TALLAHASSEE, Fla. | Florida A&M University Vice President and Director of Athletics
Kortne Gosha released a statement Tuesday afternoon in response to the NCAA's decision to give eligibility relief to all spring sport student-athletes.
"The NCAA got it right," Gosha said. "We're excited and obviously our spring sports student-athletes have an opportunity to compete. These young men and women have worked tirelessly in the classroom, to train and perfect their craft and for the opportunity to compete. During these unprecedented times, we owe them that and so now as athletic director we will continue to work to make these situations work to the best interest of our student-athletes."
College athletes who participated in a spring sport this season will get another year of eligibility.
The NCAA Division I Council approved on Monday to allow schools to provide spring sports student-athletes an additional season of competition and extension of their period of eligibility after their season was cut short more than two weeks ago by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schools also will have the ability to use the NCAA's Student Assistance Fund to pay for scholarships for students who take advantage of the additional eligibility flexibility in 2020-21.
Division I rules limit student-athletes to four seasons of competition in a five-year period. The Council's decision allows schools to self-apply waivers to restore one of those seasons of competition for student-athletes who had competed while eligible in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 spring season.
The Council also will allow schools to self-apply a one-year extension of eligibility for spring-sports student-athletes, effectively extending each student's five-year "clock" by a year. This decision was especially important for student-athletes who had reached the end of their five-year clock in 2020 and saw their seasons end abruptly.
"The Council's decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level," said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Penn. "The Board of Governors encouraged conferences and schools to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and their communities, and now schools have the opportunity to do that."
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