The NCAA is weighing a significant overhaul of its eligibility rules, one that would replace the current system with a straightforward age-based standard. According to a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, an NCAA committee is scheduled to meet next week to review a proposal that would give student-athletes five full years of eligibility beginning from their 19th birthday or their high school graduation, whichever comes first.
Under the proposal, redshirts, waivers and most exceptions would be eliminated. The only circumstances that could qualify for any flexibility would be a narrow set of situations including maternity leave, military service and religious missions.
Whether the plan gains enough support from power conference leaders to move forward remains to be seen. If it does clear that threshold, swift approval could put the new rules in place as early as the fall semester.
How the current rules work and why they are a problem
Today’s NCAA eligibility structure allows athletes four playing seasons within a five-year window. Players have the ability to extend that window by pursuing redshirt designations or filing waiver requests, a process that has become increasingly contentious. Waiver disputes have generated a wave of lawsuits, with athletes regularly taking the NCAA to court over eligibility determinations. Varying rulings from federal and local judges have created an inconsistent patchwork that has frustrated member institutions and left the NCAA’s position difficult to defend.
The proposed standard aims to cut through that confusion by anchoring eligibility to something fixed and universal: age and graduation date. The logic is that a rule with no gray area is much harder to challenge in court, and much easier for families, coaches and administrators to plan around.
Ripple effects for reclassification decisions
The new framework could reshape decisions being made well before college ever begins. As draft analyst Jonathan Givony has noted, families in the United States sometimes choose in the ninth grade to have an athlete reclassify down a grade level so they arrive at college at an older age. Under the current system, those athletes can still receive a full complement of eligibility. Under the proposal, a player who turns 20 before playing a single college game would enter with only four years remaining rather than five, because the clock would have already started running from their 19th birthday.
That distinction could prompt families to rethink reclassification strategies that have become common in football and basketball over the past decade.
Cases that would look very different under the new rules
The proposal would close off the paths several recent high-profile athletes have used to extend their college careers. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss successfully won a court ruling allowing him to return for another season this fall. Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar and Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris pursued similar legal actions but did not prevail. Under the proposed rules, those kinds of cases would have almost no legal foothold.
On the basketball side, the proposal would address situations like that of Baylor’s James Nnaji, who was selected in the 2023 NBA draft and later sought a return to college basketball when his professional path stalled. Alabama’s Charles Bediako, who went undrafted that same year and spent time in the NBA G League before pursuing a return, represents a similar case. The new standard would draw a clear line that prevents that type of movement from becoming a recurring pattern.
Alignment with the White House
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 3 calling for a five-year participation window for college athletes along with more structured transfer rules. Trump had convened a college sports roundtable at the White House in March that brought together NCAA president Charlie Baker, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and former coaches Nick Saban and Urban Meyer, among others.
Dellenger reported that the NCAA’s work on eligibility reform predated the executive order. Still, passage of the proposal would largely reflect what the administration outlined at the conceptual level, giving the effort political momentum alongside its institutional support.
