Coronavirus took everything we love; going out, being with friends and most importantly, sports. The sudden cancellation of winter and spring sports caused many collegiate athletes to lose their final moments playing the sports they love. These seniors lost everything they were looking forward to. Under NCAA rules, seniors had used their 4 years of eligibility. However, thousands of people pushed for the NCAA to grant seniors an extra year of eligibility due to coronavirus.
The NCAA came through with good news; they have decided to grant seniors an extra year of eligibility. As of now the extra year only extends to spring sport athletes. Duke basketball head coach, Coach K, posted a video saying that the NCAA should consider extending the eligibility to winter sport season athletes as well. This is a tough decision to make because most winter sport seasons were no longer ongoing. Yet the millions of people and hundreds of athletes had to miss out on the biggest basketball tournament in the world; March Madness. So what about those seniors who’s seasons were cut short just before they could accomplish history? Coach K expressed that this decision is difficult and would need to be analyzed very carefully due to the fact that expectations, rosters, scholarships and much more would be affected if winter sports are granted eligibility.
There has not yet been a final decision about whether or not winter athletes will be granted their extra year. Living in a world of no sports is hard. It makes writing a sports blog even harder. We are all adjusting and just trying to figure out what’s to come and the NCAA as well as every school and athlete has a lot to think about during this time. We thought it was very considerate of Coach K to speak out on behalf of winter sport athletes because although most seasons had come to an end, those that were still in season lost everything they worked toward.
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