By Tom Seipp, Sports Editor and Mike Hogan, Editor-in-Chief
On March 30, the NCAA voted to grant an extra year of eligibility to student-athletes in spring sports whose seasons were cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As part of the decision, the NCAA left the decision up to institutions on whether or not they would grant the extra year. Some institutions, like the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have already elected not to grant spring student-athletes an extra year.
St. Bonaventure University, however, has decided to allow its spring student-athletes to return for an extra year of play, as long as the student-athletes can make it work academically and financially, according to Scott Eddy, SBU’s director of athletics communications.
The NCAA also left it up to institutions to decide how much scholarship aid returning athletes would receive. According to the NCAA’s release, institutions could award less, zero or the same amount of financial aid to an athlete who decides to return for an extra season.
According to Eddy, returning SBU student-athletes will receive the same amount of athletic scholarship aid as previously received.
“Their amount of athletic scholarship aid would remain the same as it would have for this year in the event they decided to return,” Eddy said. “Each individual situation is different, of course, and they must remain enrolled in a full class load geared toward completing an academic program in order to be eligible by NCAA rules, so that means they must be eligible for a graduate program, etc.”
According to Eddy, the SBU Athletics Department expects eight to 10 seniors to accept the extra year.
“The majority of our spring seniors – around 30 who would have been competing this year – have elected to graduate and move into post student-athlete life, but we expect 8 to 10 seniors will accept the extra year of eligibility and return to programs next year,” Eddy said.
Larry Sudbrook, manager of the SBU baseball team, said all six of his seniors want to return, but suspects only four will.
“We have one young man, that in four years, he graduated with his bachelor’s degree and his masters,” Sudbrook said. “There is really nothing he can take here full time. He’s a young man that may end up losing that last year, even though he wants to come back.”
For some players, according to Sudbrook, affording an extra year will be difficult. None of his athletes are on full scholarships to begin with, he said.
“You can give them less, or you can give them zero, but you can’t give them more. For some kids who maybe weren’t planning on getting a master’s degree, they may not be able to because of the financial part,” Sudbrook said.
SBU Softball Coach Mike Threehouse expects none of his five seniors to return next season, but said some of his younger athletes may decide to stay for an extra season in the near future.
While Threehouse said it was a positive that players were granted an additional year, he stated his concerns regarding financial aid. Threehouse said his program has the smallest scholarship budget in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Threehouse added that he budgets his scholarship money for three to four years in advance.
“Now, if five sophomores want to stay that extra year, that money has already basically been budgeted for recruits,” he said. “The numbers are definitely not just going to be affected for one year, they’re going to be affected for two to four years out.”
Ultimately, Eddy said, athletes, along with their families, will have to weigh their options.
“When people think about the extra year of eligibility, some forget that even if a senior is completing their undergraduate academic program this year that doesn’t mean that they could return to school next year, play their sport and not take classes.”
hoganm17@bonaventure.edu
seipptw19@bonaventure.edu
