On UConn’s senior night time in February 2024, inside a packed Gampel Pavilion, Paige Bueckers took the mic. “I do know everyone needs me to deal with the elephant within the room,” she informed the gang. “Sadly, this is not going to be my final senior night time right here at UConn.” With that, she confirmed her determination to return for a fifth and ultimate 12 months with the Huskies.
Bueckers’ prolonged eligibility comes from NCAA guidelines that grant student-athletes 5 years to compete in 4 seasons, with an extra 12 months for many who performed in 2020-21 because of the Covid-19 waiver. And a 2022 damage that led to a redshirt 12 months gave Bueckers yet one more season. Whereas many speculate she stayed for profitable NIL offers – estimated at round $1.5m this season – Bueckers insists her determination is rooted in loyalty to UConn, her teammates, and her coaches. “Household camaraderie, loving it right here, loving my teammates, and loving my coaches,” she says.
Prolonged collegiate careers have change into frequent at UConn, with Aubrey Griffin utilizing six years and Caroline Ducharme and Azzi Fudd taking a fifth. Nonetheless, one member of the UConn teaching employees informed the Guardian that accidents somewhat than NIL or WNBA readiness have been behind these selections.
Bueckers addressed the difficulty throughout an look on Sue Fowl’s Togethxr digital panel, pushing again towards the idea that NIL cash is the driving power behind her fifth 12 months. “You simply take a look at the feedback, and it’s like, ‘Yeah, she’s simply staying in faculty as a result of she’s gonna make a lot extra [money] in faculty than within the WNBA [where the rookie maximum salary is $78,000],’” she stated. “And it’s like, you guys don’t know. You’re making NIL in faculty, and when you get to the WNBA, these endorsements are going to observe you on prime of the wage you’re already making. It’s not that onerous to coach your self.”
Nonetheless, Bueckers’ determination led to a debate. Some on social media criticized the age hole between the 23-year-old UConn star and plenty of of her rivals, with one X person saying, “Paige Bueckers is an grownup about to be taking part in basketball with 18-year-olds.” Whereas staying an additional 12 months is changing into extra normalized, the dialog round prolonged eligibility, and the narratives connected to it, present no indicators of fading.
Hailey Van Lith, a fifth-year senior at TCU, has confronted related scrutiny. She pushed again on the criticism in a latest information convention. “It’s simply the brand new norm, it’s simply what’s going to occur now. It’s humorous to see individuals react and give it some thought negatively, however while you actually analyze it, loads of it comes right down to frustration that they didn’t have that chance … I’m not gonna permit individuals to make me really feel dangerous as a result of I used to be blessed with this chance to play 5 years.”
And he or she’s not fallacious, this chance could also be a “blessing” for gamers. The mixture of NIL alternatives, educational development, and the power to enhance draft inventory has created an simple shift in girls’s faculty basketball. As Kentucky guard Georgia Amoore says, “I believe everybody had their very own causes [for staying in college for five years] and I’ve seen quite a lot of them, however mine was primarily for extra growth [before playing in the WNBA].”
Regardless of the noise, Van Lith stays agency. “I believe individuals are solely saying that about me as a result of I’m one of many ones they’re paying loads of consideration to. There’s loads of women taking their fifth years, and there’s loads of women having loads of success [like] I’m having which might be taking their fifth years.”
And the numbers again her up. As of March 2025, simply seven days after the switch portal opened, greater than 1,100 Division I feminine faculty basketball gamers have entered it, with a big quantity being seniors. Amongst them is a shocking fifth-year switch from Notre Dame’s star participant Olivia Miles, who had been the projected No 2 decide within the draft.
This heightened deal with girls’s faculty basketball, marked by repeated years and mass transfers, isn’t incidental. It represents a departure from the standard construction of faculty ball. By comparability, in males’s basketball, the place gamers can declare for the NBA after only one 12 months, packages are more and more urging male athletes to remain longer.
However there are way more causes for male athletes to rush into the NBA than there are for feminine athletes to affix the WNBA. For a begin there are extra alternatives. Within the NBA, 60 draft picks are distributed throughout 30 groups. The WNBA has simply 39 picks unfold amongst 13 groups. And whereas the rookie minimal within the NBA is a bit of over $1m, within the WNBA it’s lower than $80,000. It’s true that the WNBA’s reputation and income is rising because of the inflow of stars equivalent to Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese however NBA commissioner Adam Silver has acknowledged the WNBA’s monetary struggles, saying in a 2024 assertion, “This season, the [league] will lose $40m.”
With the WNBA’s low salaries in addition to its restricted apply amenities and participant facilities, there’s a big incentive for athletes to increase their faculty careers, holding out to see if the league expands additional earlier than they go professional. And with solely 39 draft spots accessible every season and a surplus of NCAA girls’s basketball seniors competing for them, staying an additional 12 months to enhance one’s draft inventory isn’t only a pattern. It’s a strategic determination.
Additionally, the WNBA is about to barter a brand new Collective Bargaining Settlement because of the league’s rising worth. In response to WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike, this settlement will carry vital change, together with franchise enlargement – with the addition of two new groups – an elevated wage cap, improved working circumstances, extra participant advantages, and, most significantly, a share in WNBA fairness for gamers. For seniors contemplating a fifth 12 months, this presents an incentive. By staying an additional season, they can’t solely safe bigger and extra profitable NIL offers within the brief time period but in addition enter the 2026 draft below a extra favorable monetary association, in the end incomes the next wage than in the event that they declared this 12 months.
For some gamers, the choice isn’t as calculated, it may very well be nearly eager to win an NCAA championship. Amoore echoed this sentiment. “I’ve trusted Coach Brooks for 4 years, and he’s put me in positions to succeed,” she stated final month. “So, along with his transfer [from Virginia Tech to Kentucky] and the problem of competing in that gifted convention with a brand-new staff, it was a large leap I used to be prepared to take.”
after e-newsletter promotion
For Amoore, the choice to remain in faculty wasn’t nearly competitors however private development. “I knew it might problem me in each method,” she says. “And I used to be going to get higher – interval, on court docket and off.”
In the meantime, Iowa senior Kylie Feuerbach selected to return merely for “the chance to play with my closest associates and our unimaginable fanbase.”
For some, the choice wasn’t pushed by devotion and even a lot thought in any respect. Fudd, identified for her indecisiveness, made that clear properly earlier than the declaration window, “I’ll see a couple of fifth 12 months,” she stated.
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma even gave her an ultimatum, demanding a solution inside 48 hours of the Massive East Match.
“I believe she’s going to [come back]. I believe Azzi will [return],” Auriemma stated. “However once more, I’m not the primary voice in her ear anymore, like I was. Now, there’s loads of voices.”
A type of voices was returning senior Ducharme. “Each infrequently, I’d be like, ‘So, any nearer to deciding?’” Ducharme informed the Hartford Courant. “In the future, I simply requested her once we have been within the tubs, and she or he was like, ‘Don’t inform anybody, however I did make the choice.’”
Simply two weeks later, Fudd took to Instagram to publish a photograph of her smiling gleefully on the UConn scoreboard: 101 factors to Arkansas State’s 31 factors, a sport wherein she had scored 27 factors. She captioned the picture, “Hey Gampel, thanks for final night time… See you subsequent 12 months🤗😝😏 #onemoreyear.”
Fudd, like many others, could be returning for a fifth 12 months.
