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College basketball teams must not be too worried about recent discussion of a change to eligibility rules for NCAA athletes.
It all started when the Trump regime issued an executive order on NCAA eligibility, which proposed limiting athletes to five years of eligibility and a single transfer. The NCAA, in what appeared to be an attempt to mirror that order, proposed a hard five-year clock for eligibility which seems spurred by said order.
On the NCAA proposed change, Ross Dellenger wrote, “ a timeline for approval remains unclear — it is likely weeks or months away — the legislation is considered an urgent matter with potential for implementation as soon as this coming academic year (fall 2026).”
John Taity for CBS Sports added, “Less than a week ago President Trump issued an executive order that directed the NCAA to create rules in which athletes can play for “no more than a five-year period” and limited them to one free transfer before sitting out a season. This age-eligibility proposal was in the works before Trump’s executive order, according to sources, though it lines up with President Trump’s overarching request and will go to the NCAA’s powerful Division I cabinet for discussion.”
Tennessee has added three transfers so far and, under the tenets of the proposed limits on eligibility, only one, Miles Rubin, actually would be eligible to suit up for the Vols. Tyler Lundblade is heading into his sixth year of eligibility as a grad transfer. He spent three years at TCU, redshirting as a true freshman, and the past two seasons putting up big numbers at Belmont. If these suggested rules were in place, Lundblade’s college career would be done.
Dai Dai Ames also would violate the terms of the executive order, which seeks to limit college athletes to one transfer in their career. This would be school number four for Ames, who started at Kansas State, then played at Virginia, then spent last season at Cal.
This just tells me that either schools are not taking these proposed eligibility limits seriously, or that the these proposed eligibility limits won’t hold up in court, or both.
Just some extra craziness to keep track of during the zaniest two weeks on the college basketball calendar …
Unfair Advantage?
I was traveling over the weekend, and on the go for all of Sunday, but checked in on the final day of The Masters when I could. My inbox also saw a few messages pondering if Rory McIlroy had an edge because he made multiple trips to Augusta in the weeks preceding to play practice rounds on the course.
Does this make McIlroy’s feat this past weekend any less significant?
Nope.
There’s no limit on access to the course for a player if a member at Augusta National is willing to host — and I am guessing McIlroy would find no shortage of willing hosts. He was using the system to his advantage to prepare. Yes, he skipped the three tournaments that immediately preceded The Masters, although he was part of the field at The Players Championship. (I know more about the PGA schedule than I ever did before thanks to the weekly tip sheet articles on PGA events by J.T. Chadwell).
Furthermore, if knowledge of the course was that big an advantage, everyone would be doing it. And winning the green jacket two years in a row wouldn’t be such a rare accomplishment. McIlroy is just the fourth golfer to win at The Masters in consecutive years, and the first to do it since Tiger Woods went back-to-back in 2001 and 2002.
Football Offseason Plans
Here where we’re based, in East Tennessee, football season never really ends. We follow that same philosophy here at I-81 Sports. On Monday, Scott Felts filed some analysis of where the Vols stand coming out of spring practice. We hope to have a similar recap of ETSU spring practice.
And, starting in May, we’ll be filing weekly previews of each of Tennessee’s 12 opponents in 2026. We hope to have similar coverage of the foes on the ETSU schedule as well.
We thank everyone who’s found us and followed us so far, and hope you’ll continue to ride with I-81 as we head into the first full football season of our existence.