Fifth year university football players who thought they had lost the opportunity to play their final seasons because of the COVID-19 pandemic, got some good news on Monday morning.
The controversial decision to not allow 24-year-old university football players to play their final season as 25-year-olds in 2021 has been overturned by U Sports.
U of R Rams fifth year linebacker Robbie Lowes joined Derek Taylor on the SportsCage on Monday, and said it’s been a rollercoaster since the original decision was announced.
“A report comes out last week saying it’s been overturned, then U Sports comes back and says no that’s a false report, so my hopes were going up and down that’s for sure. I hadn’t really gotten to the acceptance phase yet,” Lowes said.
Lowes found out the decision had been reversed while eating breakfast and receiving a call from a teammate, he immediately called his coach to confirm the news.
U Sports said this will be a one time exception.
Official statement from U SPORTS: pic.twitter.com/k95YqNDxkS
— U SPORTS (@USPORTSca) July 27, 2020
However for players like Lowes, it means the world to be able to finish off their university careers as true fifth years.
“To get it back now and especially at this time and not in January or February or even March and it’s overturned in the courts or something like that means a lot to us, now we know we’re back and we can start to build our team knowing who’s with us next year,” Lowes said.
Earlier this year U Sports put a kibosh on the 2020 season thanks to COVID-19, leaving about 300 fifth year players unsure about when and if they had played their final football game at the university level.
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