There may be good news for college athletes who had their careers cut short by the cancellation of all NCAA spring and winter sports.
According to Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic, the NCAA informed its members that it is looking into granting another year of eligibility to spring athletes who had their entire seasons cancelled. The organization will also look at potential relief for winter athletes, many of whom played their seasons but were not able to compete in NCAA championships.
Per source, NCAA sent a note to membership today saying it believes "it will be appropriate to grant relief for the use of a season for competition for student-athletes who have participated in spring sports."
NCAA will start working on issues tied to this & winter athletes.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) March 13, 2020
The committee working on this issue and how to make it work (financial aid implications, etc.) is a standing committee called the Division I Council Coordination Committee, and it says it will work on this in "a timely manner."
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) March 13, 2020
This is a lot easier said than done, and many issues will have to be worked through. Schools will have to account for incoming high school seniors who have scholarships already. On the issue of winter sports, there’s no guarantee that some NBA hopefuls will want to come back and play more college basketball. These are just some of the issues that will have to be sorted out, and probably helps explain why so many coaches would have preferred a postponement to outright cancellation.
