Year five or year four? This decision is a complete game-changer for some collegiate athletes. As the curtain closes on the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) unprecedented extra year of eligibility, student-athletes must decide if they will seize the moment for one final season.
With COVID-19 upsetting the lives of many, college athletes were no strangers to the unique circumstances that the pandemic put everyone in.
“COVID had a huge impact on my freshman year,” graduate student on the Elizabethtown College men’s lacrosse team Joey Kilpatrick said. “We had to do team meetings entirely on Zoom, weren’t allowed to have team lifts and had only a handful of small group practices before a few COVID cases broke out and all athletics were shut down campus-wide.”
With athletic competitions not being able to be held to prevent the spread of COVID-19, many athletes who chose to take their talents to the collegiate level were robbed of the opportunity. As a result, the NCAA allowed Division III athletes who were affected by COVID-19 to cut their seasons to compete in a fifth year of collegiate play.
Killpatrick used his granted fifth year to play.
“The main reason I chose to use my fifth year of eligibility was that I simply wanted to play another year of lacrosse,” Killpatrick said. “I had other teammates who I knew would be using their fifth years, so that made the decision easier as well.”
The fifth year of eligibility also opened opportunities for athletes academically.
“Being able to do the one-year MBA (Masters in Business Administration) program was another big reason I chose to stay,” Kilpatrick said. “I knew getting an MBA would be a good use of my extra year.”
While this fifth year allowed athletes to further their studies for another year, others decided to hang up their cleats for the last time to focus on their studies.
“Unfortunately, the occupational therapy program at Elizabethtown does the first round of internships during the spring semester, so I would be unable to play the sport I love and do the internship so that I could get my degree for my future job,” Etown women’s lacrosse alumni Sam Deiaco said.“I wish it could’ve been different, but I know that I would’ve been too busy to play lacrosse and wouldn’t have been able to invest my full effort into the sport.”
With a unique roadblock such as COVID, the NCAA still managed to find a way to recover the collegiate athlete experience for Division III athletes by providing them with the opportunity of a fifth year of play and to return to competition for another academic year. This athletic season will mark the last wave of players who opted to use the extra year of eligibility.
