I attended a D2 school and redshirted one semester for cross country. I’m looking to go back to school for MD/PhD and would love to play football.
My Dad played in college at Penn and grandfather was quarterback for Notre Dame. It is something that had always looked fun to me and I feel qualified for a few schools to walk on.
But am I eligible? I didn’t use my 4 years of NCAA eligibility and think because I went to a D2 school it’s still possible for 4 years of D1 eligibility.
good idea i’m going to call this hotline later NCAA Eligibility Center Toll-free phone number (U.S. callers): 877/262-1492 Phone number (international callers): 317/917-6222
couldn’t find an email. would have preferred in writing but I guess we will see what they say
Yeah, no idea about the eligibility question. But is this a good idea in general? I would not want to go to graduate school and spend every day getting slammed by 19-year-old people who literally have nothing better to do with their time and bodies. I guess you are tougher than me anyway.
^ I think he could play D2 or D3. D1 has a strict 5 year clock so I don’t think he’s eligible for any D1 sport. You only have 5 years to use your 4 years of D1 eligibility starting from the semester you first enroll in any college.
Also, NCAA eligibility is by sport so even if you ran 4 years of cross country you’d still technically have 4 years of eligibility for football.
I think this is like the old “Should I attend Harvard or MIT?” question. You know, a person asks which school they should go to, but in fact, they haven’t applied to, much less been accepted to either.
@ACE - Why don’t you go try out for the team? If you make the team, then I’m sure they’ll tell you whether or not you’re eligible.
But I second the others on the board–it doesn’t matter whether or not you played. When you enrolled in college, the NCAA wound the 5-year play clock. I bet it has reached zero by now.
The next D1 football season is part of the 2016-2017 academic year. Working backwards, if you attended any 2 or 4 year post-secondary school prior to August of 2012 your 5 year NCAA D1 eligibility clock has expired. Likewise, for D2 and D3, you have 10 academic semesters from initial enrollment to compete for 4 seasons. Additionally, as a graduate student in D1 athletics, with a few exceptions, you have to participate for the school where you completed your undergraduate degree. However, for football, specifically Division 1Football Bowl Subdivision, a graduate student athlete that retains eligibility is only eligible to participate at the school that he attended as an undergraduate.
If you are serious about playing, I’d suggest NAIA.
According to the documentary Necessary Roughness, Sinbad was allowed to come back to play years after attending college as he had one year of eligibility remaining.
Yea generally curious about what D1 Football team you could walk onto after not playing competitive football for years. Seems like a pretty ridiculous idea anyway.
Well, as one example, Mark Wahlberg walked on to the NFL Eagles after working as a bartender for 10 years. I saw this in one of the many documentaries on Mark Wahlberg’s life. It is inspiring how someone can repeatedly succeed in careers like military service, astronaut, and porn star, and also fight Megatron in the battle for humanity’s survival.
oh you know what - I just saw my school was D1 in college - I was wrong on so many fronts I mean they did just beat the USC Gamecocks, but the football team and all teams except baseball at times really suck - sports were frowned upon in my school and everyone was so crappy (we only got people going to the NFL every couple years) that I had it in my mind they were at a lower level. I think I am ineligible because of the time lapse after attending undergrad. While I feel this is a bit silly and illogical, it is the reality. The phone number is closed all this week for the holidays, but you guys are right – oh well.
I’m applying to programs/schools in 2016. My thinking during this process was partly based on the fact that if they had a football team at one of the 43 eligible MD/PhD schools I might have a shot. Looks like I do not. I would have been content to just train and sit bench and be on the team. It seemed fun. I’m not going to lie - I just have fun with that kind of stuff. Also, the application process is extremely lengthy and I’m trying to limit the number of target schools. I already have one main target school in which I had to email the MSTP dean and give him my background and I adjusted my whole schedule for the next ten months to meet the needs of just this one school based on his feedback. He was doubtful I could even pull this off, but now I at least meet the minimum requirements for ONE school. I’ve called a few other places like Columbia in which I have zero chance unless I want to get a whole additional degree in the life sciences, devote years to research, and a whole bunch of other things. The two main things in my current and main target school I was lacking was scientific research and advanced level science coursework. I don’t even have a life science degree. Somehow I got interviewed and accepted to work with a neuroscientist and also take an advanced level neuroscience course next semester which required an array of approvals up to the dean of neuroscience. Yeah, looks like the NCAA clock has hit zero. I just experienced a high amount of focus and productivity in college after getting up early to train (PT), training after class (more PT), and having a group of people to bring you up and break you down physically establishing a high amount of comradery which is something that is essential to me if I am to perform well in the classroom. If i’m not training, i’m probably going out and taking shots just because that is my weakness. I need the social aspect of life and if it doesn’t come in one form, it bleeds to other and sometimes unhealthy ways.I like to train my arse off and then hit the books. I’m sure youve had this comradery in the Marines and know how much the morale of the group affects not only the whole but the individual parts to the people who are willing to put in the work academically.
I was thinking about this though and had a conversation the other night about the strength of the MD/PhD programs versus their football team. It seemed a few good schools had crappy football teams which would have given me the chance to walk away with degrees and actually have a chance of being on a team. So yeah that was the logic.
obviously i dont know the schools so i cant comment on every case, but if a program is playing D1 football then I still think it would be a tall order. I could see it happening maybe D2 or D3 but D1 they can still get some kids outof HS that have been playing competitive football where you havent in a while.
Dont let that stop you though may as well try, not sure how you would have the time either in a MD program. They would 100% make a movie out of it if you made the team.
