Clemson football would not be able to take advantage of NCAA eligibility pass.
Rumors broke Wednesday night that the NCAA Division I Council has voted to give every fall sports NCAA athlete a free year of eligibility regardless of how much they play over the next 10 months but Clemson football would not be able to benefit from it.
Initially, the first thought is Trevor Lawrence and Jackson Carman could be with Clemson football three more years, Travis Etienne could have two more years of eligibility and Tyler Davis could have four more years. While those are great thoughts and could come to fruition, there is zero chance that Clemson would retain any of them.
Sources: The NCAA Division I Council decided today that fall sport student-athletes can compete in any amount of competitions this year and it will not count as a season of eligibility. This still needs to be approved by NCAA Board of Governors on Friday.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 19, 2020
Clemson football is at a point where LSU, Alabama, and UGA have been for a decade – elite talent stays just long enough to become NFL eligible and then bolts and there is nothing wrong with that. (Yes, there have been several guys that elected to come back)
The entire point to college helps you prepare for the working world and many Clemson players are NFL ready after three years.
Sure, there are going to be players that will take advantage of this free year, should it be passed by the NCAA Board of Governors later this week, but it will not be any of the bigtime household names that fans from coast to coast would recognize – like Trevor Lawrence or D.J. Uiagalelei.
So what you’re telling me is that ETN still has two years left and Trevor has three???? https://t.co/ar40uY7spc
— Rubbing The Rock (@RubbingTheRock) August 19, 2020
Regardless of whether or not Clemson football can benefit from this ruling makes no difference as this is something that the NCAA should do given that most leagues across the country have canceled fall sports this season.
From a financial standpoint, there aren’t a lot of programs that can take advantage of this either.
Think back to March when the NCAA gave an additional year of eligibility to spring athletes, schools like Wisconsin told its seniors that they could not afford for them to come back and that they needed to “move on with their lives”.
Thanks to IPTAY, any player that wanted to take advantage of this extra year of eligibility can but don’t count on a lot of Tigers opting into an extra year of eligibility.