The NCAA's Division I Cabinet voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a new five-year, age-based eligibility model, reshaping one of the oldest pillars of American college sports, according to ESPN and FOX Sports. The decision moves Division I away from the longstanding standard that gave athletes five years to complete four seasons of competition.
What changes
Under the new framework, athletes across all Division I sports receive five years of eligibility over five seasons. The eligibility clock begins at whichever of two events occurs first: the athlete's initial full-time college enrollment, or the start of the academic year following the athlete's 19th birthday, ESPN reported.
The NCAA says the model is designed to eliminate the need for redshirts and waivers, which have drawn growing scrutiny as athletes sued over eligibility limits. Waivers to extend eligibility would all but disappear, with narrow exceptions for maternity, official religious missions and active-duty military service, provided the athlete does not compete during that time, according to FOX Sports.
Who is affected, and when
The rules are set to take effect this fall. Prospects who graduated high school in spring 2026 will fall under the age-based model, while schools retain flexibility to apply either the previous rules or the new model to athletes with eligibility remaining after the 2025-26 academic year, whichever is more beneficial, ESPN reported.
Any waivers under the current legislation must be submitted by July 31, 2026, after which such waivers would no longer be available for circumstances beyond the 2025-26 academic year. The Cabinet had modified the proposal in May after concerns from constituencies including men's ice hockey, which features older players arriving from junior leagues, and the service academies.
The legal backdrop
The overhaul follows a string of athlete lawsuits that destabilized the NCAA's eligibility framework. The most prominent, Pavia v. NCAA, was brought by Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who argued that counting junior-college seasons against Division I eligibility amounted to an antitrust violation suppressing the earning power of older players. A federal court granted Pavia an injunction, and the NCAA's Board of Directors later directed the Cabinet to advance an age-based model.
Such challenges have multiplied as name, image and likeness (NIL) payments give athletes financial incentives to extend their careers, turning a once-technical question of redshirts into a high-stakes legal battleground.
Open questions
NCAA President Charlie Baker has been broadly supportive of the shift. But some attorneys have signaled they may challenge the move to age-based rules and the absence of a clause grandfathering in all current athletes — meaning the new model, intended to head off litigation, could yet draw fresh lawsuits of its own. For now, college sports has a new clock, and it starts ticking this fall.
