6th Year Players - Career Games Played

[TedBaxter]

For reference, David Joplin currently holds the Marquette record with 139 games played.

Coming into this year, Jordan Bohannon had set the record for most NCAA D1 games played at 179 games.  He played 6 years with a COVID year.

This year, at least 3 players will eclipse that number of games based on a combination of COVID years, NAIA/JUCO bonus year and D1 years.

Elijah Malone of Colorado played 139 games in 4 years at NAIA Grace College in Indiana.  In getting both the NAIA year and a COVID year, he is in his second year at Colorado.  He has played in 46 D1 games to raise his career total to 185 college games played.  If he is able to stay healthy, he should play in a minimum of 19 regular season and at least 2 post-season games to get to a minimum of 205 career games.  He'll turn 24 years old during the NCAA tournament.

Chad Baker-Mazara of USC is in his 5th year of D1 and has played in 132 games at Duquesne, San Diego State, Auburn (2 years) and now USC. He played an additional 32 games at JUCO school, NW Florida State between his stints at San Diego State and Auburn.  He has a minimum of 20 games between regular and post - seasons left to play, so he will be in the 184 career games played range.  He'll turn 26 years old in January.

Yaxel Lendeborg of Michigan is the final 6th year player I'll mention.  The 23 year old spent 3 years at JUCO Arizona Western and played in 78 career JUCO games.  He played 2 years at UAB and is finishing at Michigan and has played in 83 D1 games to date and is at 161 career games.  He wil also get to 183 career games at a minimum.

Career point totals to date for the 3 players.
Malone - 2,300 points
Baker-Mazara - 1,927 points
Lendeborg - 2,300 points.

[WhiteTrash]

The underpinnings of unlimited eligibility have been laid. 30 yo Marquette players is not far off. Happens all the time in pro sports.

[CountryRoads]

Definitely would have gambled with all of our redshirt freshmen and just played them given that eligibility will most likely look a lot different in 4 years anyway. Another thing that Shaka seems to be a bit behind on.

[wadesworld]

Definitely would have gambled with all of our redshirt freshmen and just played them given that eligibility will most likely look a lot different in 4 years anyway. Another thing that Shaka seems to be a bit behind on.

Most of his redshirts have been guys reclassifying and coming in a year early. Definitely not behind on this. And no way to know what the rules will be in 4 years.

[#UnleashMalik]

To be honest northwestern Florida state sounds like a made up school in a sports movie.

[#UnleashMalik]

The underpinnings of unlimited eligibility have been laid. 30 yo Marquette players is not far off. Happens all the time in pro sports.

100% this will just turn into a defacto minor league. True college sports days are in my opinion very numbered. Some say it's already gone.

[#UnleashMalik]

Most of his redshirts have been guys reclassifying and coming in a year early. Definitely not behind on this. And no way to know what the rules will be in 4 years.

I think the next most likely suit against the ncaa will be unfair labor law by forcing them out a job. They'll argue against the eligibility requirements.

[Shooter McGavin]

Is there any path to making rules with regard to eligibility and compensation that would be agreeable to the vast majority of level headed people? 

[MU82]

It'll be fun when some players are older than some coaches.

[Shooter McGavin]

Could Universities make it so player movement was relegated to two transfers without penalty and player eligibility was relegated to only non professional athletes (no professional ties whatsoever?).  Or are they powerless?

[MU82]

When I run the NCAA, once an athlete turns 40, he or she will only have 4 years of eligibility left.

[TedBaxter]

Musselman at USC signed guard Kam Woods on December 18th.  He played 4 years in D1 with 23 games at Troy State in 2020-21, 31 games at North Carolina A&T in 2022-23, 13 games for NC State in 2023-24, 30 games for Robert Morris in 2024-25 and he played 33 games in 2021-22 for Northwest Florida State when they won the NJCAA D1 national championship.  He played in 33 games in JUCO and has played 98 games in D1, including 1 game so far at USC.  He'll probably be another 150 plus career game player with the COVID, NJCAA eligibility. He has scored 1,600 career points to date and was not in school the first semester.  6 schools in 6 years.  The education focus we like to see for NCAA athletes. He did not appear in the NC State-Marquette NCAA tournament game. 

Kam Woods turned 24 years old on September 1 and is over 6 years older than Marquette incoming freshman Nash Walker, who turned 18 on September 27.

[Shooter McGavin]

When I run the NCAA, once an athlete turns 40, he or she will only have 4 years of eligibility left.

Ha!  I know my question was naive.  But also serious.  Can the NCAA universities eventually take back control of the situation and would they have any legal standing?

[#UnleashMalik]

Ha!  I know my question was naive.  But also serious.  Can the NCAA universities eventually take back control of the situation and would they have any legal standing?

Nah, the college sports we know are in the dying days