‘A good problem to have’: Why K-State AD Gene Taylor likes extra football eligibility
At the end of the upcoming college football season, senior quarterback Skylar Thompson will bid farewell to his Kansas State teammates and move onto the next chapter in his life after starting nearly 40 games for the Wildcats.
Or he will return to school and make a run at becoming the first five-year starter in team history.
Add that to the growing list of mystery associated with college sports in 2020.
Thompson will have an unprecedented choice to make in a few months. So will many other football players at K-State and elsewhere, thanks to a new NCAA rule that will freeze eligibility clocks for every student-athlete across the country that participates in fall sports. In other words, if you’re currently a senior, you are allowed to return to college and play again next year regardless of how many times you take the field this fall.
“It is really going to be interesting,” K-State athletic director Gene Taylor said during a phone interview this week. “But I like it because it takes all the questions out of this season when there are so many unknowns.”
NCAA rules typically allow student-athletes to play four seasons of a sport during a five-year window. Football players can usually only preserve their eligibility by sitting out the majority of a season (they can play in four or less games) once during their college careers. Otherwise, they need a waiver to play beyond four seasons.
The coronavirus pandemic changed that.
With the Big Ten and Pac-12 postponing football while the ACC, Big 12 and SEC are all moving forward with plans to begin the season in September, the NCAA decided it was best to essentially grant all of its fall athletes an extra year of eligibility similar to the way it handled the cancellation of spring sports other than basketball last March.
That way there is no confusion about how many games will count as a full season this year.
“We didn’t want to get to a point where a team starts 1-5 and all of its players opt out because they don’t want to lose their eligibility,” Taylor said. “Now guys can play and they can get an extra year if they want it. It takes concern off the table.”
But it also creates an interesting dilemma for administrators and coaches. Football teams are usually only allowed to carry 85 scholarship players. Next season, some rosters could boast 100 or more.
Will schools honor that high of a scholarship commitment? Will certain teams recruit fewer high school players if they return an abundance of seniors? Will more rising players look to transfer if the starting spots they hoped to compete for remain occupied by more experienced teammates?
“That’s something we have not dived into yet,” K-State football coach Chris Klieman said. “I know it came out on Friday. We mentioned it to all of the players on Friday afternoon that this is coming down with a freeze year, but we’re still learning more about it ourselves as coaches ... It’s something we know we’re going to have to handle here later in the fall, but with all the things we have going on and trying to finish up what we still consider fall camp, we just haven’t spent a lot of time on it.”
K-State players are in the same boat.
When asked about the possibility of returning for an extra year of college football, senior tight end Briley Moore did little more than shrug.
“When that time comes to think about that, I’ll sit down with my family, with the coaches and discuss that,” Moore said. “As of right now, I haven’t thought too much of it.”
That hasn’t stopped fans from leaping ahead, though. A potential quarterback battle between Thompson, freshman Will Howard and touted recruit Jake Rubley has been a hot topic for Wildcats supporters since the NCAA announced its new rule.
Buzz is already building around K-State’s youngest quarterback and its highest-rated incoming passer in years. How will the dynamic of that position change if Thompson unexpectedly stays in college?
Taylor doesn’t have an answer for that one, but he is already formulating a plan for managing all those extra scholarship athletes on K-State’s campus.
He says things “will get a little hairy” if K-State football tries to roster 105 scholarship players next year. More likely, the number will be around 95. Still, how will the athletic department finance them and how will coaches keep all of them happy?
Those answers may not be easy, but he’s happy to come up with them.
“It’s a good thing and a bad thing,” Taylor said. “Well, it’s not even really a bad thing. It’s a good thing that makes us say, ‘Boy, what do we do now?’ It’s a good problem to have, so to speak.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 2:28 PM with the headline "‘A good problem to have’: Why K-State AD Gene Taylor likes extra football eligibility."