Five for Five: New NCAA eligibility rule could allow some Jackrabbits to play another year

BROOKINGS – Last week, the NCAA announced that they are adopting a new age-based eligibility model for Division I athletics.

The rule allows for athletes to have up to five years of eligibility if they enroll in college no later than their 19th birthday. This will allow upcoming seniors who have not used a redshirt a chance to come back to school for a fifth year in the 2027-28 school year. There are student-athletes at South Dakota State in numerous sports that have a chance to take advantage of that.

SDSU volleyball coach Dan Georgalas, who will have to figure out if three of his players want to use a fifth year, said that he thinks the rule will end up being beneficial in the grand scheme of things.

“I think in general I support it,” Georgalas said. “I think it makes a lot of things easier for the NCAA, getting rid of hardship waivers, medical waivers, gray shirts, red shirts, like all these different things that require paperwork and approvals. Now all that is gone, you know, it simplifies things. 

“... I do approve of it, because a lot of these players ended up playing five years anyways with a red shirt or something like that. So I think it's great. I think it provides a lot of simplicity for some of the eligibility stuff.”

Outside hitter Sylvie Zgonc, setter Rylee Martin and defensive specialist Joslyn Richardson are the three Jackrabbit volleyball players that could play a fifth year at SDSU if they wanted to. Zgonc is the biggest name out of that group as she has won the Summit League Player of the Year the past two seasons and was Summit League Freshman of the Year in 2023.

Zgonc has played in every match and every set for the past three seasons. She was AVCA-All Region and AVCA Honorable Mention All-America in 2025. She led the Jackrabbits with 451 kills in 2025 and was second on the team in digs per set with 2.61. 

Zgonc is already in the top 10 in career kills at SDSU and needs 446 to become the all-time leader for the Jackrabbits. She is averaging over four kills per set for her career and the career record at SDSU is 3.79. 

Martin earned Summit League First Team honors in 2025 and has 2,154 assists for her career, which was nine best in program history.

Georgalas said he’s begun to have talks with those three players about what they want to do after this season, but it’s complicated because of the incoming freshmen they’ve already recruited.

“I think it’s a complicated time,” Georgalas said. “You don’t have a roster spot available for everyone to take a fifth year. We’ll go through our current roster on a case by case basis, one at a time, and then start moving onto our committed recruits. It’s a weird situation because we have to obey the roster maximum, which is 18. 

“This is not like the house settlement two years ago, where we could grandfather student athletes in and give them the title of a designated student athlete and go over a roster maximum. So, it’s a slow moving process here of having face to face conversations with all of our student athletes and we’ll begin to have those over the next month.”

What will those conversations entail? Georgalas said it’s a mix of opportunity at SDSU and opportunity after graduation, whether that’s playing volleyball professionally or a career outside of the sport.

“We’re having these conversations now because I think it helps in the recruiting era because we’re very far ahead in recruiting,” Georgalas said. “We’ve got [recruits that are committed] that get us very close to our roster maximum. So, knowing whether a player wants to come back for a fifth year, that’s important because it could be taking away an opportunity for somebody coming out of high school in the future.

“There’s a lot that goes into it, whether it’s opportunities to play professionally. There’s an academic fit as well, whether or not someone wants to move on with their adult life or if there is a master’s degree that falls in line with their academic goals. So again, it’s a case by case basis and there’s a lot that goes into it.”

As of right now, volleyball, football, soccer and the two basketball teams have their rosters finalized for the 2026-27 school year at SDSU.

Football has five players that could take advantage of the new rule in defensive end Dawson Ripperda, safety Dontay Johnson, linebacker Cullen McShane, tight end Andrew Gustad and Minnesota Moorhead defensive tackle transfer Ashton Sayre. Ripperda, Johnson, McShane and Sayre could all be starters for the Jackrabbits in 2026.

The SDSU soccer team has five players that could come back for a fifth year as well in Mallorie Benhart, Taryn Hettich, Hannah Langstaff, Ellie Gusman and Sophia Emerson. Hettich and Gusman have spent their whole careers with SDSU, while the rest are transfers. Benhart was the starting goalkeeper for the Jacks in 2025. Gusman scored three goals in 2025 and Hettich has played in a total of 62 matches for the Jackrabbits in her career.

Women’s basketball has one player that could come back for a fifth year in Maggie Hartwig. 2025-26 was Hartwig’s first season with the Jacks as she spent the first two years of her career at Evansville. She averaged 5.3 points and 5.3 rebounds last season but is expected to have a bigger role this season after the departure of Brooklyn Meyer.

The men’s basketball team did not have any players that could benefit from this new rule. However, Joe Sayler, EJ Ryans and Jesse Van Kalsbeek are on track to play all five seasons, having played the first two seasons of their career.

There are no waivers available for a sixth season under this new rule. The only exceptions that could delay or pause an individual's period of eligibility under the age-based rule are pregnancy, active-duty military service and official religious missions. Those exceptions will only be available if the student-athlete does not participate in organized competition for the duration of the exception.