do not know) so essentially this year is a freebee for both men's and women's basketball players. When I first heard about this yesterday I was told that this years seniors only would be granted the additional year, but from what I am hearing/reading now ALL players will be granted this additional year. The way I am reading this is that the maximum scholarship limit (13 for men and 15 for women) will be waived for students who fall under this rule moving forward. For example say your collage basketball program has 4 senior this year. Normally you would fill the scholarship of the 4 seniors and you would reach the staus quo. Next year your program can still sign your 4 players but you also get your 4 seniors back (if they choose) so you would have 17 scholar shipped players on the roster. No if one of the seniors decides not to return for the additional year you lose that scholarship and you are down to 16 scholarships (still three better than you normally would). There are a few D-1 schools out there with 8 or so seniors. They could have 21 scholarshipped players. Now what is really going to complicate matters is scholarship money. Do the small and mid majors have the money to fund all those extra scholarships for all winter sports. To complicate things even more the the one time transfer rule is going to into effect, meaning a player can now transfer (one time) with no sitting out penalty. This could look very attractive to those seniors granted an extra year. Or lets say you are an all Big Sky caliber big man who at the end of the 20-21 season you still have 2 years of eligibility remaining. You could write your own ticket.

The Bobcat men could have 17 scholarshipped players back next year (if they can afford them and everybody wants to return) including Xavier Bishop who is projected to be the best new comer in the Big Sky (although the Griz will argue for a certain Big man they have becoming eligible) this year. That could mean quite a few very good players will be sitting deep on the bench. It also means the 2021-22 Big Sky Conference teams being the most talented group of teams ever. It could be a wild season .... if we are not hit too hard by poaching from other "bigger" schools.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/sto ... t-athletes