A sea of red Kansas fans await the starting lineup Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Another in a series of dramatic changes to collegiate athletics took a major step forward on Tuesday when the NCAA Division I Cabinet unanimously voted to approve its new five-year age-based eligibility model.

The decision will not become final until the Cabinet’s meeting concludes on Wednesday.

Historically, student-athletes have had the opportunity to play four seasons in five years — with the possibility of a redshirt year along the way — beginning with their first season of athletic competition in college.

From now on — once the rule is finalized — an incoming athlete will be able to play five seasons in five years, beginning when they enroll in college or at the start of the first academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever comes first. In other words, redshirts and waivers are no more and athletes will generally be unable to begin their five-year clocks when they are well past the usual college age. (There will be exceptions for military service, pregnancy and religious missions.)

As with so many rules the NCAA has officialized in recent years, this one is going to produce a bit of a confusing interim period. That’s because for current athletes, schools can choose to apply either the past or present eligibility model. For a 21-year-old who just completed his junior season, those schools will surely choose the new model to grant him a fifth year. For a 23-year-old who only just finished her freshman year after coming over from Europe, the past model will give her three more years compared to just one more under the new one.

Notably, the NCAA did not grandfather in athletes who completed their eligibility with the 2025-26 campaign. That prevented some immediate transfer-portal chaos, but it might still be susceptible to legal challenges. Darren Heitner, the Florida-based attorney who has been at the forefront of many prominent NIL-era legal challenges (including that of former Kansas defensive end Dean Miller), wrote in a post on X on Monday, “Those who have already exhausted eligibility under the current rules face a narrowing set of options and a compressed timeline to pursue any remaining relief. I am fielding a high volume of inquiries from these athletes and preparing for what occurs next if the proposal passes.” In short, depending how courts choose to rule, the NCAA rules may not be done changing quite yet.

But in the interim, the association has engineered a seismic shift to its rules, the most significant since, well, the last seismic shift that happened a year ago with the implementation of revenue sharing. How might it affect KU?

SOME KU THOUGHTS

Some high-level men’s college basketball players have stayed in school longer in recent years because, as a result of steadily increasing college salaries, their earning potential is greater than it is in the NBA. (Texas Tech forward JT Toppin staying with the Red Raiders after his sophomore season comes to mind as one possible example.) Statistically, as DraftExpress noted in late April, early-entry totals for the NBA Draft were down from a peak of 363 in 2021 to 71 this summer.

The chance to play five seasons in five years presents an even greater financial opportunity for those who are high-level college players but might not necessarily be high earners at the professional level. It’s hard to imagine that recent Jayhawks like KJ Adams, Zeke Mayo and Tre White who played four straight seasons in college wouldn’t have jumped at the chance for a fifth, especially with ballooning revenue-sharing and NIL dollars.

As for KU’s current roster, the new rules, upon their approval, will have some immediate implications. Most obviously, the 2026-27 campaign will no longer be the final season of eligibility for Utah transfer forward Keanu Dawes or Radford transfer guard Dennis Parker Jr., each of whom has played three seasons in three years. In the longer term, if they choose to stick around for a while, players like Leroy Blyden Jr. and Kohl Rosario who have not redshirted will get the option of one more year in college than they would have otherwise.

It is worth noting that Congolese center Paul Mbiya turned 19 in April 2024, over a year before he arrived at KU, meaning that under the new rules, his five-year clock started with the 2024-25 academic year. As a result, he will not gain an extra year of eligibility from the new rules and will have three seasons left to play regardless of which model he chooses.

In general, with the abolition of redshirts, coaches should be more willing to throw young players into blowouts, which could help with their development. (Basketball has had no analogous rule to football’s that has allowed players to appear in four games and still redshirt.)

The new situation in women’s basketball might be weighted toward staying in college to an even greater extent. Compared to an NBA draft prospect who can be as young as one year removed from high school, a college player can’t even enter the WNBA Draft until she is four years out of high school in most cases. Coming out of school a mere one year older can’t possibly affect her value as a pro all that much, and in any case, even with its recent expansion, the WNBA does not actually welcome a lot of new players every year. (Recall in 2024 when KU center Taiyanna Jackson became the first Jayhawk picked in the WNBA Draft in nine years, going in the second round to the Connecticut Sun, and didn’t even make the roster.)

That said, the WNBA has done well to adapt with the times. Its new collective bargaining agreement increased rookie salaries to such a dramatic extent that 2026 No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd is getting $500,000 this year compared to 2025 No. 1 pick (and teammate) Paige Bueckers’ $78,831 last year. Even late draft picks get contracts for $270,000, the league minimum; the previous minimum was $66,079. And as much money as now exists in college sports, schools still allocate a vast percentage of their revenue-sharing dollars to football and men’s basketball. It could be that only the players who have the greatest brand value and are able to secure the biggest sponsorships — resulting in NIL deals outside of the cap — choose to stay in college.

Evidently, it will be extremely interesting to see what KU’s star guard S’Mya Nichols, a potential first-round pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft, chooses to do following the 2026-27 season. KU could also get a fifth year from its transfer acquisitions Mykayla Cunningham, who spent two years at Lindenwood and one at Southern, and Mariyah Noel, who played two seasons at Ole Miss and one at Xavier.

As for football players, they might be somewhat less affected overall in the early stages of their careers because of the aforementioned rule that has allowed them to play in several games and still retain a redshirt. However, coaches will no longer have to limit these appearances for eligibility purposes and can, for example, make a promising young player a fixture on special-teams units instead of throwing him in on just a few specific occasions. (A recent KU example would be linebacker Malachi Curvey in 2025.)

Having access to a full complement of players throughout the season might be especially helpful given that football rosters will continue to shrink in the years ahead as a result of roster limits imposed by the House v. NCAA settlement, as those Designated Student-Athletes who are exempt from the limits continue to graduate.

Redshirts have been incredibly common in football, of course, and some players who do play as freshmen end up leaving for the NFL after their junior seasons. But all rosters will inevitably include some rising true seniors who could benefit from this rule change come 2027. In KU’s case those include defensive end Alex Bray and wide receiver Nahzae Cox.

For baseball, like with women’s basketball, the five-in-five rule comes at an interesting juncture considering the results of collective bargaining at the pro level. The MLB has recently proposed dramatic changes to its draft eligibility rules that would ban high school players from being selected and make college players eligible after completing their sophomore seasons, rather than their junior seasons. The draft would also shrink from 20 to 12 rounds.

Needless to say, a shorter draft and the removal of high school signings, when combined with this newly extended college eligibility, would result in greater acquisition and retention of talent for college baseball programs in the near term. The MLB’s proposal, though, is not yet finalized by any means, as the league continues to negotiate with the MLBPA.

It’s difficult to say which KU baseball players would benefit from a fifth year because under the current system, the Jayhawks’ rising seniors are currently preparing for potential selection in the draft next month. Even if they choose to come back for a senior season, they might just get drafted again in the summer of 2027 and sign at that time rather than returning for a fifth year.

For sports with fewer professional opportunities than any of the above, it’s especially easy to envision athletes playing for all five years, taking advantage of not just the financial benefits but the chances to work on advanced degrees.

One more general thought: It may now become difficult for the public, in some cases, to actually know a player’s eligibility — particularly in sports that garner less overall coverage and less meticulous record-keeping, so birthdates are less widely accessible online. It remains to be seen whether athletic departments will more widely publicize this information to make it clear where their players stand or keep it close to the vest.