5th year free agents?

An under-the-table rule by the NCAA is creating FREE AGENTS. Yes, free agents!

YocoHoops.com has a writeup on this, as well as Gregg Doyel at CBS sportsline.

YocoHoops.com highlights the story of Kevin Kruger, leaving ASU to play for daddy dearest at UNLV. And he will be eligible to play in 2006-07. No sitting out a year! The Arizona Republic has more details on the Kruger story. Remember, Kruger (the dad) was a close friend of Evans (former ASU coach), which one of the reasons why his son went to ASU. At the time Kruger (the dad) was an NBA coach. Now Kruger (the dad) is an NCAA coach, and Evans (the friend) is no longer at ASU. So Kruger (the son) wants to play for Kruger (the dad).

What exactly is a 5th year free agent? Here are the requirements:

You earn your undergraduate degree in four years

You have one year of eligibility remaining (eg medical redshirt, developmental redshirt, etc)

You qualify and enroll at a graduate program of another institution

and voila! You are ready to play! No sitting out. Transfer rules do not apply! You play your last year right away!

The name of this is Proposal 2005-54 and it went into effect April 27, 2006. As Gregg Doyel points out this is as bad as the uber-silly 8-5 rule who was struct down a couple of years ago when it comes to college basketball (and football).

The reasoning behind it makes sense for most NCAA sports except for the two "quasi-pro" sports: NCAA Football and NCAA Men's basketball. This is where things will get muddied as coaches will flock to all eligible "Free agents". It may happen in other sports, but in those situations, the student-athletes will make their decisions based on academics, not sports. But not in football and basketball, because a transfer to a bigger school means more exposure, which could lead to NFL and NBA contracts! Can't blame the student-athletes :-)

But remember, the requirement is that they complete their undergraduate degree in four years. A lot of student athletes don't even complete their undergraduate degree in five years. So not every redshirt will be eligible to become a "free agent". They have to graduate in four years to be eligible!. A positive side-effect would be additional motivation for student-athletes to graduate. A negative side-effect of the positive side-effect would be academic fraud in order to graduate in four years. Something about clouds and silver linings :-)



In conclusion it is a fair rule for most sports, but it will be abused in basketball and football. It once again points to the elephant in the room: Football and basketball are not the same as the other NCAA sports.