This year not counting toward players exhausting their eligibility was necessary to incentivize players to opt-in. It creates a mess in the subsequent years with ambiguous departure dates for everyone on the roster.
The assumption I'm seeing from most is that athletic departments will just keep guys at their current class level, i.e. sophomores will stay sophomores on the 2021 roster. This is probably what will happen but it isn't how I would do it.
Why not? Mainly because the expectation being shared from @Derek Young , which I agree with, is that the majority of kids won't take advantage of the extra year. Taking the extra year will be an exception. If taking the year will be an exception then I don't agree with a system of tracking that runs counter.
What am I proposing?
Edit: if the roster page must reflect how the NCAA views it then it's all for naught. The stuff above becomes how I'll view it and how I'd expect they view it inside Vanier
The assumption I'm seeing from most is that athletic departments will just keep guys at their current class level, i.e. sophomores will stay sophomores on the 2021 roster. This is probably what will happen but it isn't how I would do it.
Why not? Mainly because the expectation being shared from @Derek Young , which I agree with, is that the majority of kids won't take advantage of the extra year. Taking the extra year will be an exception. If taking the year will be an exception then I don't agree with a system of tracking that runs counter.
What am I proposing?
- All players with a redshirt still available use it* this year (Wiley, Duke, Dineen, Youngblood, 2020 recruiting class). This resets everyone back to their HS grad class.
- All other players advance a year on the roster. Sophomores in 2020 become Jrs in 2021
- Any player that chooses, by mutual agreement with coaches, to take advantage of the extra year becomes a covid-exception Sr, thus increasing the size of the rostered Sr class. Similar to a guy being granted a medical redshirt and getting a second Sr season.
- Exceptions are handled as exceptions
- Avoids the situation where the norm is handled like an exception
- It isn't intuitive to expect most of the roster to leave after their Jr season from 2021 thru 2024 which is what would happen if grade level is frozen
- "Did he leave college early or just not take advantage of his covid-exception?" would be a question we'd have to ask all the way till 2024
- Only when players take advantage of the extra year does the roster designation need to note it
- Class segregation is maintained
- Differentiates the 2020 and 2021 recruiting classes
- Player mental health (a bit of stretch)
- If Jaelon Travis is considered a true Fr again next season, then redshirted in 2021, he'd spend three seasons as a Freshman. Guys already say that the redshirt year is the hardest and tough on their psyche
- The Roster page would better reflect how many scholarships should be open for the following season based on guys carrying the Sr class designation
Edit: if the roster page must reflect how the NCAA views it then it's all for naught. The stuff above becomes how I'll view it and how I'd expect they view it inside Vanier
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