Reports: NCAA ‘unlikely’ to give winter sports extra year of eligibility

Although it appears spring athletes will be gaining an extra year of eligibility among Coronavirus concerns and the cancellation of seasons, winter athletes appear to be in a much more unfortunate scenario, per reports.

Nothing is official yet, but according to College Basketball Insider Jon Rothstein, it is “unlikely” that winter athletes will be granted an extra year of eligibility, meaning that the seniors of all winter sports would not be able to compete for a national championship and their careers would be cut short.

If this belief holds, then it would affect men’s basketball, women’s basketball, wrestling, gymnastics, swim and dive, water polo and ice hockey at ASU.

In addition to the eligibility with winter sports, another report from AZ Central came out on Wednesday noting that winter sports coaches at ASU are receiving bonuses for the teams that were on the cusp of making their respective NCAA Tournaments.

Some of the coaches have incentives in their contracts for postseason performance, and Athletic Director Ray Anderson felt it was the right decision to follow through on these incentives given the success of the regular seasons from various winter sports, including men’s and women’s basketball.

Of course, the unfortunate part in all of these happenings are the athletes themselves, who won’t be able to compete on the national stage for their highest accolade of a national title.

Men’s basketball finished third in the Pac-12 and would be making their third straight NCAA Tournament, while women’s basketball went 20-11 and finished the season as No. 25 in the AP Poll and wrestling was ranked sixth in the country after going 15-2.

Furthermore, ice hockey exceeded its win total coming off last year’s first-ever NCAA Tournament berth as an independent program, and they concluded their schedule going 22-11-3.