NCAA Grants Extra Year of Eligibility; How It Impacts Oregon State

On Friday afternoon, the NCAA Board of Directors took a big step forward in giving clarity to those involved in fall sports, voting in favor to give all fall sport student-athletes an additional year of eligibility, and an additional year to complete it through a blanket waiver.

The move comes as little surprise as the Big 10 and Pac-12 conferences voted last week to postpone their respective seasons until at least the beginning of 2021, casting doubt into the future of those student-athletes in those two conferences.

With this blanket waiver in place, it means that current Oregon State seniors would be eligible to return to the team for the 2021 season while not counting against the official scholarship limit.

Regardless of whether or not the 2020 season is played in spring, or not played at all, it will not count towards the student-athlete eligibility. Essentially, the NCAA gave a free year to everyone involved in fall sports as no amount of games played, or not played, will count as far as eligibility goes.

For example: If the Beavers play the 2020 season in spring, Jermar Jefferson, who's entering his junior season, could play the entirety of the season and still come back to Corvallis in the fall of 2021 as a junior. There would be no eligibility lost.

This "blanket waiver" is the same outcome that the NCAA decided to give to spring student-athletes when the COVID-19 Pandemic first canceled spring sports in early March.

As far as Oregon State goes, here's the breakdown of the redshirt-seniors, seniors, redshirt-juniors, and juniors as it currently stands. The Beavers will release a new roster in the spring per OSU communications.

Rs-Sr. (10)

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Sr. (1)

Isaiah Dunn - DB

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Rs-Jr (22)

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Jr. (7)

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Incoming Upperclassmen (2)

Rezjohn Wright - DB | Ronald Hardage III - DB

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NITTY GRITTY

- Schools are prohibited from requiring student-athletes to waive legal rights regarding COVID-19 as a condition of athletics participation.

- Schools are prohibited from canceling or reducing athletics scholarships if a college athlete in any sport opts not to participate due to COVID-19.

- Student-athletes who do not enroll full time during the 2020 fall term have flexibility in the progress-toward-degree requirements that must be met for eligibility in future terms.

- The financial aid of fall sport senior student-athletes who take advantage of the additional year of eligibility and the extended clock will not count against team limits in 2021-22.

Schools are required to:

- Review current insurance coverage for all student-athletes who are competing this fall.

- Inform student-athletes about the risk classification of their sport as outlined in the Resocialization of Collegiate Sport document.

- Inform student-athletes how the mandates in the Resocialization of Collegiate Sport document are being met at their campus.