The proposed rule probably would not be welcomed at BYU.
Jim Dean
Not just BYU. Wrestling has a lot of Mormon athletes, many who’ve done their 2 year mission. 4 time AA Brock Hardy from NU worked on water projects in Brazil for 2 years before enrolling in NU. That with Covid year and a redshirt put him at about 28 when he finished his eligibility
I don’t like the 5 years to play 5, but I certainly understand that there’s an issue.
Andy
College hockey would also be impacted. Most NCAA players wind up playing a few years of junior hockey. Although, it seems these changes were made with input from d1 hockey.
It sounds like the hockey schools, the service academies and the Mormon schools all had an opportunity to provide input, though it isn’t clear if they all got the accommodations they wanted.
Not too surprising, 11 athletes have filed a class action suit against the NCAA’s new 5-in-5 rule. I think they’ve got a viable argument, the transition to the new rule does seem to affect any players who have only been in college for 4 seasons. I’m still waiting to hear what the service academies and schools like BYU have to say about the 5-in-5 rule.
I did read that there are exceptions for military service and religious missions to delay the start at 19 years.
Still, no question that service academy and ivy league athletes may be able to use their 5th year at another school while getting a Masters.
A year ago, the heavyweight champion was an AA from the Air Force academy who moved to Oklahoma State for his 5th year. There has already been wrestlers from Cornell and Princeton to transfer as graduate students.
As a UNO alum/fan, I am curious how this will impact college hockey. A lot of those players will play juniors before going to the NCAA.
We have junior hockey league team here, and those players are mostly still in HS. That may not be true of all junior hockey leagues.