CHICAGO — After coming off a regional final appearance in 2022, Ohio State coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg faced a tough dilemma. Five seniors could have returned for another season after the COVID year granted them a bonus year of eligibility. 

However, the Buckeyes were adding the fifth-ranked recruiting class, according to PrepVolleyball. Oldenburg stuck with her promises to the incoming class, and the fifth-year seniors hit the portal and transferred to Minnesota, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee and Clemson. 

Meanwhile, OSU scuffled with its young lineup and went 11-18 while four of the five seniors made the NCAA tournament with their new teams. 

“If I look back at it, I still think it was a good decision,“ Oldenburg said during Big Ten Media Day. ’Investing in the youth and bringing in young talent that were excited to be Buckeyes. Was it hard to let go of those seniors? Absolutely. If I had a crystal ball, I probably would have made a different decision.“

Now, everyone else gets to feel Oldenburg’s pain. 

After the NCAA passed a new eligibility model allowing student-athletes to participate in five seasons of eligibility earlier this summer, years of roster planning and scholarship charts will go out the window. 

Oldenburg learned hard lessons from her first encounter with the five-year eligibility model four years ago. She is still leaning into player development and said the Buckeyes’ roster is in a better position to handle fifth-year players than it was before. However, she’s not worrying too much about those decisions now as she prepares for the upcoming season. 

While the upcoming season is at the forefront of many of the coaches' minds, the new rule will have an impact on who gets on the court. 

Nebraska coach Dani Busboom Kelly said the new rule removes some of the “fun” of roster management, as it takes away the possibility of redshirting players. 

“You can use people in different scenarios where before I don’t want to waste a whole year of eligibility for a serving sub, or I don’t want to waste a year to play a set to give somebody rest,“ she said. “Now that everybody can play, I think that that’s great. It takes kind of some fun out of it for coaches planning and developing, but at the end of the day, I think it’s a really good thing.“

Busboom Kelly said even with the addition of potential fifth-year seniors, they are still going to recruit the best players out of high school, retain their talent and be active in the transfer portal. 

Minnesota coach Keegan Cook said while players might be eager to return during the summer when spirits are high and vibes are good, the sentiment might be different in December after a long, demanding season. 

He said he has conversations with all the Gophers about their situation: where they are in their career, what they want to do in the future, and what their academic goals are. Cook has already taken the new rule into account as he plans his roster several years out. He said they’ve built smaller recruiting classes to leave room for people with extended eligibility, whether that is players on his team or potential transfers. 

“We’ve been pretty meticulous about leaving space in our roster to bring players back for a fifth season, to add graduate transfers,“ Cook said. “Our roster projections, we look like we’re a few players short in ’27 and ’28, and that’s not by accident. We’re looking forward to welcoming a couple transfers here, and the new fifth year’s going to make that easier.“

On the other side, most of the players were still learning about the new rule and focused on the season. No one came out and declared definitively that they would return for a fifth season. However, all were in favor of the change. 

“It’s a huge decision and a really cool opportunity for athletes,“ fourth-year Penn State senior Kennedy Martin said. “It’s something that I really want to talk to Coach (Katie Schumacher-Cawley) about. We’re at the moment just really trying to focus on this year and really enjoying the girls that we have right now and being where our feet are, being present.“

Michigan State fourth-year senior Ky Clayton said she has a vested interest in the rule, as the Spartans have eight seniors on their roster. They all have different trajectories for their life and would weigh different factors on whether or not to come back. However, they aren’t in a rush to figure out their plans right now. 

“We’re not going to make December decisions in June because a lot could change between then. We’ll change as people. We’ll change as a team,“ Clayton said. “We’re just going through our chapters and supporting each other as best as we can. When we get to December, we get to December.“

Several coaches have already started conversations with their players, including in all-team meetings, but others had not, including USC coach Brad Keller. He likes change and hopes that all of his players take advantage of it because it allows them to earn a master’s degree and grow as humans. 

He wished the rule had been in place last year because they redshirted an outside hitter last year and they could have used her on the court because of injuries to other players, but is happy the change finally happened. 

