COLUMBUS — The NCAA last month announced a change to its eligibility rules, adopting an age-based approach that will now give athletes five years to compete. Previous rules allowed four seasons of competition over a five-year period. This new approach effectively eliminates the practice of redshirting players.
Under the new rules, “student-athletes who meet all eligibility requirements and enter college no later than the academic year after their 19th birthday generally will have up to five years of eligibility.” There’s some potential gray area for athletes who delay their college enrollment past that 19th-birthday threshold, and those athletes may not have five years to compete. But this generally means that most players now have five years to compete, and changes the math for players on Ohio State’s roster.
We’ll break down exactly what that means below.