Friday will mark one year to the day that Peyton Pelluer found out that he was granted a sixth year of eligibility, which seems like a pretty irrelevant fact.
Pelluer had a great season for the Cougs and now is trying to make the pros.
But here’s why it matters: It means that we will know very soon if Eastern Washington’s Gage Gubrud will get his sixth year of eligibility.
Here's what the rule says in terms of players getting a sixth year of eligibility due to injury: The player must not participate in more than 30% of games in a season, or three games in a season, whichever is greater, to obtain a sixth year.
The rule doesn't say one third of regular season games, it says one third of games in a total season. Gage participated in five games, but because Eastern played in the national championship and thus played in 15 games, Gage technically qualifies under this rule.
The NCAA tries to side with the athletes and grant a sixth year of eligibility whenever possible.
We've seen numerous athletes locally over the years get a sixth year of eligibility, with Peyton as a recent example. It obviously paid off for him as he was named the Alamo Bowl MVP and is now trying to fight for a spot in the NFL. Without that sixth year, Peyton's NFL's stock would've been significantly lower than it is now, and Gage could definitely have a similar experience.
Here's the rub: This is an incredibly unique case for the NCAA.
I reached out to a friend who covers North Dakota State. If there's any team that has dealt with a player trying to get a sixth year after playing in five games, it's the Bison. They routinely play in the national championship aka they routinely play 15 games a year. That person said they cannot remember ever dealing with a situation like this one. Maybe this has been dealt with in the past, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it is very rare.
Obviously, without Eastern making the national championship, Gage doesn't qualify under the 1/3 of games played rule. If Eastern loses their next six games after Gubrud goes down, then the team only plays 11 games and Gage getting a sixth year doesn't happen.
So the question is this: Do you reward a player and give him a sixth year of eligibility, in essence, because his team succeeded without him?
It should be really interesting to see what the NCAA rules here.