As the NCAA considers a generational change to the organization’s eligibility rules for athletes, some potential clarity emerged regarding one of the most vexing parts of the age-based eligibility proposal.
NCAA president Charlie Baker told ESPN in a phone interview Monday that the implementation, which had been uncertain, is not expected to include athletes who graduated or exhausted their eligibility in the 2025-26 season.
“If you’ve used up your eligibility, you’ve used it up,” Baker told ESPN of the tenor of the discussion of the Division I board of directors on Monday.
Baker added that he is “pretty optimistic” that the new rules will pass. The age-based eligibility would give athletes five years to compete in Division I, starting immediately after their high school graduation or 19th birthday, whichever comes first.
The Division I board of directors on Monday directed the Division I cabinet to advance the proposal. The cabinet has been discussing the change and will have a meeting about it — which could include a vote — on May 22. “Their direction to the DI cabinet is full speed ahead on figuring this out,” Baker said.
Regarding the implementation, the NCAA said in a statement that the Division I board formally recommended Monday to “Maintain existing rules — allowing four seasons of competition in five years of eligibility — for student-athletes competing in the 2025-26 academic year; new rules are not expected to retroactively apply to student-athletes whose eligibility is or will be completed by the spring of 2026.”
Baker added to ESPN regarding the implementation directive: “A lot of the coaches, in particular, said this would be enormously challenging in a lot of ways. And I completely understand where they are coming from. It would also be unfair to a lot of these kids who are going to be part of the new world and weren’t part of the old world.”
Baker expounded on his optimism: “I’m pretty optimistic it’s going to happen. Mostly because the primary conversation hasn’t been about the idea of an age-based eligibility model being controversial. A lot of people are familiar with it because they’ve dealt with it in other settings, and they understand the simplicity of it.”
Though there has been discussion about different sports being affected differently, particularly college hockey, Baker said he doesn’t foresee any sports having exceptions. “The age limit is going to be the age limit,” he said. “That’s going to be across the board.”
The Division I cabinet has said previously that the new model would include potential exceptions for circumstances, such as pregnancy, military service and religious missions.
There has not been a significant change in the NCAA eligibility structure in decades. Perhaps the most notable part about this potential rule change is the speed with which it has come together. Baker said his administration has worked hard to streamline the cumbersome NCAA process to “create a faster way to process information and make decisions.”
“It’s a significant shift,” Baker said. “It’s one that I think, because of the simplicity and ease of understanding, in particular, has a lot of support in the membership.”
