Coming out of high school, University of Oklahoma star linebacker Owen Heinecke was a lacrosse standout committed to Ohio State University. After appearing in only three lacrosse games during his freshman year of college in 2021, Heinecke transferred to Oklahoma to walk on to the football team. He missed his sophomore year season with a knee injury but worked his way up the depth chart to become the Sooners’ leading tackler in 2025. Heinecke sought to play an additional season at Oklahoma, but the NCAA denied his petition for another year of eligibility on account of his three lacrosse games in his freshman year. Heinecke decided to head to the NFL Draft, where, after a solid performance in the Senior Bowl, he should be a mid-round pick come April.

This decision would be understandable if the NCAA were consistent in applying its eligibility rules, but it simply is not. The NCAA has granted eight or even nine years of eligibility to players like Cam McCormick and Cam Rising because of injuries and COVID, but it brushed Heinecke aside due to just 15 minutes played across three lacrosse games. More recently, NBA G-League players Charles Bediako and James Nnaji were allowed to join NCAA rosters halfway through the college basketball season. While an Alabama judge revoked Bediako’s eligibility, Nnaji is still playing for Baylor University. It’s high time for the NCAA to get a grip on its messy eligibility system, which gives players five years to play four seasons, yet they often hand out many additional redshirt years. The NCAA should adopt a new rule that gives athletes five years to play five seasons with no redshirts allowed, while also creating an independent panel to resolve special eligibility issues.

The current four-in-five rule is inherently flawed, as players continue to abuse it in the modern era of college athletics. Athletes simply don’t need to be on a college roster for any more than five years or six in extenuating circumstances. Only around 1% of college football and basketball players go pro, leading many athletes to seek to maximize their earnings from playing in college during the NIL era for as long as possible. Neither Rising nor McCormick, who each had particularly long college stints, made it to the NFL.

The harsh reality is that instead of an extra year of eligibility and more money, some of these athletes just need to get a job with the degree they should have earned during their collegiate career. As it stands, many athletes use a redshirt season to acclimate to the college scene. There is nothing wrong with this, but the problems begin when players use two or even three redshirt years to extend their careers.

Playing college football shouldn’t be about money; it should be about the experience and the skills it provides players for their future careers. Former Northern Illinois University head coach Thomas Hammock stepped down to take a job in the NFL precisely for this reason. Hammock expressed his strong dissatisfaction with the state of NIL and the transfer portal, as players often fail to find better opportunities in the portal. He also emphasized that the lessons he learned from his college career were invaluable and better than any money he could have earned. This attitude is what today’s players lack and what most coaches and decision makers in the NCAA have forgotten. The first step in addressing this issue is to adopt a strict 5-in-5 rule. This would allow players to cherish and learn from the precious time they have at the collegiate level and prepare them for a future beyond football, which is the most likely outcome for the vast majority of athletes.

At the American Football Coaches’ Association convention in January, FBS coaches unanimously voted to expand the maximum number of games in a redshirt season from four to nine. While the NCAA Division I Committee still has to approve the change, this is undoubtedly a troubling development. Allowing players to appear in nine games and still redshirt is ridiculous and a kick in the teeth to someone like Heinecke. His three lacrosse games in his freshman year made him ineligible for another football season, yet under the proposed new rules, he could’ve played nine football games that year and redshirted. The NCAA Division I Committee must reject this rule change to properly regulate eligibility and work towards adopting the five-in-five rule.

Obviously, injuries are bound to happen, and redshirts should be preserved for special cases. Redshirts should only be given out by an independent panel when players have had injuries affect them for two or more seasons. For example, the NCAA recently gave University of Montana linebacker Solomon Tuliaupupu a ninth year of eligibility. He missed all of his time at the University of Southern California due to injury and has struggled with issues at Montana as well. It wouldn’t be fair to people like him not to let them heal and have a shot at playing in college. Adopting a strict 5-in-5 rule, while having the panel in place for unique eligibility circumstances, would also put an end to the seemingly endless eligibility lawsuits against the NCAA.

An issue with these lawsuits is their location: they take place in the states where schools are located, leading to judges with connections to the colleges ruling on the case. Two prominent examples of this happened recently with players from Alabama and Ole Miss. A judge who is an Alabama donor granted Alabama basketball player Charles Bediako an injunction to join the Crimson Tide midway through the season, before recusing himself later on. Additionally, the judge who granted Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss an injunction is a law school graduate from Ole Miss. The integrity of the NCAA is at risk if cases like these continue to take place.

Regardless of what path the NCAA decides to take on the issue of eligibility, one thing is clear: reform to rein in the chaos of college athletics is well overdue. College athletes deserve a better system that sets them up for success during and after their athletic careers.