The NCAA is deep in conversation to drastically change eligibility protocol for college athletes. There is nuance to the new ruling, but the basics of the proposed rules are as follows:
- Athletes are allowed to compete for a five-year window.
- The five-year window starts at the beginning of the school year following the athlete’s 19th birthday or their high school graduation date, whichever comes first.
- Exceptions are made only for military service, religious missions or pregnancy. This effectively means the end of redshirting.
While the NCAA has already announced the rule changes are not retroactive, we thought it would be a fun thought experiment to see how these new rules would have impacted the Michigan football and men’s basketball programs had they been retroactive.
For the hoops team, there is only one player who doesn’t have the option
return next season that would have under the proposed rules — Roddy Gayle Jr. He spent two years at Ohio State before playing his final two years in Ann Arbor for Dusty May and the Michigan Wolverines. He turned 19 in July 2022, meaning his high school graduation date preceded his 19th birthday. Under the new rules, he would have been eligible until the conclusion of the 2026-27 season.
As for the football team, things are a little more tricky to quantify since the roster is larger and birthdays are not as publicly available. However, Michigan recently lost four starters due to lack of eligibility that would have otherwise had a fifth year to participate in.
Derrick Moore was a top-100 prospect out of high school originally from Baltimore, Maryland. He saw the field early and often during his four-year career at Michigan. Since he never redshirted, under the new rules, he could have come back for one more year. However, he seemed destined to go to the NFL regardless of if he had eligibility remaining or not.
Both of Michigan’s starting linebackers in 2025 are in the same boat. Jaishawn Barham and Ernest Hausmann both transferred into the program but never took a year off. Barham was an early star at Maryland before being poached by the Wolverines. Similarly, Hausmann had an enticing freshman season at Nebraska before coming to Michigan. Both would have been eligible to return next year under the new rules, and given the state of the linebacker room, I’m sure they both could have been useful.
Last but not least, Dominic Zvada started all four years of college and never redshirted. He spent two seasons with Arkansas State before becoming a cult hero in Ann Arbor thanks to his performance in the 2024 Ohio State game. Zvada is off to the NFL as an undrafted free agent, but if he were eligible for another season, Michigan could have probably found some NIL money in the couch cushions to keep him in college for one more year.
While I understand the NCAA’s hesitancy to make the new eligibility guidelines retroactive, it sure would have been fun to see the pure chaos it would have caused. A world where national champion Roddy Gayle Jr. gets to come back to Michigan sounds like a fun place to be.
