Watching the intros to the Villanova-Kansas game, and noticed how many of the folks were announced as "graduates." Obviously that's a function of the Covid extensions, but it made me think: wouldn't the NCAA benefit greatly by extending eligibility?

Given that many of the universities at elite NCAA athletics programs offer graduate programs, why not incentivize athletes to stick around and pursue graduate degrees by extending eligibility. We've seen what that can look like with guys like BVP and Carter, and it's unclear to me why college athletics are undergraduate-only (with exceptions due to the 5th year rule, etc).

Most NCAA players aren't going to the NBA; less of Europe pays well than people think, and a ton of the best upperclassman in college basketball have no future in professional basketball. So why not play for 6 or 7 years while they pursue a Master's/PhD?

Wouldn't this be better for the actual on the floor product, too? And more consistent with the NCAAs mission around "student athletes"? If the goal's an education, why put a ceiling on it?

I can see that, for sure. Probably a fixable thing though; one approach would be to expand the number of available scholarships, but make a subset only available to those who are pursuing a graduate degree.

I wonder if this might also put a dent in the transfer portal movement. When a kid's only there for four years, it's hard to give away two years on the bench, and the reality is there are a ton of freshman -- especially at the mid-major level -- who aren't ready to contribute for a few years. If they could develop for two years and still have another 4 to play, I suspect it would incentivize more patience.

There are five spots on the floor. Someone's going to be on the bench. I don't understand this logic at all.

UNC JV is usually on Hargrave schedule.

Yep, of course somebody's going to be on the bench. But presumably players like playing actual basketball -- in games -- and many transfers are driven by lack of playing time, and the fact that each year they play fewer minutes than they'd like burns 25% of their eligibility. You can make those "development" years much more palatable to players and make it feel much less urgent to find a situation that offers playing time by extending eligibility.