NCAA Decides to Grant Spring Athletes Another Year; Winter Sports Not Included

It’s been nearly three weeks since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States brought an early end to NCAA athletics. March Madness was the first to go, not long after, the NCAA would announce that all athletics would be cancelled for the remainder of the spring. 

There is some relief for seniors who lost their last year of eligibility as of Monday, the NCAA announced they will extend their eligibility through 2020-21. 

This will only apply to spring “students-athletes who would have exhausted eligibility in 2019-20,” according to a press release by the NCAA. Freshman through Juniors will remain the same. 

For winter sports, such as basketball, hockey and swim and dive this extension does not apply. This is hard news to take for athletes around the country who didn’t get to finish their seasons. 

I was in San Diego with the Azusa Pacific Men’s Basketball team for the Division II West Regional playoffs when the news broke. The team was practicing at RIMAC Arena on the campus of UC San Diego where they set to play Cal State San Bernardino the following day. There wasn’t a dry eye in the team huddle at the conclusion of their final practice for the 2019-20 season. 

For those athletes there is no one shining moment, just an isolated dorm and online classes. 

The spring-sport athletes will have their eligibility extended, but with a catch. The schools are not required to give the returning players the same financial awards they received this previous year. In other words, the school doesn’t have to keep the athletes who have that extra eligibility year.

For some players, this extended year of eligibility won’t matter if their school has no interest in bringing them back. Schools that are smaller institutions such as APU could find it difficult to bring back certain players to their program if it proves to be too costly for them. 

Baseball is the only sport that is getting an extension to the amount of roster spots they can carry. The exact amount was not specified. 

APU’s Baseball team carried a senior heavy roster with 11 out of the 54 players on the roster being seniors. This puts the Cougars in a position to bring back some of their top talent from this season. 

Pitcher Nick Estrella was having a career high season statistically. He was third on the team in hitting percentage and was 2-0 from the mound in the shortened season. Although the Cougars were having a down year by APU standards, Estrella could be someone that will help them if he returns.