A June NCAA rule change has quietly rewritten the timeline for non-football athletes, and Oklahoma has several players who stand to gain from it.
The Division I cabinet approved the new eligibility structure in June, giving all Division I competitors five years of eligibility as long as they enroll no later than their 19th birthday. For non-football athletes, that means the old redshirt math is basically gone.
If a player steps on the floor or field, coaches no longer have to treat that as a year burned. The change took effect immediately, and rising seniors who have not used a redshirt are grandfathered in.
For Oklahoma, the biggest immediate winner may be outfielder Ella Parker. She didn’t need a redshirt to become a star, and her freshman season made that obvious fast.
In 2024, Parker hit .415 with 13 home runs, 62 RBIs, 60 runs and 17 stolen bases. She earned Softball America Freshman All-American honors and helped push the Sooners to their fourth straight national championship.
Parker has already played in 119 games across her first two seasons, and her bat has stayed above .400 in both of them. She also piled up 37 home runs over that stretch. She is entering her senior season, but the new rule gives her the chance to return for another year after the 2027 season if she wants it.
The same rule could end up being a major boost for freshman pitcher Brisco Smith, who barely got on the mound in 2026. Smith made just two appearances as a rookie, throwing ⅔ of an inning against Arkansas in the regular season and ⅓ of an inning against Georgia Tech at the Atlanta Regional. He allowed one earned run in that lone inning and finished with a 9.00 ERA.
Under the old system, that limited work would have cost him a year. Now he gets four more seasons, which is a big development for Oklahoma.
The right-hander from Duncan, OK, was named one of D1Baseball’s “Impact Freshmen” before the 2026 season, though an injury in the winter slowed him down. He still managed a couple of relief outings late in the year, and he remains one of several arms with upside in the Sooners’ staff alongside Nick Wesloski, Cord Rager and Xander Mercurius.
Oklahoma’s frontcourt also has a player who benefits from the new setup in center Yaak Yaak. His college path has already taken him from New Mexico State to Colorado Mesa to Oregon State before landing with the Sooners.
At New Mexico State, he averaged just 3.9 minutes per game as a freshman. After one year at Colorado Mesa, he moved on to Oregon State, where he posted 6.6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per game in his lone season.
Yaak signed with OU after its 2025-26 campaign to help bolster the frontcourt, and while he is entering his senior year, the rule change gives him the option to spend two years in Norman.
Forward Caya Smith is in a similar position, only her path has been inside the Oklahoma program. She played as a true freshman in 2024-25, appearing in 17 games while averaging 2.9 minutes per contest. Her role grew as a sophomore, when she averaged 4.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.1 assists in 14.6 minutes per game.
With Raegan Beers and Payton Verhulst gone, Smith’s role is expected to expand again in 2026-27. The new eligibility rule means she now has three years of college basketball left, and that gives Oklahoma more time to develop a player who arrived as a consensus 4-star prospect and stands 6-1.
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The deeper cut was almost as telling, because Oklahoma had 12 more former players turn up as first runners-up. Names like Kyler Murray, Adrian Peterson and Lee Roy Selmon only sharpen the point: this is a program with enough history, and enough elite talent, to crowd the conversation at nearly every number. ESPNs breakdown did not just flatter the Sooners, it reinforced the idea that their place in the sports blueblood class still rests on a long line of players who left a mark that is hard to top. [Read more 🡒]
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Sooners Fans Have Every Reason To Watch Keldrid Ben Right Now
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Ben is set to make a new announcement about his recruitment, and the setting points to something more celebratory than dramatic. The expectation is that the moment will play out with his local community in Montgomery, Texas, giving Oklahoma fans another reason to watch closely as one of their top commitments steps back into the public eye. [Read more 🡒]