The NCAA’s new eligibility rule is a boost for these Kentucky football players
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The NCAA Division I Cabinet approved five seasons for athletes who enroll before age 20.
- Rule took effect at the cabinet meeting and applies to athletes enrolling fall 2027.
- Specific current Kentucky players with remaining eligibility may gain an extra season.
As of Wednesday, redshirts are no more in college sports.
The NCAA’s Division I Cabinet on Tuesday unanimously approved a new eligibility system that would give all athletes five full seasons to compete, as long as they enroll in college before the academic year after their 19th birthday. The change, which went into effect with the conclusion of the cabinet meeting Wednesday, applies to all athletes enrolling in college in the fall of 2027.
For current athletes with eligibility remaining, the NCAA will apply either the former rules (five years to complete four seasons) or the new rules depending on which rule provides the most eligibility for the athlete. That change has drawn the most attention in college basketball, where redshirts were far less common and now stars like UK’s Milan Momcilovic could now choose to return to college for a lucrative fifth season in 2027, if they decide their professional earning potential would be less than college NIL and revenue sharing deals.
But the change affects football rosters, too.
Five players on Will Stein’s first UK roster who had just one season of eligibility remaining Monday now have two years left to play college football, if they choose.
Here’s a closer look at how the rule change affects Kentucky’s football roster.
The seniors who can now return in 2027
The change in 2017 to allow college football players to appear in up to four regular season games and still redshirt made it far more common for even contributing players to spend five seasons on a college roster, but a handful of players who coaches deemed immediately ready to contribute as freshmen could still spend only four seasons in college.
That group includes current Wildcats Lance Heard, Ty Bryant, Jordan Castell, Kevis Thomas and Adam Zouagui.
The rule change is unlikely to extend the UK career of Heard, the left tackle who transferred from Tennessee to UK in January, because he is projected as a possible early round NFL draft pick next year. Perhaps if Heard were to miss significant time with an injury this fall, he’d consider a return, but he could have done that under the old rules too, if he played in four or fewer games.
The cases for the starting safety duo of Bryant and Castell are much more interesting.
Bryant, who tied for the SEC lead in interceptions last season, is a Lexington native and son of a former Kentucky football player. He surely has his sights set on the NFL draft too, but if he is considered a borderline draft prospect, the type of NIL/revenue sharing deal he could demand from his hometown school might be enough to consider another year of college football.
Castell is among the most experienced players on the roster with 34 career starts at Florida before transferring to UK in January. Despite already totalling 168 tackles, Castell made the decision to transfer instead of enter the NFL draft as a junior. Will one more college season drastically improve his draft stock? If not, he would be the exact type of quality college player who could benefit the most financially from a fifth season.
Thomas, a defensive back, and Zouagui, a kicker, are not projected to be major contributors for UK this fall, but now they can either use 2026 as a stepping stone for a larger role at UK in 2027 or consider a transfer to find a school with a featured role open in their final season.
What about the underclassmen?
There are 15 players listed as sophomores or juniors on the spring roster who have yet to redshirt: defensive backs Terhyon Nichols, Hasaan Sykes and Cyrus Reyes; wide receivers Shane Carr, Xavier Daisy, Hardley Gilmore, Ja’Kayden Ferguson and DJ Miller, linebackers Antwan Smith and Tavion Wallace; tight end Willie Rodriguez; defensive lineman Ahmad Breaux; offensive lineman Mark Robinson, edge rusher Cedric Works and punter Tom O’Hara.
Each of those players now has one more season of eligibility to use, but it would be foolish to assume those seasons will definitely benefit Kentucky. Some, like Rodriguez, Miller and Nichols, could be NFL draft picks before a fifth season comes into play. Odds suggest at least a couple players on that list will transfer away from Kentucky before exhausting their eligibility.
The good news for UK coaches is they no longer have to decide if the contributions from any of the players on that list — or the incoming freshmen — are large enough to justify burning a redshirt this fall. If they can help on special teams, they can play. If they’re needed late in the season after injuries affect depth at a position, they can play.
Lawsuits add more questions
The NCAA’s decision to not apply the new rule to players who exhausted their eligibility last season but could have qualified for a fifth year under the new system was always certain to lead to another round of eligibility-based lawsuits. The first of those was filed in Ohio on Wednesday.
Any court rulings to retroactively apply those rules are more likely to affect basketball players since the majority of football players who could have been affected are already in NFL rookie camps. The past year has taught us to never rule out any possibility when it comes to NCAA eligibility lawsuits, though.
There were five players on UK’s 2025 roster who would have been eligible this fall if the rules were retroactively applied to last season: Linebacker Alex Afari, cornerback JQ Hardaway, tight end Josh Kattus, wide receiver Kendrick Law and outside linebacker Kam Olds.
Law was the only player in that group picked in the 2026 NFL draft — he later tore his ACL in a June OTA for the Detroit Lions — but Kattus also signed an undrafted free agent contract with the Bengals. Afari (Packers) and Hardaway (Titans) received rookie minicamp invitations but are not listed on NFL rosters.
Former UK wide receiver Dane Key, who spent his senior year at Nebraska, would also fall into this group, but he signed an undrafted free agent contract with the Denver Broncos.