When the NCAA began shutting down its regular seasons and championships in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford jumped to the forefront in advocating for student-athletes to regain lost eligibility.
On Monday, the NCAA Division I Council voted to give all spring sport athletes their lost season back. Winter sport athletes were not included in the decision.
The move comes less than three weeks after the NCAA canceled all remaining games and tournaments due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“I think it’s the right move,” Bamford said. “I am excited for the student-athletes that they are able to get this year back for those spring sports. I think it’s the right thing to do. We get hit a lot as an association. This is one that people will applaud because to give them back the year was the right thing to do.”
The Division I Council comprises school administrators representing all 32 conferences, plus two members of the student-advisory committee. Saint Louis athletic director Christopher May represented the Atlantic 10.
“We’ve had conference discussions,” Bamford said. “He shared some of the mindset, the thinking going on behind some of this work. We gave him our feedback and I think everybody was in agreement that it was the right thing to do.”
A-10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade agreed.
“This decision is truly positive for the spring sport student-athletes who lost a valuable season,” McGlade said in a statement released by the A-10. “However it is also bittersweet, given the public health crisis which we are dealing with, and each of us must continue to give our support and help to all those experiencing pain and suffering in the United States and internationally.”
Bamford said he spoke with his coaches in a conference call on Tuesday to review the NCAA’s decision.
“We’re going to take this week to really understand the impact to us financially,” he said. “There is a whole host of moving targets that impact what we’re able to do.”
The NCAA adjusted financial aid rules to allow teams to carry more scholarships to account for incoming recruits as well as athletes who want to return who otherwise would have run out of eligibility this spring.
The NCAA is leaving the decisions regarding finances and scholarships to individual institutions. The additional costs come at a time when funding could be an issue due to lost revenue from the cancellation of postseason tournaments, as well as potentially any funding UMass might have received from donors.
The NCAA said schools have the ability to use its Student Assistance Fund to pay for scholarships for students who take advantage of the additional season of eligibility next year.
“I think the challenge is how this will impact all of us all financially,” Bamford said. “The shift now focuses on how are we going to be able to pay for some of these things if we have student-athletes on scholarship. They get the year back, but now obviously a lot of them are wanting to go back on financial aid, and there’s ramifications that go with that as well.”
Division I rules limit student-athletes to four seasons of eligibility in a five-year period. Graduating seniors can come back for 2021 if they choose, while all other athletes will have their five-year period extended one more year.
“We’re going to do the best we can,” Bamford said. “This is the first step, now you have to get into the details and really work out what the opportunities are and what we can support financially.”
Graduating seniors face the challenge of deciding what to do with their futures, which for some included work, internships or graduate school. Kaitlyn Cerasi was planning to attend grad school at Adelphi University when her lacrosse career closed at UMass.
“I do plan on coming back,” Cerasi said. “I’m still figuring out the situation with academics. … I know that my friends had plans to work, couple had jobs. Since the season ended this way, they want to go back to school.”
Still to be determined is how this affects a school meeting Title IX requirements.
“That’s the million dollar question that everyone is looking to have answered,” Bamford said. “There’s got to be some exemption for at least this next year to manage roster numbers and scholarship numbers. I will say this, as a university and a department, we will do whatever we do on one side for males or females we’ll do on the other side for males or females. … I don’t think anybody has the answer yet, I don’t think anybody has an interpretation from the Office of Civil Rights. If common sense was to prevail under the circumstances of what our country is going through, you would hope that they would give you a one-year ability to be flexible within the current guidelines.”