Projected Scholarship Table (2020-25)

DI Council extends eligibility for winter sport student-athletes

Members also provide additional flexibility in championships selection, membership requirements

October 14, 2020 3:15pm

Winter sport student-athletes who compete during 2020-21 in Division I will receive both an additional season of competition and an additional year in which to complete it, the Division I Council decided. The same flexibility was provided to student-athletes after the spring season was canceled in 2020 and the fall season was seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.



The Council met by videoconference Tuesday and Wednesday.



“The pandemic will continue to impact winter sport seasons in ways we can’t predict. Council members opted to provide for winter sport student-athletes the same flexibility given spring and fall sports previously,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania. “The actions today ensure the continuation of local decision-making in the best interest of each institution and its student-athletes.”



Additionally, Division I schools will not be required to sponsor the minimum required number of sports for membership purposes, provided the school indicated on its Sports and Demographics Survey forms that it intended to sponsor the requisite number of sports but cannot due to COVID-19 challenges.



Schools also will not be required to sponsor a sport in each season, and multisport conferences are not required to meet minimum sport sponsorship requirements.



The Council also agreed to grant a blanket waiver for 2020-21 to allow conferences to earn an automatic bid in fall championships if a minimum of three member schools participated in conference competition in that sport. The membership will collaboratively address automatic qualifications and at-large allocations should there be a change to field sizes in winter and spring sports, except for men’s and women’s basketball.



The Competition Oversight Committee previously had approved flexibility for championships selection:



Teams in winter sports can participate in as few as 50% of the required minimum contests/dates of competition and still be considered for championships selection. Men’s and women’s basketball previously set their minimum contest number at 13. This reduction is consistent with what was provided for fall sports.

Teams in winter sports are not required to have an overall won-lost record of .500 or better, which is normally required for teams to be eligible for at-large championships selections. This also is consistent with what was provided for fall sports teams.

The Council also moved all legislation that was tabled from the 2019-20 legislative cycle into the 2021-22 cycle.

Division I Council extends eligibility for student-athletes impacted by COVID-19

Schools can authorize an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility

March 30, 2020 6:50pmMichelle Brutlag Hosick

The Division I Council on Monday voted to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility.



Members also adjusted financial aid rules to allow teams to carry more members on scholarship to account for incoming recruits and student-athletes who had been in their last year of eligibility who decide to stay. In a nod to the financial uncertainty faced by higher education, the Council vote also provided schools with the flexibility to give students the opportunity to return for 2020-21 without requiring that athletics aid be provided at the same level awarded for 2019-20. This flexibility applies only to student-athletes who would have exhausted eligibility in 2019-20.



Schools also will have the ability to use the NCAA’s Student Assistance Fund to pay for scholarships for students who take advantage of the additional eligibility flexibility in 2020-21.



Division I rules limit student-athletes to four seasons of competition in a five-year period. The Council’s decision allows schools to self-apply waivers to restore one of those seasons of competition for student-athletes who had competed while eligible in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 spring season



The Council also will allow schools to self-apply a one-year extension of eligibility for spring-sport student-athletes, effectively extending each student’s five-year “clock” by a year. This decision was especially important for student-athletes who had reached the end of their five-year clock in 2020 and saw their seasons end abruptly.



“The Council’s decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Penn. “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.”



Winter sports were not included in the decision. Council members declined to extend eligibility for student-athletes in sports where all or much of their regular seasons were completed.



The Council also increased the roster limit in baseball for student-athletes impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the only spring sport with such a limit.