Student-athletes who had their spring season cut short will receive another season of eligibility.
The NCAA Council ruled schools will have the authority to grant spring season student-athletes with another year of eligibility Monday afternoon.
“The Council’s decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level,” Council chairwoman M. Grace Calhoun said in a press release. “The Board of Governors encouraged conferences and schools to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and their communities, and now schools have the opportunity to do that.”
The returning students may also retain their scholarships under the NCAA’s Student Assistance Fund, which schools are allowed to use. Teams will be allowed to carry more members on scholarship, accounting for both returning and new recruits.
Although every spring sport is covered under the new ruling, no winter sports athletes will be provided with the same benefits. The Council ruled this was because winter sports student-athletes completed most or all of their regular season. This includes Basketball, which saw the majority of Division-I conference season’s end without a champion and no national champion crowned. The America East originally ruled to play its championship games with limited attendance before canceling them all together on March 12th.
The Council will also increase the roster limit in baseball for the 2021 season.
Several Stony Brook senior athletes announced their intention to return to the Athletics program in anticipation towards the official statement.
“I’m so grateful that I have the opportunity to put a Stony Brook jersey back on next year. These past few weeks have been filled with so much uncertainty but I know athletes all over the country are so thankful for the NCAAs final decision to extend eligibility. We are all trying to support each other through this crazy time and this just gives our team something to look forward to and another goal to start chasing,” senior Women’s Lacrosse player Taryn Ohlmiller said in a statement sent to Axcess Sports Monday evening.
“If I get the extra year of eligibility, I’m 100 percent coming back,” teammate Ally Kennedy said earlier this March. “That is something I’d want to do. I want to be able to write my own ending and end my lacrosse career the way I really want to.”
“I am so happy for my seniors that have given our program their heart and soul and that these incredible women get to write their own ending,” head coach Joe Spallina tweeted.
