3/28/2020 basketball Edit

NCAA to vote Monday on eligibility for winter and spring athletes

Brenden Slaughter • BeaversEdge

Publisher

After having their seasons cut short in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, winter and spring athletes will soon learn the status of their eligibility as an NCAA committee is set to vote on granting an extra year on Monday.

Per the Associated Press, there's strong support to grant spring athletes an extra year of eligibility, but as fas winter goes, it's more complicated.

“(W)inter sports had either concluded their regular season competition or substantially concluded their regular-season competition,” said the memo, a portion of which was obtained by The Associated Press."

Oregon State women's basketball coach Scott Rueck, and Mikayla Pivec voiced their support for granting an extra year of eligibility when talking with BeaversEdge.com after the season.

"They're getting short-changed in their experience, so what can we do to make it right? There should absolutely be an open-eared process to giving players an extra year and I'd be open to it," Rueck said.

"I hope I get another opportunity to have a shot with this team. You prepare your whole career for these last moments that end up being a culminating point in life," Pivec said. "It hurts to not be able to have that moment and I hope that there's an opportunity to come back."

The committee has representatives from all 32 conferences. After the vote, the Division I Board of Directors will have the opportunity to weigh in and could send it back to the council for further discussion.

This comes just days after the NCAA announced that revenue to schools across the country would be slashed by $375 million, leaving just $225 million to be distributed amongst the conferences instead of the originally-projected $600 million.

Men's basketball coach Wayne Tinkle was a bit more grounded with his take, noting that he would fully support those waivers, but understands that things happen in life that are out of your control.

"With regard to spring athletes, it makes total sense. In terms of our year, we pretty much had a full year, and it's a shame that we missed out on the postseason as so much magic is made there. I'd fully support those waivers, but we really try and tie in life lessons with basketball, and sometimes you don't get do-overs. I would support it fully if they proposed it because we wouldn't want our seniors not to be able to go out the way they wanted."