Soon enough, college athletes’ careers might take a new turn trailing the latest NCAA proposal. But it wouldn’t be free of one major setback.

Recently, NCAA president Charlie Baker proposed the five-for-five rule, pushing it to be voted on by May as emergency legislation. However, this might just become a great roadblock for the Olympic athletes.

“The NCAA is weighing a new five-year standard for eligibility that would give athletes extra time to complete their college careers,” per Front Office Sports. “But functionally eliminate redshirts, Olympic waivers, and gap years…”

Till now, redshirting or Olympic athletes wouldn’t lose eligibility for the years they didn’t play. After taking a waiver for Olympic preparation or recovery, an NCAA athlete could always come back and finish their eligibility.

But the new rule will turn that over. If opting for the Olympics costs a year of eligibility, that might become a discouraging factor for many. Especially for those athletes with limited professional options, whose main “career” is the NCAA.

So, even though 5 years of eligibility sounds good, it will pose this inevitable drawback. And Northwestern field hockey alumna Maddie Zimmer couldn’t have agreed more.

Maddie Zimmer Called the Five-For-Five “Counterproductive”

Zimmer sat out the 2023 NCAA season to help the US qualify for the 2024 Olympics. So, removing this common practice among Olympic sports that don’t have a bigger league ahead, like football or basketball, is pretty unfair, according to Zimmer.

“If I took that Olympic waiver and I still lose eligibility, it seems a little counterproductive to me because Team USA relies so heavily on NCAA athletes,” Zimmer said. “The pipeline that’s trying to build us up to reach this [Olympic] goal is almost discouraging us from doing that.”

In fact, Zimmer could “potentially see teammates choosing to stay in the NCAA, because that time is limited.” And to wait till graduation before pursuing a national team dream is “a really hard choice for athletes to make at a young age.”

The narrow exception of the five-for-five will include “maternity leave, religious missions, and military service.”

But do you think it’ll be a productive move, nonetheless? Comment it down.

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Written by

Deblina Roy

Edited by

Souvik Roy