It took Tyler Shough seven years of college football to eventually land a starting spot as an NFL quarterback — but under a landmark rule change approved Tuesday, future athletes won’t have that same path available to them.
The NCAA has given the green light to a new eligibility framework for Division I athletes, the highest tier of college competition. Going forward, athletes will have a five-year window in which to complete five seasons of play. The governing body hopes the change will bring order to a system that has been strained by an explosion of transfers, redshirt decisions, injury situations, NIL-driven roster moves, and the lingering effects of pandemic-era rule adjustments.
Under the new structure, an athlete’s eligibility clock begins ticking when they enroll full time or at the start of the academic year following their 19th birthday — whichever comes first.
Assuming the rules survive any potential legal challenges, the landscape of college athletics will look dramatically different. Traditional redshirt seasons will be a thing of the past, and medical or general hardship waivers will no longer be available. The only exceptions that allow athletes to go beyond the five-in-five framework are military service, religious missions, and maternity leave.
Tom Loy, a national recruiting analyst for 247Sports, believes the new model could actually encourage talented players to stay in college longer and push coaches to hold onto their current rosters more tightly.
“In addition, I believe this rule change would have coaches putting a significant emphasis on retaining as much of the current roster as possible, especially upperclassmen, while focusing their attention slightly less on the transfer portal,” Loy said in an email. “With the opportunity to play five full seasons, they could have a roster full of 23-year-olds, for example, compared to 18- or 19-year-olds, and beyond that, potentially have a group full of talent they have developed in their system.”
Shough’s college journey took him through two seasons at Oregon and three at Texas Tech before he suited up at Louisville as a seventh-year senior in 2024. A combination of injuries, a redshirt year, and the pandemic stretched his career, ultimately helping him develop into a second-round NFL draft pick and the starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints.
He feels strongly that future players deserve the same opportunities he had. “I think everybody should have a chance to at least get a medical and then a redshirt,” Shough said. “I know I benefited from that experience, the maturation process, having to compete multiple years. I feel strongly about that.”
Detroit Lions rookie defensive lineman Aidan Keanaaina took a comparable route. His six-year college career included time as an undergraduate at Notre Dame followed by two postgraduate seasons at California, made possible by a medical redshirt and a pandemic waiver — part of the period when the NCAA granted thousands of athletes an additional year of eligibility.
The five-in-five rule would have eliminated his final college season in 2025, a year that was crucial in getting him in front of NFL scouts. Still, he acknowledges why the NCAA felt something had to change, describing the current system as the wild West.
“You can’t please everyone in this world, ever, but they’re trying to please as many people as they can and do right by as many people as possible,” said Keanaaina, an undrafted free agent. “As someone who was injured, I think it’s tough to make a one-size-fits-all rule. But I also get that sometimes an older player is taking opportunities away from a younger one.”
While both Shough and Keanaaina focus on what the new model takes away, others in the college sports world see it opening new doors.
“I think it’s the NCAA’s way of keeping college sports as amateur as possible with the chaos that is the NIL era. It will be good for sports like lacrosse where post-grad and redshirt years are less common than in football,” said Kelsey Fee, an assistant women’s lacrosse coach at Dartmouth. “It will open up the portal to a new slew of craziness with kids looking to use their fifth year.”
Fee also believes the change will inject a fresh energy into recruiting that has been missing in recent years. Loy echoed that sentiment, suggesting coaches may refocus their attention on high school prospects and prioritizing getting them on the field quickly.
“Whether it works out or not, everyone would get a glimpse at where each prospect stands compared to others,” Loy wrote. “The players would get the early playing time, the coaches would see who outperforms who, and then, without the ability to redshirt anyone, a prospect can continue to be developed if they want to stick around and compete. They also wouldn’t just rush to leave and transfer, since they know they have five years to play ball.”
Green Bay Packers center Sean Rhyan, a third-round pick in 2022, said stricter eligibility limits could reshape how athletes approach the transfer portal. Once the clock starts, there’s no longer a way to recover from a bad decision by buying more time.
“Five for five, that’s fair. I think NIL is good, but I also think it took away that loyalty aspect that I think sports need,” Rhyan said. “Having that fixed amount of time is going to bring that loyalty.”
Rhyan also offered what may be the most straightforward case for the change: “Having like a 27-year-old linebacker or something and then you have a 17-year-old running back … I think five for five is more than fair.”
