NCAA passed what most refer to as the "5 in 5 rule", which gives all NCAA sanctioned college athletes 5 years of eligibility. 

The clock starts with full-time enrollment in college or the year after an athlete's 19th birthday, whichever comes first.

No more redshirts for injuries. The only exceptions will be for official religious mission trips, active military service or pregnancy. 

This does not pick up players that just exhausted their eligibility in the spring of this year or earlier.

I think this is a boon for women's athletics as most of the top athletes will opt to stay and play all 5 years. This is also a huge deal for the 98+% of athletes that go pro in something other than sports, as they will all have an opportunity to leave college with a Master's degree now.

A player with local connections like Trent Noah, as they mentioned on KSR, just got an extra NIL year. 

One issue no one has talked about yet is suddenly there could be as many as 20% more players, without rosters large enough to handle them. 

Imagine a football team with 16 seniors and 12 want to come back for that 5th year. The rest of the team loves it at that school and none enter the portal. That only leaves 4 roster spots open for incoming freshmen and transfers...as current roster sizes sit. It will level off over time, but coaches getting commitments all summer this year may find themselves short of open roster spots. They'll be faced with telling some current players that they aren't welcome back or tell recruits they suddenly don't have room for them. This could be a real mess for football this first year.

12 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

This does not pick up players that just exhausted their eligibility in the spring of this year or earlier.

The lawsuits have already been filed by players in this category who say the 5 in 5 rule should go into effect immediately and include them. 

Edited June 27Jun 27 by Voice of Reason

1 hour ago, Voice of Reason said:

The lawsuits have already been filed by players in this category who say the 5 in 5 rule should go into effect immediately and include them. 

They will not win this lawsuit.

2 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

The lawsuits have already been filed by players in this category who say the 5 in 5 rule should go into effect immediately and include them. 

That was to be expected, not shocking at all.

I think the reason for the timing of this vote was for the vote to not be taken until all of the 2025-26 athletes had completed their seasons.

Why would the NCAA do this?

33 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

Why would the NCAA do this?

I think it is meant to remove subjectivity from eligibility and stop the lawsuits.

On 6/26/2026 at 11:24 PM, Jumper_Dad said:

NCAA passed what most refer to as the "5 in 5 rule", which gives all NCAA sanctioned college athletes 5 years of eligibility. 

The clock starts with full-time enrollment in college or the year after an athlete's 19th birthday, whichever comes first.

No more redshirts for injuries. The only exceptions will be for official religious mission trips, active military service or pregnancy. 

This does not pick up players that just exhausted their eligibility in the spring of this year or earlier.

Are there any transfer rules attached to this?

5 hours ago, 4 Quarters said:

Are there any transfer rules attached to this?

Not that I saw. I'm not sure at this point they can limit transfers without having signed contracts as employees.