The NCAA announced today that they will be extending eligibility for spring sport athletes in response to cancellations due to the novel coronavirus.
The announcement comes a day after the NCAA made the decision to cancel the men's and women's Division 1 basketball tournaments as well as championships across all sports throughout the rest of the academic calendar. All Power Five conferences and Group of Five conferences such as the AAC, A-10 and MAC cancelled their respective conference basketball tournaments as well.
As first reported by Jeff Goodman via Twitter, the NCAA has decided to grant spring sports athletes extra eligibility in the wake of these mass cancellations.
"The NCAA’s Council Coordination Committee has agreed to grant relief for the use of a season of competition for student-athletes who have participated in spring sports," he said in the tweet.
Goodman added that the committee intends to look into eligibility concerns for winter sports athletes that have been affected by the cancellations.
In a tweet from Inside the NCAA, the Division I Council Coordination Committee said that they had approved the idea of extra eligibility and will begin work on setting it up soon.
"'Council leadership agreed that eligibility relief is appropriate for all Division I student-athletes who participated in spring sports," they said. "Additional issues with NCAA rules must be addressed, and appropriate governing bodies will work through those in the coming days and weeks."
The Big Ten announced today that they will be suspending all team activities until April 6 instead of cancelling all spring sports seasons. The conference said that they will reevaluate the situation to better develop their next step.
It is unclear how extra eligibility will be granted if spring sports seasons do resume.
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