“I think it’s great right now. I thought it was really dumb: you might redshirt, you might do this,“ Keller said. “There needs to be a parameter on it, though, so you can’t be 25 years of age and start your five years. We need to make it clear about what the age thing is to start the clock. But I like the fact that you just eliminated it… It allows them to just compete and try to get after it. It’s a better situation.“

Below are thoughts from other student-athletes and coaches about the rule change, roster management and communicating with each other about the plans. They have been lightly edited for clarity. 

Katy Wessels, senior middle blocker, Washington: The opportunity is amazing. Of course I’ve given it a lot of thought. But you never know what’s going to happen. All I want to do is this year. I love UW. This is my home. This year I just want to give it my all because I came into this year thinking it was my last year, and that’s still how I’m thinking, because you never know what’s going to happen. I’m just going into this year giving it my all. I want this to be my year. And then what happens after, happens.

Maggie Li, senior outside hitter, UCLA: I think that’s an amazing rule change. I guess this might not be my last year, if that’s going to happen. It creates an opportunity for a lot of players, especially now with the landscape of volleyball changing with NIL.

Vivian Campbell, senior libero, Illinois: This rule change has been an awesome opportunity that all athletes have across different sports. Right now we’re focused on the season, and as we come into pre-season, we're getting in the gym together. It’s definitely a conversation that will happen later. Overall, it’s an amazing opportunity for all athletes.

Hannah Jones, senior outside hitter, Ohio State: My focus this year is on Team 57. Honestly, just being the best person, the best teammate, the best friend, the best leader I can be for this team and focusing on what’s ahead going into this season right now.

Gigi Navarrete, senior libero, Northwestern: There’s a lot still going on (with the rules changing) I’m more eager to learn about that rule. Excited to see where it takes us.

Hannah Whittingstall, senior middle blocker, Iowa: The fifth year is a great opportunity for every athlete to get another year of competition. I think going into this year, I’m still going to treat it like my senior season and play as hard as possible.

Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield: I’ve been an advocate for this for a long time. I don’t know why it’s taken us so long. But there’s a lot of things that we do that I don’t know why it takes us so long to get to the obvious. Getting rid of waivers and lawsuits and all those things is something that we should all be striving for.

The opportunity of, if you decide to go at a pace that allows you to get your grad degree, is going to be a game-changer for a lot of people to be able to get that without debt down the road.

One of the tough things is year after year after year leading up into this for most of the sports, most of the players have gone in knowing that they’re going to go for four years. They just knew that going in. Every once in a while you had an injury, where somebody would have a medical redshirt. Every once in a while you’d look at somebody who’s a freshman and say, ’Hey, why don’t you hold you out right now,’ and so you’ve got a true redshirt. But the majority of people, by far, knew they were going to be in college for four years.

Right now, I think what people go in is: is it four or be ready to move on? Is it five? And what they think they may want to do might change over time. It’s going to be complicated for roster building, just not knowing. I’m not interested, especially with the roster limits, in telling somebody at the last minute, hey, we had a change over here, so we can’t do this. It’s going to make it a little bit more complicated.

Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley: It’s all about roster management. We still only get 18 spots on the team. And we have to be smart with what we’re doing, not double-offering players, and make sure we have the right roster to compete.

I know these girls will have some decisions to make as we get going through the season, but we haven’t finalized anything yet with any players returning. We have a great freshman class, another great freshman class coming in next season. And we’ll see what the best fit’s going to be.

Michigan State coach Kristen Kelsay: I talked to the whole team about it when it happened. I said anything like this, any time we add a player to our roster or there’s a big change in the NCAA, I always want you to hear it from me, how this impacts you.

We had a team meeting about it, and then I had individual player dinners over at my house, or team dinners by class this summer. We talked about how it would affect every class. The freshmen, it affects them differently. Some of them redshirted, which we know changes, right, and what their five-year plan academically looks like. Then we had the conversations with our seniors.

We said we’re not going to make December decisions in June. A lot is going to play out through the season. We’ve already had multiple conversations about what this looks like for our senior class, our 2027 class. We’re going to keep those lines of communication open because there are a lot of conditions and a lot of variables that will affect these young women’s future, right?

