Now that we are at the beginning of April, I believe it is time to reflect on the March Madness we unfortunately missed.  The end of so many sports stories and memories came so abrupt.  For the fans, losing a month of some of the best entertainment of the entire year is disappointing, but for the players, the international pandemic means so much more.

Over this past week, the NCAA has had a difficult decision as to whether to extend the eligibility of athletes who will miss out on their sports seasons as a result of the coronavirus.  When you or anyone decides to participate in college athletics at the varsity level, there is only a window of four years from your first appearance with a team in which you are allowed to compete in that sport.  This allows for fresh faces each year across college sports and keeps the game mostly limited to young adults as opposed to the players at the professional level who have become fully developed.

Instead of having some fourth year athletes end their careers before getting to finish out the season, or for that matter even start the spring season, the NCAA was considering allowing those athletes who wished to remain at their university to continue playing for another year.  The ultimate decision on this proposal was to give an additional year of eligibility to spring sports athletes, but to count winter sports as having completed a full season.

In reality, the regular season for all of the NCAA winter athletics had been completed and post season matches were all that remained.  For a league that relies so heavily on the hype that is built up for the late winter and early spring schedule packing, it feels like a bit of a letdown that our senior athletes will no longer be allowed to compete again.  To that point, particularly in the basketball tournament, some teams only have a window of one year where they receive a special talent that can carry them to post season play.  While some universities are blessed with recruiting talent for years upon years, others struggle to find one standout player in a generation.  If this was their year, it would have been reassuring to know that they could at least have another shot of making the bracket.  Basketball is the most obvious situation as the most teams are brought to the post season, but in reality, any sport could make the claim that they are missing out on what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The flip side of the argument and how the NCAA and universities see it is they do not have to spend the money for scholarships for athletes who choose to stay an additional year.  While larger schools would have little problem making the adjustment, smaller colleges could see an additional year of eligibility as a hindrance to their programs.

Both sides are valid, and it is really up to each and every one of us to decide what we believe is right.  From this post you might see that I stand on the side of granting that additional year, however, I can certainly see the other argument.  The world is changing quickly and so are our sports.