The NCAA’s new five-in-five eligibility model is set to reshape college athletics, and not everyone is buying the idea that it will make things better.
Under the revised rule, college athletes will have five years of eligibility within a five-year window. That window starts no later than the first academic year after an athlete’s 19th birthday, though athletes can begin before they turn 19. The change takes effect in the fall of 2027, but schools can apply it to incoming freshmen for this coming school year and to players who still had eligibility left under the old rules at the end of the 2025-26 year.
One immediate consequence is the end of redshirting as it has existed. Athletes will now be able to play one more season than before without worrying about burning a year of eligibility in a season where they barely saw the floor or field. The NCAA said exceptions will be made only for military service, pregnancy, or religious missions, with those athletes able to pause or delay the five-year clock.
That shift has already run into legal pushback. A couple of athletes whose eligibility expired in 2025-26 are trying to use the courts to force the NCAA to grant them a fifth year, including a more recent case filed in California that has Jaxon Kohler as a signee.
But the bigger question is whether the rule actually helps college sports.
The case against it starts with roster math. In basketball, teams are limited to 15 players.
Under the old setup, a program could generally bring in a four-player class each year if it also lost one player every four years for some reason - injury, transfer, gambling scandal, or something else. With players now able to stay up to five years, the average incoming class drops to three recruits.
That still leaves room for variation from year to year, but the margin for error gets smaller, and a miss in recruiting hurts more.
There’s also the matter of how college rosters are built over time. The old four-year structure matched the high school-to-college path neatly.
Now, fifth-year players will be on campus long enough that they were already in college while the newest freshmen were still in eighth grade. Those extra veteran seasons could make it harder for freshmen to crack major-conference lineups, especially at programs in the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12.
The top programs will still chase the best newcomers, while more freshmen may have to start elsewhere before bigger schools come calling through the portal. That points to even fewer players spending their whole careers at one school.
The financial side only adds more uncertainty. Athletic departments are already dealing with legal payments to athletes that can reach $20.5 million per year, and that number is expected to keep rising. With more roster movement and more money in play, planning ahead gets harder for coaches and administrators alike.
The on-field and on-court impact is the real debate, though, especially in basketball and football. The argument here is that more eligibility does not automatically mean better play.
Over the last few seasons, the transfer portal has already churned at a high rate under the four-year model. The concern is that adding a fifth year could only make that turnover worse, creating even more disruption from offseason to offseason.
The belief behind the criticism is simple: continuity matters. A team that keeps the same coach and the same core of teammates together generally has a better shot at improving.
A transfer may benefit individually by moving to a better situation, but he still has to learn a new system and build chemistry with new teammates. By the time that starts to click, the season may already be winding down and the next round of roster movement is around the corner.
The bottom line from this view is clear: the five-in-five rule may be the NCAA’s new reality, but that does not mean it will make college athletics better for programs, coaches, players, or fans.
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