So making that decision at the end of the season is, in our opinion, the best time to do that for them to stay present, like we talked about in our chapters, staying present and having this potential final season, then deciding what’s best for their future, what’s best for their career, what’s best for their playing career. We’re really excited about the opportunity, but also really trying to stay present. Hey, these are our seniors now, this is how we’re going to honor and recognize them. When the time comes, we’ll make decisions moving forward.

Indiana coach Steve Aird: There are a lot of coaches in the profession that don’t love this new era where you wake up every day, and there’s a new curveball about how things are going to work. I try to stay ahead of it a lot, try to read and consult. Even going into last season, I talked to GMs in the NHL, NFL and pro basketball about how they build rosters and manage the cap.

What I’m most impressed with currently is the leadership in our conference because I think (Big Ten commissioner) Tony (Petitti) is an incredibly bright guy. He really cares about the conference and the teams in the conference. You really can’t control a lot of stuff that’s happening. I think when the rules get established and filtered, and they funnel down, you make the best decisions you can in the time you have. And you don’t kick yourself for not being able to predict the future.

I’m a big proponent of people being able to play. I’m a big proponent of kids being able to make money. I’m also old school enough to know that the college environment that I played in and grew up and coached in, I loved. I think the degree still matters.

I think you can become a pro volleyball player, get a great degree, make good money, and have a hell of a time doing it all across the board. I truly think that’s what the players believe I’m doing every day, is trying to give them as much as I possibly can so they can have success in all those different silos.

It’s an incredibly challenging time, fast time. One of my favorite sayings is that the typewriter repair guy is mad at the computer guy. The taxi guy is mad at Uber. The world keeps pushing and changing. Your ability to evolve as a coach and handle the new structure is paramount, and it’s something I hope we’re doing a pretty good job at it.

Purdue coach Dave Shondell: We only have one person coming in the following year, so we’re still under the cap. We won’t have all those players next year. Now I hope we do. We have six four-year players that will be fifth-year players. Do we, as a staff, decide that we want to keep all of them? Do they, as individuals, decide they want to stay at Purdue? I think they all want to stay at Purdue, provided that we can compensate them the way that they need to be compensated. Fortunately, we’re in a good position that we can provide what they need. So I think that with the fourth-year class that we have, all those great players. What a perfect time for the NCAA to go to a five-year opportunity because I think that really benefits us.

We’ve had conversations. I had them right in front of everybody. I had our first team meeting, and we talked about it. We talked about the dilemma that that’s going to cause.

We have Taylor Anderson, who is going into her fourth year, she may be going into her fifth year after that. You’ve got this (redshirt freshman setter) Isabelle Bardin, who could start for us right now. We’re better in some ways with Isabelle than we are with Taylor. How do you keep that person on board for two years? No. 1, she might beat out Taylor Anderson, so that helps that situation. 

But you have to play more people, and it’s almost impossible to do that in our league with our schedule. You have to schedule as tough as you can because of RPI and then the Big Ten. How do you give people opportunities to keep them engaged and keep them happy, keep their parents happy? If they got an agent, keep their agent happy when you’re playing a great schedule.

Rutgers coach Caitlin Schweihofer: If the timing had been earlier, the roster might have looked a little bit different. We were holding out as long as we could to make some decisions for this season.

But I’ve already chatted with each of them individually. Some of them had natural fifth-year redshirts. So it was already expected. Others, we broached it. We started talking about it even before it became a rule at the end of spring and what their thoughts are.

My intention is to honor all of our commitments that we’ve made so far. I’ve done that since I got here at Rutgers. I’ve never told anyone they’ve lost a scholarship. I’ve never told anyone that there’s no place for them on the team. If I recruited them, there’s a reason why I recruited them, and so we will fit in where we have room to grow, and hopefully that spacing of how we’ve recruited allows for an opportunity.

We have six juniors this year who would have eligibility two years from now. That’s a big group, and we’ll see how this season goes before those decisions are made for 2027 moving forward. 

