The NCAA Division I Cabinet took a decisive step at defining age eligibility rules for student athletes on Tuesday when it voted overwhelmingly to mandate a model that gives five years to play five season with no redshirts.
Based on the new guideline, an athlete’s eligibility clock starts when they first enroll in school or at the beginning of the academic year after their 19th birthday, depending on which comes first. The rule change is effective immediately and will be not final until the Cabinet meeting concludes on Wednesday.
“While previous NCAA rules have served college sports well for a long time, we heard also loud and clear from NCAA members and student-athletes that eligibility rules should be easier to understand,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said. “This change to an age-based model eliminates aspects of the rules that have proven difficult to administer in the current litigious environment and clearly defines the exceptions available in limited circumstances, while preserving the long-intended alignment of eligibility with typical college enrollment and graduation patterns, because 98 percent of the 550,000 NCAA student-athletes will go pro in something other than sports.”
But the rule change would drastically reduce waivers and redshirts for athletes, with some who have used the exemptions to extend their collegiate careers beyond four years in some instances.
Waivers would be granted only in extreme circumstances like military service, pregnancy or religious work that would prevent an athlete from competition.
Despite the rule being passed today, it will not apple to athletes whose eligibility expired after the current 2025-26 athletic year. But those who were set to be fourth-year seniors in the upcoming 2026-27 season will get an extra year of eligibility that they have the option to use.
“With these changes, the Cabinet has taken decisive action for the benefit of student-athletes and the system of NCAA Division I athletics,” Josh Whitman, athletics director at Illinois and chair of the Cabinet said. “For many student-athletes who enroll in college immediately after high school, these changes will result in the opportunity to potentially compete for an additional season in their chosen sport. For campus officials and coaches, this change provides rules that are simpler to administer and easier to predict for roster management decisions.”
The rule change only applies for Division I but closely mirrors recent collegiate reform measures by President Donald Trump and a bipartisan bill from senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell last month.
In April, Trump signed an executive order limiting NCAA athletes at five years of eligibility with one transfer and set an August mandate for the changes.
It was his second presidential order directly targeting college sports after a similar move last July was aimed at limiting when athletes could turn professional, while preserving scholarships based on the revenue of each institution and clamping down on payments from boosters that were presented under the context of endorsement deals.
Cruz and Cantwell introduced their Protect College Sports Act late last month that sought to “restore stability to college sports.”
“College sports are at a breaking point,” Cruz said when the legislation was proposed. “Fans can see their favorite teams being hollowed out by transfer chaos, fake NIL bidding wars, eligibility lawsuits and a system that allows the richest programs to keep pulling away.”
Despite resistance from the SEC and Big Ten conferences, the Senate Commerce Committee voted 19-9 last Thursday to send the bill forward to a full Senate vote with the hopes of it passing before the school year begins for most schools in August.
Meanwhile, The Division I Student-Athlete Advocacy Committee issued a statement in support the rule change, which will see its impact in the coming month.
“The Student-Athlete Advocacy Committee has met with student-athlete leaders across Division I, and we consistently heard that student-athletes want an eligibility model that is simple to understand, transparent to administer, and applied fairly across all sports and schools,” the statement read. “This rule change, which clearly establishes an individual’s period of eligibility, provides student-athletes with greater certainty as they plan for college and make important decisions regarding enrollment, competition and degree completion.”
