10-25-2026, 04:35 PM
Again, once upon a time people pretended that a fifth year (and maybe even a sixth) was arguably about pursuing a masters degree, or at least some post-baccalaureate classes that could if one squinted hard enough be used to satisfy the prerequisites for a later professional degree. I realize it has been a couple of years since Stanford opened up the post-bac floodgates, but it hasn't even been that long (I think only two or three years). I don't think you go back multiple decades; once upon a time athletes who were not physically ready for college football (especially in the trenches) would redshirt without injury and planned from the get go to take five years. Then the NCAA in its infinite wisdom decided it was ok for players to still redshirt if they played 4 games, and then it became less about giving players a year to develop physically and adjust to the academics in college; yet another example of the NCAA not being able to restrain itself.
I'm actually not even that dogmatically pro masters degree for someone who transfers in during say as an academic junior (having completed two years academically elsewhere) who may have three years of eligibility left because transfers are messy and not all transfer classes will count for credit, plus there are all the demands of football. So I could completely understand an academic plan that extended the bachelors past four years from the get go. In fact, way back in the day when redshirts were common and transfers out were not, a fifth year didn't require getting a masters degree, and many student-athletes just used the extra quarter or two either to reduce their workloads during their sports season without forcing themselves to take summer classes or, god forbid, took some interesting classes that they otherwise wouldn't have had a chance to take if there was a laser focus on graduation in four years. I support all of this, but intrinsic into the framework is that there was some interest in those extra classes and the goal was to graduate with a well-rounded education, even if it took a bit longer than the standard four years of college (so what, at the time, non-athletes at Berkeley and UCLA routinely took five and six years to graduate because of the difficulties in enrolling in required classes, a situation that I can attest has dramatically improved).
But once you get to six and seven years in college it starts to strain credulity that any of it has anything to do with the pursuit of any sort of knowledge. I am happy to be convinced otherwise if anyone knows Warren or has heard he is built somewhat differently; outliers exist and I love to hear their stories. But the five year rule strikes me as a good and I don't really think that Warren should be given a seventh year just because he had some rotten injury luck along the way.
BC
I'm actually not even that dogmatically pro masters degree for someone who transfers in during say as an academic junior (having completed two years academically elsewhere) who may have three years of eligibility left because transfers are messy and not all transfer classes will count for credit, plus there are all the demands of football. So I could completely understand an academic plan that extended the bachelors past four years from the get go. In fact, way back in the day when redshirts were common and transfers out were not, a fifth year didn't require getting a masters degree, and many student-athletes just used the extra quarter or two either to reduce their workloads during their sports season without forcing themselves to take summer classes or, god forbid, took some interesting classes that they otherwise wouldn't have had a chance to take if there was a laser focus on graduation in four years. I support all of this, but intrinsic into the framework is that there was some interest in those extra classes and the goal was to graduate with a well-rounded education, even if it took a bit longer than the standard four years of college (so what, at the time, non-athletes at Berkeley and UCLA routinely took five and six years to graduate because of the difficulties in enrolling in required classes, a situation that I can attest has dramatically improved).
But once you get to six and seven years in college it starts to strain credulity that any of it has anything to do with the pursuit of any sort of knowledge. I am happy to be convinced otherwise if anyone knows Warren or has heard he is built somewhat differently; outliers exist and I love to hear their stories. But the five year rule strikes me as a good and I don't really think that Warren should be given a seventh year just because he had some rotten injury luck along the way.
BC