Washington coach Leslie Gabriel:  Five-for-five gives opportunities to our players to play one more year of college sports. These are the best years of your life. We’re giving them another opportunity for them to do it.

I would love for all my girls to take a fifth year if it’s in their plans. With pro (volleyball) in the States and pro overseas, that’s also enticing to some of them. Those are discussions we’ll continue to have as we go. But I would love for all of my players to stay for a fifth year and play. To have that extra year of experience is invaluable to a program.

Maryland coach Adam Hughes: It’s a juggling act. We did it the traditional route. We’ve actually begun it through academics. What are your options here? What do you want to do? And then let’s have those discussions as this year goes on. But I’ll be honest with you, we’re really focused on this year. I haven’t really discussed future years.

Illinois coach Chris Tamas: I talked to the team about this—one of our pillars is to be in the moment. Let’s be really good about doing that. Those conversations will come in due time because the decisions are going to have to be made, obviously.

Where it becomes different than COVID is that with COVID, you have the roster expansion; you got to add on whoever you wanted to add on. Now you sit at your roster caps, you might have players that want to do something different, maybe from a professional sense or maybe in terms of a major or master’s that they want to get to help their career beyond volleyball. I think there’s plenty of those conversations that can be had.

Love all my players, love to keep everyone. The time frame that gets sprung on you is the time frame. Now you have to figure it kind of out. I think it’s just another thing that we have to manage. I’m happy to have those conversations in due time. In terms of the immediate, I’m really honed in on this year and making sure this team is as good as we can be and go from there.

Northwestern coach Tim Nollan: In terms of how we construct the roster, it’s not going to change our philosophy much. We still want to recruit elite high school talent. We want to invest in it and develop it. We’re going to wait and see exactly how it shakes out. So many twists and turns down this ruling.

I think obviously at some point clocks are going to get longer and be five full years. I think every institution is going to take it a little bit differently. For us, we’re going to really evaluate and find ways we can maximize the Northwestern athletic experience and put our program in a position to win.

Michigan coach Erin Virtue: With a fifth year of eligibility, if I look out a few years, I think it’s a positive thing where we know how to build a roster. You know the eligibility. There have been unfortunate situations with injury and other things. We know what that looks like.

I think in the immediate term it takes a lot of really good communication. When this went through, not only with our current roster, we met about what that looks like. It changes degree paths if someone was all of a sudden planning to finish in four. What does that look like if there’s a master’s or a minor or something else with a degree path?

On our team, there are a lot of different pathways. Really good communication, which I strive to have for our team. Then also for the incoming classes that have verbally committed, what that looks like, how that may compress our roster. 

How I feel about it—not that it doesn’t matter—I have feelings, but it’s more like, what do we do about it? This is the nature of college athletics. Things have changed a lot in the last 18 months. For us, we have to be agile in that space. For me, that’s how I decided to tackle it. This happened, this is a new rule, there may be others that come up, we’ll tackle them as they come.

Oregon coach Trent Kersten: There are a couple of strategies. It’s either you’re punting right now, and you’re trying to lower your numbers for future classes, potentially, and that’s not how we’ve handled it. Or you retain, and you try to develop. We’re definitely going to be required to do both at some point. It’s definitely my preference to retain and develop our players out of Oregon and showcase that this can be a great place for incoming freshmen like Alanah (Clemente) just showed last year to transfers like Valentina (Vaulet), and even through a position change, she was able to develop new skills and show that we’re developing at a really good pace and that you can do

(We’re having) Intro conversations. When novel concepts come up to people that they weren’t expecting, it takes a second to resonate and sit with them. If you’re asking me, would you love to bring Valentina back? I would love to bring Valentina back. She’s one of my favorite players that I’ve ever gotten to coach, and she works her butt off. That being said, she might be ready for the next step in her career, and I completely respect that and her commitment to her craft to be ready for that next step.

Iowa coach Jim Barnes: I think it’s an advantage for our program. Every year they get to be seniors, we don’t want to let go, so now we don’t have to. We get them another year. I like the way we develop our players over that time, and how we treat them honestly so they want to be there a fifth year. I think it’s a big advantage for what we tried to do for Iowa.