Over the past few seasons, college football has seen several players stay in the league longer than usual as a result of some COVID-19 eligibility rules. And it doesn’t sound like Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell is necessarily a fan of those moves.
During a recent press conference, Luke Fickell spoke out against the recent trend of players staying in college for six and seven years, asking the hypothetical question “Is this still college football?”
“This world today, I think we’ve still got a couple more years left of not knowing how old or what guys have left in the tank based on how many years of experience,” Fickell said according to On3. “I just saw Minnesota’s got a seventh year guy and I just saw a Utah quarterback is saying he’s coming back for a seventh year. Is this still college football? I don’t know. I’m not sure it was meant to be six years, seven years. There’s a lot of those things still hanging.”
As a result of the shortened and altered COVID-19 season, the NCAA gave all of the affected players an extra season of eligibility which those players continue to take advantage of now – and will for the next couple of years.
It’s certainly strange to see college football players in their sixth and seventh seasons with their teams, but COVID-19 changed a lot of things.
