To create a system where every college athlete has an equal opportunity to play their respective sports, the NCAA’s five-year eligibility rules and exceptions are necessary to the system of the league.
Throughout the past years, starting with the unprecedented issues that arose during the outbreak of COVID-19, the eligibility process has become a mess through the exemptions and waivers that have been given out. However, this does not mean that the process itself is flawed.
While there is no denying that having athletes such as Florida University Quarterback Carson Beck, who has played six seasons in the NCAA, the rules themselves are not the issue.
COVID-19 was a surprise to the world, and the NCAA was no exception.
These extreme circumstances will never be as likely to happen as they have been in these past few years.
Beyond the fact that COVID-19 exemptions will no longer exist after this year, medical waivers are extremely important to the college eligibility process.
The main example of this is with Ole Miss Quarterback Trinadad Chambliss.
For four seasons, Chambliss played Division 2 football at Ferris State and transferred to Ole Miss in his fifth season to play Division 1. During his time at Ferris State in 2022, Chambliss dealt with a respiratory illness and did not dress or attend any games that season.
Due to this, after this past college football season, Chambliss decided to apply for a medical redshirt, which would allow him to play his sixth season. While he was initially denied this exemption by the NCAA, in a court case in early February, Chambliss’ appeal was accepted, and he was granted the opportunity to play.
This example showcases the importance of the rules that some may call egregious and unfair. Chambliss deserved to play this season because he could not play earlier in his career. If he had not been granted this year to play, Chambliss would have had to declare for the draft after only one year of playing in Division 1 football.
No doubt if he had done this, his draft stock would have been substantially lower than the option of playing another year.
Past the medical exemptions and into the more common form of playing college sports when older is that of redshirting.
The current NCAA rules for redshirting and reclassifying are that once an athlete plays over four official games or, in some sports, 30% of their season, then they can no longer redshirt for the season.
This means that any games played beyond that threshold make the season count toward eligibility.
The current criticisms over this rule claim that students who redshirt as freshmen or even sophomores are abusing the rules and get to play later in their careers than other students. However, this only looks at students who are on the far extreme of the system. The vast majority use this rule to prepare themselves for college athletics and use the few years that they have to play as effectively as possible.
Athletes like Carson Beck and his situation are completely blown out of proportion, and critics make this seem like a bigger issue than it is.
An example of the value of these current rules is with NBA player Cooper Flag.
Flag used the current rules of reclassifying to be able to enter the NCAA before he finished high school.
This allowed him to enter the league early and start a career that many predict will be one of the greats.
Flag is currently the favorite to win rookie of the year and has been extremely successful with the Dallas Mavericks, something that eligibility rules allowed.