Reaction to Wednesday’s news
The possibility of an added year of eligibility for student-athletes in fall sports is just around the corner, according to new reporting by Nicole Auerbach of the Athletic.
The biggest thing in here is that the athletes will keep that year regardless of whether they end up playing a spring season. It’s a blanket year of eligibility that is going to have long-reaching and unintended consequences. Right now we are seeing some student-athletes opt out and decide to prepare for the NFL Draft, as was the case with USC defensive lineman Jay Tufele.
However, we are also going to see players take advantage of that extra year in a brand new college football world where they can make money off their name, image, and likeness. This will happen while they use the extra year to get ready for the NFL draft. An odd latent function of the new NLI policy is that it may lead to students staying in school and opting to take that extra year because they don’t necessarily need the money right now, the reason being that they would have endorsement deals. Obviously, all this is still to be finalized.
The extra year of eligibility is also going to create a logjam at certain positions, at least for a couple of years, while coaches try to honor the offers they’ve made to underclassmen who still have another year of high school but also have a full scholarship offer from their top school. A perfect example of this is Georgia with former USC blue-chip quarterback J.T. Daniels.
Daniels already has to compete with Jamie Newman and Stetson Bennett, but he also has to compete with the other quarterbacks Georgia will be bringing in who can come in early because of the coronavirus. It’s a perfect blend of chaos: Upperclassmen can’t go anywhere, but early high school graduates can come in and potentially play what would amount to an entire year — early! Players such as Carson Beck and Brock Vandagriff are going to come in and try to keep Daniels from ever seeing the field.
It’s going to be very interesting to watch how this extra year of eligibility unfolds. It’s going to be equally interesting to watch schools do a high-wire balancing act bringing these kids along and still finding room for them all. Yet, recruits don’t go to a school such as USC or Georgia because they are scared of a little competition; they go there because they hope to get that type of competition for a spot. They would like to prevail in a battle for a starting spot, but even if they fall short, they get tested and their skills get developed for a potential shot at the pros down the line.
All you can ask for these days as a recruit is a chance. There are going to be a lot of players trying to find their “chance” in a clogged college football environment, but that does not mean the NCAA did the wrong thing. It did exactly what it should have; now it’s up to the member institutions to make it all work.
