The NCAA recently gave former JUCO athletes an extra year of eligibility. Which Auburn basketball players could return?
In November, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia sued the NCAA for additional eligibility based on his time spent at the junior college level. Recently, the NCAA delivered a ruling that would give former JUCO athletes whose eligibility would expire at the end of the current academic year an additional year of eligibility.
This ruling will impact a few players on the Auburn football team, of course, but there are also players on the Tigers' basketball team that will now potentially be able to return for an additional year.
Auburn basketball seniors Chad Baker-Mazara, Denver Jones, and Addarin Scott all spent time at junior college before arriving on the Plains. Scott has sat out this year with the plan to redshirt and return for another year, but it's possible the redshirt will be unnecessary with the new ruling.
“Chad and Denver are both in the last year of their eligibility having played one year in junior college. There would be an anticipation they would qualify, but that’s something we’re checking into with the SEC office,” Bruce Pearl said when asked about the ruling on Friday, per AL.com.
Scott has sat out this year with the plan to redshirt and return for another year, but it's possible the redshirt will be unnecessary with the new ruling.
“Addarin hasn’t played this year with the idea of potentially being a redshirt.” Pearl said. “I don’t know what that would even do with his redshirt because right now, the way I understand it, no matter whether you played one or two years in junior college you would only get one year back. It’s definitely something we’re looking at.”
Both Baker-Mazara and Jones are in their fifth seasons of college basketball after using the additional year of eligibility granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of the NCAA's ruling in terms of basketball is unclear, but will certainly be something to monitor for some of the Tigers' biggest impact players.