Super Seniors: Why some are taking extra year of eligibility while others aren't

When the NCAA gave seniors a free year of eligibility, it created an impossible decision for thousands of college football seniors. Here is how Texas Tech's Seth Collins, Missouri's Blaze Alldredge and Texas' Sam Ehlinger made their decisions.

Shehan Jeyarajah

Days before the fall 2020 football season got underway, the NCAA dropped a bombshell. To quell all concerns about eligibility during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board of Directors decided to grant a blanket eligibility waiver for every fall sport athlete.

Without knowing it, the NCAA was rolling the dice and creating three Community-esque timelines for the more than 10,000 players in college football. Suddenly, for the first time, every player had choices.

Players had the right to come back to their programs as “super seniors” and use a fifth full year of eligibility. With this extra eligibility, they could graduate and transfer to a new destination for a second chance. They could also forego their extra year and try their hand at professional football – or give up the sport altogether.

Texas Football spoke to several college football players from across Texas college football who faced this life-changing decision.

Here is how they made it.

‘I haven’t finished what I’ve started’

Few players know college football quite like Texas Tech’s Seth Collins. The West Coast native had an entire first act of playing quarterback and receiver at Oregon State before joining Kliff Kingsbury’s Texas Tech as a wide receiver.

But thanks to injuries and coaching changes, we haven’t seen the best of Collins in Lubbock as yet. With the NCAA granting Collins an almost unmatched seventh year of eligibility, he wants to get it right.

“I haven’t finished what I’ve started,” Collins said. “I want to go out of college football with a bang. I want to show I’m still that guy that can play at a high level.”

After five years of primarily playing wide receiver, the 24-year-old decided it was time to try something new. Before the 2020 season, Collins asked the coaching staff about switching positions from receiver to free safety. Collins hasn’t played defense at the college level, but backpedaling and triggering felt more natural than constant stop-and-go on his older knees.

A post shared by Bike to Crush Cancer (@biketocrushcancer)

“It’s really tough – I’ve played football since I was real little,” Forester said. “I haven’t had many thoughts other than that’s been my Plan A. It’s a tough transition. It’s something that definitely took time and took self-evaluation and realization that I am a lot less sure of what the future looks like than what I thought it was.”

But during the pandemic, something happened that put everything into perspective. His uncle, Steve Clarke, was diagnosed with brain cancer. Without the obligations of football holding him back, Forester decided he was going to do something about it.

On May 8, Forester will bike the 650 miles from El Paso to Dallas in a fundraising event he has named “Bike to Crush Cancer.” Proceeds will go to multiple charities that are working to find a cure for brain cancer.

Forester majored in finance and was fascinated by the confounding movement of the market over the past few months. He hopes to eventually land in the field. But for these moments, freeing himself of his obligations and being able to fully be there for his family has nourished him as he moves to private life.

“There’s a lot of things that happened when I was at UTEP within my family that was like, something has gone on but I can’t go and help because I’ve got these other responsibilities,” Forester said. “When you actually help out, it feels so good...the freedom to be able to do that is just awesome.”

‘You’re guessing’

While the die’s roll has finished, the countless new timelines keep emerging.

247Sports lists more than 600 players without destinations in the 2021 Transfer Portal. There could be another wave of transfers after players move down the depth chart in the spring. Like Alldredge said: Seniors only get one more shot at this.

“2021’s going to be a special year,” Collins said. “You’re going to get a lot of older guys on each team, a lot more maturity in a sense. It’s going to be competitive for sure.”

Returning seniors will not count against the 85-man scholarship limit in 2021, but the scholarship numbers remain in flux. While super seniors won’t count, finding ways to project future scholarship numbers is only getting more difficult as programs try and account for whether players will take the extra year.