Meet D2 athlete with a 9 year collegiate running career

I'm not an expert, but seems like you're right that he shouldn't be eligible. This isn't a covid deferment. Pretty sure the 5-years-to-complete-4-seasons rule still applies!

Well its 6 years with covid

If any of you actually ever picked up a rule book, you would know that D2 athletes have 10 semesters to use 4 seasons of eligibility in each sport.

The rule book is frely available to download as a PDF from NCAA.com

Even if there's a large gap in semesters? Assuming there's a gap? Not sure how 10 semesters can take 9 years. Especially when you need to be in enough classes/units per year to remain eligible

Every school has that teammate that just. won't. graduate.

Never understood why the coaches don't step in and have a talk with a guy that just can't move on...

Except this is his first season at Stanislaus, so they recruited him..

Weirdly high amount of wrong comments here. The athlete is well within their rights to do this in d2. Probably should delete the thread because of all the misinformation. Oh wait im on letsrun nvm

This is the only place where people think college is for people aged 21 and younger.

My bad. I actually looked at that rule and my non-functioning brain took "10 semesters to use 4 seasons" as 5 years (i.e. 10 semesters) from start like D1. So D2 gets 10 semesters over any number of years or hypothetically even decades? That's wild. (Unlike most on this site, I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong. Said I wasn't an expert. Good to learn something new every day and all that.)

D1 is a 5 year clock, D2/D3 are 10 semester limit. i am fine with it as rewarding someone for trying to finish school, inasmuch as you'd have to be hitting the progress requirements. guy i played select with briefly played D3 a year as a teen, left school, we got on him to finish his degree, later went back, played a couple more years. in most cases they would be a shell of themselves, as he was. to me it would be rare that an athlete is staying in peak condition while dropping in and out of school a la tinch where they dominate. most who dropped out would get a job, a beer belly, and lose a step they'd never quite get back.

i also see this whole argument as circular. it should be 18-22 because they see it as 18-22. what is your actual "why" for that? we already make exceptions for military, grad school, missions, etc. i honestly see it as noble (and more in the spirit of the thing) in the era of one-and-done hoops stars to have someone doggedly coming back trying to finish with interruptions, while usually taking classes at a non-D1 that doesn't have an Athlete Track with its own classes. that feels more like college sports than some 18 year old doing a year of college before pro ball, while raking in NIL and living in athletic dorms eating their food and taking their separated classes.

14.2.4.2 Participation in Organized Competition Before Initial Collegiate Enrollment. An individual who does not cease participation by October 1 or March 1 (whichever occurs earlier) immediately after one calendar year has elapsed following their high school graduation date, shall use one season of intercollegiate competition for each consecutive 12-month period after October 1 or March 1 and before initial full-time collegiate enrollment in which the individual participates in organized competition per Bylaw 14.2.4.2.1.2. (Adopted: 1/8/01 effective 8/1/01, Revised: 2/21/08, 1/16/10, 7/18/23)

14.2.4.2.1.2 Organized Competition. Athletics competition shall be considered organized if any one of the following conditions exists: (Adopted: 1/16/10 effective 8/1/10 for individuals who are issued a final amateurism certification by the NCAA Eligibility Center on or after 4/1/10)
(a) Competition is scheduled in advance;
(b) Official score is kept;
(c) Individual or team standings or statistics are maintained;
(d) Official timer or game officials are used;
(e) Admission is charged;
(f) Teams are regularly formed or team rosters are predetermined;
(g) Team uniforms are used;
(h) An individual or team is privately or commercially sponsored; or
(i) The competition is either directly or indirectly sponsored, promoted or administered by an individual, an organization or any other agency.

———————-

So this is the rule that it seems many in D2 are questioning right now with so many high caliber international athletes. My question on this rule is the following. Does this only apply to someone who is competing in organized competition between graduating high school and enrolling in college? Because it seems that the wording leaves a loophole if you enroll in college right away, and then unenroll and keep competing. Here are a couple examples:

Let’s say Paul graduates high school in May 2011 but does not enroll in school anywhere. He keeps participating in organized competition for 4 years from August 2011 through May 2015. Then he decides to enroll in school in August 2015 and run for a D2 team. Based on the rule, he should only have 1 year of eligibility left because he was allowed 1 free year after graduating high school and then each of the following 3 years would trigger a season of eligibility.

Now let’s say Paul decided to enroll in school in August 2011 immediately following graduation. Paul redshirts the whole first year and unenrolls from school in May 2012. Then Paul takes off 4 years of school but continues to train and participate in organized competition every year, then enrolls in school again in August 2016. Does he then still have 4 seasons of each sport to fit in within an 8 semester window? Those years that Paul was competing but not enrolled were after his initial full time enrollment, not before as stated in the rule.

If I’m correct in that, wording of that rule needs to be changed. In Ero Doce’s case, he’s been competing since his time at Lindenwood finished up as seen on his world athletics profile. To me, that should still count against the eligibility clock. If eligibility is supposed to be triggered due to competing before initial enrollment, then it should also be triggered if you’re in a gap period of enrollment and continuing to compete.

Jan Lukas Becker is a similar situation. Competed at Lamar University during the 2014-15 academic year. Went back to Germany and continued to compete and came back to run for Queens University in January 2021. Eventually transferred to Mississippi College after Queens went D1 and he is still competing and finishing up his eligibility. I feel like all those years competing overseas should’ve counted against his eligibility clock, but is he saved just because those gap years were after initial college enrollment?

I knew Ero when he was at Lindenwood. Good dude and great competitor. He was done there after COVID and still had one semester/outdoor season left because of that, so it appears after a small gap he's back as a grad student to finish up eligibility. Yeah in D2 your clock stops if you take a gap or drop below a full time student. So if you finish your undergrad, you can take a break, and then come back as a grad student and use your remaining eligibility with zero issue.

BYU laughs at this effort.

This makes sense but its definitely a gray area. My question is, during the multi year gap in collegiate competition can the athlete continue to train with the collegiate team? Or would their clock start up the semester they begin competition again?

Looks like someone got butthurt

Dude would barely be old enough to start the first of his five freshmen years at byu.

craziest part of all this, is he was the assistant coach at Stanislaus at last year during his gap in competition and now he competes for them. hah!

Our 27 year old friend who took a few years off just hit his national qualifier in the 1500 with a time of 3:43.23.

It appears that Ero's 10th semester was in spring of 2020 when Covid struck. Wasn't part of the rule with the extension-of-eligibility waiver that the student athlete had to use that extra season at the first opportunity available? If so, it doesn't seem like spring 2024 should qualify as the first opportunity available

Stanislaus State is also the school that didn't hit their minimums for sponsorship and one of their girls couldn't run at the D2 outdoor championships because of it. Not sure if I'd trust their interpretation of whatever they are using for Ero to be eligible.

Maybe they needed him compete so this year they would meet the minimum number of athletes competing for sport sponsorship… I commend them for their efforts!