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Report: NCAA Considering Adding Fifth Year of Eligibility

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NCAA Basketball November 21, 2022 David Hague/PSN

The NCAA landscape has seen near-unthinkable levels of change in recent years, with developments like Name, Image and Likeness deals paving the way for athletes to receive financial compensation for their efforts and fundamentally altering the state of the sport.

Changes continue to roll in as NCAA officials search for ways to best adjust to this brave new world, and one of the latest proposals could provide a big boost to the Villanova Wildcats. Per a report from CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein, the NCAA is mulling a change that would give all college athletes in all sports a fifth year of eligibility moving forward.

It’s unclear whether the change would be retroactive, affecting players currently on the Wildcats’ roster like Jhamir Brickus, Wooga Poplar and Jordan Longino, or if it’s restricted to incoming athletes or those who have yet to exhaust their eligibility. Of course, it would be much easier for athletes with some time remaining in college already to receive an extension: according to the initial Rothstein report, “the topic will continue to be discussed in early 2025,” and ongoing discussions may not reach their conclusion in time for older athletes to reach a decision.

This development would give athletes whose skills make them excel in the college game but wouldn’t necessarily translate to the professional level (or that play a non-revenue sport) another chance to play the game they love and receive NIL compensation for doing so, not to mention the possibility of picking up another masters degree. For the teams themselves, it could block younger talents from playing at times — always a risky bet in the impatient era of the unrestricted transfer portal — but also give teams another chance to run it back with well-loved talents.

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