Brent Venables believes 5-for-5 eligibility rule is ‘inevitable,’ coming ‘sooner than later’

The NCAA is currently reevaluating its redshirt rule that currently allows student-athletes five years to play four collegiate seasons, with the expectation it will adopt a “five-for-five” policy granting athletes five seasons of eligibility without the option to redshirt. At least that’s hope of Oklahoma‘s Brent Venables.

“I’ve been told it’s inevitable, it’s supposed to happen very soon,” Venables said during a Tuesday press conference in Norman. “And it’s not going to be grandfathered in where after this year you get five total years. This will be a year that counts toward that. But I’ve been told it’s supposed to happen sooner rather than later. … So, I think that’ll happen soon, it needs to, for lots of reasons. Let guys have five years.

“One of the reasons the NCAA would likely pass that … is so they don’t have to have all these (legal) cases of giving an additional year and getting into the sixth and seventh year. You get five years. So that’s hopefully coming really soon.”

Of course, not everyone is so certain such a policy change is right around the corner.

Yahoo! Sports insider and On3 contributor Ross Dellenger reported last week that NCAA attorneys are advising officials to hold off on passing such a momumental change while they’re currently engaged in more than two dozen lawsuits with student-athletes seeking additional years or eligibility.

The expectation, at least according to Dellenger, is the proposed “five-for-five” eligibility rule would result in more lawsuits due to the expectation it will completely eliminate the need for redshirt seasons, waivers or any further expectation of additional seasons of eligibility.

The “five-for-five” debate has been around for decades, dating back to the early 1990s, per Dellenger. Earlier this year, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey described it as an “interesting conversation,” though one that raises more questions than it answers.

“Why is this the right idea?” Sankey said, per Dellenger. “Can the NCAA actually escape its waiver-granting behavior? Will schools stop seeking waivers? What is the relationship of this proposed change to the current legal environment—does it resolve issues or create more concerns?”

The recent push for a “five-for-five” eligibility rule comes out of last year’s eligibility case involving Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia. Last December, the Commodores QB was granted a preliminary injuction against the NCAA counting his junior college seasons against his NCAA eligibility by a Tennessee district court judge. The NCAA subsequently granted a blanket waiver for student-athletes that previously exhausted their eligibility after the 2024 season to play in 2025 if they competed at a non-NCAA school during the prior five seasons of eligibility.

But that was moreso a special situation, and the NCAA has since won a significant number of subsequent eligibility cases filed against them as judges have been more inclined to maintain and even protect current collegiate eligibility standards.