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.
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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?
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?
that rule is intended more for folks who graduate HS and, say, take up minor league baseball BEFORE they ever try college. it says something exceptions are like junior hockey, world cup skiing, national team sports.
i get your point about "well how is that different than you take a break and compete DURING..." my response would be it would wipe years out of anyone who plays slow pitch softball or sunday league soccer between stints.
This, like so many cases at the D2 level, is the failure of the eligibility clearinghouse not checking what these (primarily international students) have been doing. If they have been training AND competing….it should be counting as a year. This is, not in all cases but several, why we have students 26-32 years of age competing against 17-18 year olds. It’s an unlevel playing field but if the NCAA isn’t going to do their job, then why shouldn’t the coaches use them?