Graduate Student Eligibility

Hi everyone,

I have a hard time detirming a eligibility scenario, maybe some community members can let me know what their thoughts are:

Scenario:
Sports: Men’s Soccer
Division: Most likely D2

The athlete is a international recruit (Germany) he has graduated from HS in June 2013 and completed his Bachelor’s Degree at a German University between 2013-2016 (six full time semesters).
Afterwards the athlete went on to work 2016-present.
From 2013 to present he has constantly competed, in unpaid, not professional club soccer, but never participated in any kind of intercollegiate sports. I was able to find out that for NCAA D2 eligibility students have 10 semesters to complete 4 years of collegiate competition. I could not find a definite statement or bylaw on how the 2 year gap between Bachelor graduation and possible enrollment for graduate studies would affect the eligibility status.

Cheers, Leni

It sounds like you may have tried to look things up, but my recommendation is to call the NCAA directly rather than speculating or listening to well-intentioned but un- official advice from this forum. We only know from our own experiences and everyone’s is different.

I had to call them for my son with some very specific performance to degree eligibility questions and they were very helpful. I was given all the specifics as to which by-laws applied and what info my son needed to give his school’s compliance officer to fill out a waiver request.

There is a parent/student call in line and a contact form http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/future/eligibility-center

For students and parents with eligibility questions:
877/262-1492 (toll free)
317/917-6222 (international callers)

The basic rule is you have 5 years from high school graduation to play 4 years of college, but there are billion exceptions - military service, being hurt, red shirting, going on a religious mission…

I agree, call the NCAA.