It can feel like college sports is running amok: the portal, NIL, player payrolls, all of it has undeniably altered the game’s underlying foundation and many of its longtime traditions. So be it: the only constant is change, and like it, love it or leave it, what’s happening is beyond our control. As fans, we’re either on the steamroller or the road; we may as well enjoy the ride than get run over by it. In any case, the steamroller doesn’t care—it just keeps rolling on, flattening everything in its path.

The NCAA's current rules allow athletes to compete for four seasons during a five-year timespan that begins when they enroll in college but in a new legal action, 10 athletes—including Vanderbilt LB Langston Patterson, who is a team captain and has played in 12, 11 and 11 games over the past three seasons and never redshirted—have filed a class action lawsuit against the NCAA in an effort to force it to allow college athletes to compete for five seasons rather than four. There have been precedents that have allowed players to play for more than four years, such as the free COVID year, and, of course, medical redshirts. Heck, last year, Miami TE Cam McCormick was in his ninth year.

The attorney filing the lawsuit claims the players are not aiming to completely remove any eligibility restrictions but believe they should be able to compete in games for all five years that they are allowed to be on the team. In other words, if they can be on the team for five years, they should be allowed to play all five years.

Is changing a rule that has been a cornerstone defining the eligibility parameters of being a student-athlete going a bridge too far? Is this nothing more but a blatant money grab, a way that athletes whose on-field careers will end when their college eligibility expires so they can make more NIL? What impact might it have on recruiting if 10-20 players who would’ve normally moved on stick around and occupy a roster spot or transfer to another school? With schools moving to 105 scholarships (a new rule that went into effect on July 1, 2025) and the portal providing teams with a few experienced quick fixes to complete roster do-overs, does recruiting really matter? Would redshirts as we now know them become a thing of the past or would this eventually morph into six to play five?

I’m curious to hear people’s opinions. Here’s more detail in case I missed or misstated something.