Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA Division I council has decided to grant spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility.

Under Division I rules, student-athletes are limited to four seasons of competition in a five-year period. The council’s decision also allows schools to self-apply waivers to restore one of those seasons of competition for student-athletes who had competed while eligible in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 spring season, including for students who reached the end of their five-year eligibility.

“The Council’s decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Penn. “The Board of Governors encouraged conferences and schools to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and their communities, and now schools have the opportunity to do that.”

Winter sports were not included in the decision as the council declined to extend eligibility for student-athletes in sports where all or much of their regular seasons were completed.

The council also increased the roster limit in baseball for student-athletes impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the only spring sport with such a limit.