In June 2026, the NCAA adopted a new eligibility structure for Division I and Division II student-athletes. Under these new NCAA eligibility rules, athletes have up to five years of college athletics eligibility in a five-year period. Previously, athletes had four seasons of eligibility, with a series of waivers and exemptions granting some individuals additional time. As the class strength and league parity of NCAA DI women’s hockey continue to increase and the PWHL becomes a growing draw for graduating athletes, the new rules could shake up the player pipeline in women’s hockey.
The new rules
According to the NCAA Eligibility Center, “student-athletes who meet all eligibility requirements and enter college no later than the academic year after their 19th birthday generally will have up to five years of eligibility.” Instead of counting seasons of competition, athletes will have a continuous five-year eligibility period during which they can compete in NCAA sports. This period starts with either full-time enrollment in college or the start of the academic year after an athlete’s 19th birthday, whichever comes first.
Under the previous rules, athletes could get additional competition time from “redshirting” — choosing not to play during a season — as well as from waivers like medical hardship, athletics activities, and delayed enrollment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA issued a blanket waiver that granted all athletes who competed in the 2020-21 season an extra season of eligibility and an extra year in which to use it.
One example of how these rules benefited a player is the case of Lacey Eden. Eden started at Wisconsin as a freshman in 2020-21 and was granted an extra year of eligibility. She then redshirted her sophomore year and did not play throughout 2021-22, but she returned for the next four consecutive seasons. Eden graduated in 2026 with four national championships in five seasons of play over six years.
Now, with the new rules, all previous exemptions and waivers have been eliminated. An athlete’s clock stops only for service commitments or pregnancy. Military service, official religious missions, or similar service commitments can be excluded from an individual’s five-year eligibility period as long as the athlete does not compete during that service period. Similarly, an athlete who is pregnant can have their eligibility period paused for the duration of time they cannot compete, with supporting medical documentation.
Since the new rules are such a radical change in how the NCAA conceptualizes who can compete in college sports and when, there is a grace period for current and incoming student-athletes. Individuals with remaining eligibility under the old system and prospects enrolling in college during the 2026-27 season can pick either the old “four seasons in five years plus waivers” rules or the new age-based rules to determine their competition timeline, whichever benefits them more. From fall 2027 onward, any prospects enrolling in college will follow the new rules.
The NCAA also decided that athletes who exhausted their eligibility under the previous system at the end of the 2025-26 season do not get any additional competition time. This decision has proved quite controversial.
The court cases
Several different groups representing over 100 outgoing senior athletes have filed lawsuits against the NCAA over their right to a fifth year of play. Most of these lawsuits are in state courts, including Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and California, but there is also a high-profile federal suit, Wisne v. NCAA.
In that case, Northern Colorado men’s basketball player Brock Wisne filed a federal class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Colorado alleging that the NCAA violated antitrust laws by preventing him and the rest of the high school class of 2022 from playing a fifth season. It’s the only NCAA eligibility class action lawsuit to have a ruling so far, per Sam C. Ehrlich’s College Sports Litigation Tracker.
On July 31, a federal judge ruling on Wisne v. NCAA issued a blanket order granting all senior athletes from the high school class of 2022 a fifth year of eligibility. Less than a month later, on August 21, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed this decision, granting the NCAA a stay that halted the blanket order and leaving a whole class of athletes in a legal gray area.
The federal court ruling does not directly affect the state court cases, but the NCAA will likely use it as proof in its arguments to not grant athletes an additional year of eligibility.
Based on available information, no NCAA DI women’s hockey players are named as plaintiffs in any ongoing state or federal lawsuits against the NCAA. However, players who graduated in 2026 after exhausting their eligibility and did not sign with the PWHL or another professional team are part of the affected class in Wisne v. NCAA.
What this means for women’s hockey
From the conversations and controversies surrounding the new eligibility rules, women’s hockey was clearly not top of mind for the NCAA. The new system seems specifically geared toward addressing issues of perceived fairness in big-money sports like football and basketball, such as college athletes in their mid-20s, high transfer rates, and shifting definitions of amateurism. With a well-established pipeline to the pros after graduation and little to no name, image and likeness money available, these concerns are less of a factor in women’s hockey.
If this rule change had happened in a prior era, it may have had a greater impact on the sport. When the American and Canadian national teams used to centralize before the Olympics or world championships, top college players on national rosters often took the year off from their NCAA team via redshirting to focus on international competition. But as the 2025-26 college season and Olympic cycle showed, college players don’t need to abandon their schools for national team commitments.
During the 2026 Olympics, the 37 NCAA women’s hockey players called up to their national teams missed about a month’s worth of college play but made it back in time for the conference playoffs. Team USA players like Wisconsin’s Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards, Minnesota’s Abbey Murphy and Penn State’s Tessa Janecke left for the Olympics at the end of January and returned in late February; the WCHA players missed eight NCAA games, while Janecke was absent for six.
But the new rules won’t leave the women’s hockey pipeline completely unaffected. For one, current athletes with remaining eligibility, including the senior class of 2026-27, get to choose whether the old rules or the new rules work better for them. That could mean we see some top NCAA players deciding whether to stay for an extra year of college hockey or try to make it in the PWHL. If many athletes think that a fifth year in the NCAA is more valuable for their career than trying to go pro, the prospect pool for the 2027 PWHL draft could shrink.
However, an additional wrinkle complicates the extra-year-or-PWHL-draft situation. According to NCAA Division I bylaws section 12.2.3.2.6, “in sports other than basketball or football, an individual may enter a professional league’s draft one time before initial full-time collegiate enrollment and one time after initial full-time collegiate enrollment, provided the individual is not drafted.” This stipulation means that a senior in 2027 could declare for the PWHL draft, not get selected by a team, and return to their previous team or transfer to another school for their fifth year of eligibility.
Any returning veterans, whether they declare for the draft or not, tip over a different domino for college teams. Top schools have robust recruiting programs to find and entice the best young athletes to join their teams. If more experienced players decide to stick around for an additional season, younger players are pushed further down the depth chart. This could create a bottleneck in development, with less ice time and fewer growth opportunities for freshmen and sophomores.
If this happens, expect a lot more activity in the women’s hockey transfer portal. Based on APX Hockey’s transfer portal tracker, 127 NCAA women’s hockey players entered the portal during the 2026 transfer period, and 2027 could be even busier. Between underclassmen who aren’t getting the action and attention they think they deserve and veterans taking a fifth year who can’t rejoin their former team, more athletes might be inclined to try a different school.
At this point, a lot is still up in the air about how these new NCAA eligibility rules will reshape college sports and the existing women’s hockey development pipeline. Some athletes watch their fate hang in the balance through a series of court cases and appeals. Meanwhile, current players face decisions about what routes best serve their futures: old rules or new rules, staying an extra year or turning pro. We might see an unusually thin 2027 PWHL draft, a highly active transfer portal, or no particularly noticeable change. Until these issues get settled in court or in policy, we won’t know for sure.
