After a long wait, all NCAA Division athletes in spring sports were granted an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NCAA Division I Council, which handles the decisions and rulings for the NCAA, voted to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes an additional season of competition, the association announced on Monday.
“It was not a surprise,” Southern Miss Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain said. “We had been kind of monitoring that and giving our feedback as a conference. We felt like we were heading in that direction. I am glad that we got to the point that we have the opportunity these spring sports student-athletes to get their year back. There is obviously a lot of pieces to the puzzle but a good starting point for us being able to have that blanket waiver to give them their year back.”
The Council agreed to allow adjustments of scholarship limits for seniors and incoming athletes.
“Honestly, I was kind of shocked that they gave everybody the year back,” Southern Miss baseball coach Scott Berry said. “I think the biggest win is for the seniors; that’s who I wanted to make sure was taken care of. I didn’t want them to end their season as they did and not be able to cross the finish line as every senior had before them. I was really happy for them.”
As a result, college baseball will have its roster limit expanded. Programs and athletic departments will have the right to give scholarship money to a returning senior as long as it does not exceed the amount they had in 2020.
“I think that was put in place because not everybody out there, (at least) in Division 1 baseball can’t afford to take on this extra expense, Berry said. “They might not be able fulfill the amount they were on then but maybe they can do partial of that. It’s not just baseball every athletic director and administration is having to do this with all the spring sports.”
Winter sports will not receive an additional season of eligibility. Junior college transfers will have to submit a waiver to the NJCAA to earn the extra year of eligibility in the NCAA.
McClain explained how teams will be able to adjust their rosters moving ahead.
“In baseball, for instance, it’s 11.7 scholarships (that is the maximum),” McClain said. “Let’s assume that our seniors are on two full scholarships total, and so that means you can award 13.7 scholarships next year if all your seniors stay. It doesn’t mean we use academic dollars, we can award more athletic dollars, but that number only goes up by what the seniors are on. The challenge here is that there is the ability to award more athletic dollars, but there are no new dollars. We have to figure out what that total financial impact will be.”
While programs will be able to use more scholarship money, the main issue now for Southern Miss and other schools alike, is having enough money to support the number of seniors.
“We just have to have those individual conversations and getting a feel for what that means for each of our seniors,” McClain said. “Then we have to evaluate the financial impacts of what that means in rewarding additional scholarships, especially as we take some hits on the revenue side. It’s just a matter of balancing those things out. Now we just have to work through that process and find a way to make it balance out from a financial standpoint.”
Between both the men and women’s programs, Southern Miss will have nine programs affected by the decision.
However, baseball will still have to factor in the Major League draft before a roster is finalized. The prospect of returning seniors in baseball could be even higher if the MLB draft decides to reduce its draft from 40 rounds to five.
“We are starting that process now and trying to feel (the seniors) out and see what their interest is,” Berry said. “The other obstacle is that they will say, ‘I would entertain coming back, but I need to see what happens with professional baseball if there are free agent opportunities.’ Those are all things that work in our future that we have no crystal ball for to see. That’s what makes baseball harder than any other sport to manage and adjust because there are always those variables that no other sports really have.”
According to McClain, the decision was the correct choice, but that it will be a rift that college athletics feel for at least the next three years.
“It’s going to take a few years for it to balance out roster wise,” McClain said. “I think it will take a few years for (roster sizes) to level out for when you can you manage your numbers and the roster to where you want to. I think it will be over the course of maybe two or three years before we can get that back to what’s a more manageable number.”
