KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee will allow seniors impacted by the cancellation of spring sports to return for an additional season in 2021, a spokesperson with the athletics department told WBIR on Thursday. It was originally reported by David Ubben of the Athletic.
This comes as the Division I Council voted to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility on March 30.
This vote allowed members to adjusts financial aid rules to allow teams to carry more members on scholarship to account for incoming recruits and student-athletes who had been in their last year of eligibility who decide to stay. The Council vote also provided schools with the flexibility to give students the opportunity to return for 2020-21 without requiring that athletics aid be provided at the same level awarded for 2019-20. This flexibility applies only to student-athletes who would have exhausted eligibility in 2019-20.
The sports that all under the spring category are baseball, golf, softball, rowing, tennis and outdoor track and field.
