The NCAA advanced the ‘5 in 5’ rule but with a stipulation that could both help and hurt NC State

Ok before we get into the weeds here, there are some of you who probably aren’t up to date with what’s happening.

Here’s the rundown: The NCAA knows college basketball needs fixing, and now President Trump has signed an executive order to ‘put guardrails’ on this whole NIL and eligibility stuff. This has given momentum to the cause, and now the NCAA is advancing some of these rules as well.

Yesterday the NCAA met on the age-based eligibility rules, and it seems as if that’s ‘a go,’ but with a stipulation that wasn’t really expected.

DI Board of Directors directs Cabinet to advance age-based eligibility rules.https://t.co/eNwysGPTE1

— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) April 27, 2026

Before we get into that stipulation, let’s clear up what this rule is about.

People online are calling it the ‘5 in 5 rule. It is a proposed major change to NCAA Division I athlete eligibility rules that shifts from the current system of four seasons of competition in five calendar years (with redshirts, medical waivers, etc.) to five full seasons of eligibility in a strict five-year window, tied to age/high school graduation.

The five-year clock starts the academic year after an athlete turns 19 or graduates from high school, whichever comes first. This creates a clear age-based eligibility framework. Athletes get five seasons to play five years. No traditional redshirts, medical redshirts, or most hardship waivers for extra time. It aims to simplify rules, reduce waivers, and provide more consistency (especially post-COVID extra eligibility and NIL/transfer chaos).

Ok, now the stipulation.

Official recommendation: “New rules are not expected to retroactively apply to student-athletes whose eligibility is or will be completed by the spring of 2026.” https://t.co/YB8cAzaOAC

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) April 27, 2026

“New rules are not expected to retroactively apply to student-athletes whose eligibility is or will be completed by the spring of 2026.”

That’s massive. What it means is that guys like Quadir Copeland, Tre Holloman, and Darrion Williams won’t be eligible because the rule won’t be retroactive.

That might not seem like a big issue at first, but tons of graduating seniors entered the portal believing this rule would pass and they would get another year of eligibility. That seems like it’s not on the table now.

That part doesn’t hurt NC State because Gainey and company were (smartly) not building their roster, banking on this big pool of seasoned veterans to become available. They were busy building the foundation with guys who have multiple years of eligibility. And that matters because the rule does seem like it will grant that extra year of eligibility to guys who still have at least one year post Spring-2026.

That means guys like Kyle Evans might have two years instead of 1 and guys like Preston Edmead might have 4 years left instead of 3. Couple that with the fact that we’re likely going to see transfer rules change (penalty of sitting out a year after 1 transfer), and NC State might be locking in a roster that they’ll be able to keep intact for a few years. However, it will be interesting to see if the ‘transfers’ become retroactive as well (for instance, will all of these newcomers already have their transferred burned even though they made the move prior to the rule passing). It would seem so since in exchange, they are getting a year of eligibility that is being given retroactively.

Now, that’s all seemingly good news for NC State. But there is some bad news here.

The bad news is that there are some pretty rich schools that seemed to think this was a foregone conclusion to pass.

Case in point, our new nemesis down in Baton Rouge, Will Wade.

Notice that Wade only has one (or two) players on his roster right now. He was surely banking on this rule passing and spending big-time money on this pool of seniors.

Now, that really wasn’t a horrible gamble. I spoke with multiple people around this, and one involved in this who was sure this would pass, and they were confident that graduated seniors would get that retroactive year. It would have given those schools that waited a massive advantage. With 80% of the schools spending big to fill their rosters during mid-April, these schools that waited would be flush with cash as some of the most seasoned, experienced, and talented players come back online asking for big NIL checks.

Now, however, you have to believe Wade, and teams that were banking on this are panicking. There are only so many players left in the portal, and most of the highest-end talent has already signed. This means that the talented guys that are left are going to be HOT commodities, getting courted by big-time schools with massive budgets ready to unload.

If you’re connecting the dots here, you understand who we’re talking about.

Paul McNeil Jr. is a player that NC State has been working very hard on. They have a big chunk of money set aside for him, and have left the 3 spot wide open for him to come back. So far, there have been mixed messages to say the least. And without getting too much into it, we’re concerned that this ruling might have an impact.

NC State did a good job building their roster and has big bucks if Paul wants it, but I believe there are about to be schools reaching out to him that have the type of money that will boggle your mind.

We’re going to let this one play out, but I just wanted to weigh in a bit on this ruling and what it means for NC State.