In March of 2020, the NCAA made a groundbreaking determination to permit athletes whose seasons had been affected by Covid-19 the choice to increase their school eligibility by one other yr. Liz Kitley, a fifth yr middle at Virginia Tech, can nonetheless keep in mind the second she was informed the life-altering information.

“I’ll always remember it. I used to be in our apply facility. It was earlier than my sophomore yr, so I’d solely performed one season, after which my assistant coach got here out and was like, Yeah, Liz, everybody will get an additional yr.”

It’s been over three years since that second, and this season’s seniors are the final of the Covid class. This yr would be the final time school athletes need to determine between taking that additional yr or not. However with the introduction of latest NIL guidelines in the summertime of 2021, the choice doesn’t carry the identical quantity of weight because it did three years in the past.

“I feel it simply modified the best way I checked out issues,” says Kitley, who initially thought-about coming into the WNBA Draft or venturing abroad after her fourth yr at Tech.

For Endyia Rogers, a guard at Texas A&M, NIL was a large contributing consider her determination to take that fifth yr. Now that Rogers is ready to make cash whereas nonetheless competing on the school degree, she sees her fifth yr as an “alternative to construct your self up financially, saving your cash up for what you’re gonna do afterward.”

As a result of the fact is, most athletes don’t find yourself going professional after school. For a lot of, this additional yr of eligibility is the final alternative to play the game that’s been a defining side of their lives.

Boo Buie, although, a guard at Northwestern College, says it’s at all times been about making it to the League.

“My objective as a competitor, as an athlete, is at all times to make it professionally,” he says. “However midway by means of my senior yr—we simply had been having an unbelievable yr—I simply actually wished to return again.”

After main his workforce to the NCAA Event, in addition to this system report for Large Ten wins, Buie’s hoping for a season to rival the final. That’s one factor each athlete taking a fifth yr has in frequent: a want to deliver a brand new degree of competitors to this upcoming season.

“The NBA…it’s not going wherever,” says USC’s Boogie Ellis. The fifth-year level guard nonetheless feels as if he has some unfinished enterprise with the Trojans, and with superstars Bronny James and Isaiah Collier becoming a member of the combo, Ellis is in for the lengthy haul. Like many different athletes, the San Diego native determined to take this yr to enhance his recreation, ensuring that he’s the most effective model of himself earlier than he enters the NBA draft.

For Rickea Jackson, this season might be her first with out having to regulate to a brand new teaching employees. The Tennessee ahead performed beneath three completely different coaches throughout her first three seasons at Mississippi State, however after transferring to Tennessee her senior yr, she knew that she needed to benefit from the chance to stick with a coach who is aware of her—even when it had solely been for one season.

“Having that consistency in my life is one thing that I’ve craved,” she says, “and, you understand, I’ve it now.”

Pictures by way of Getty Pictures.