As expected, the NCAA’s Division I Council is giving spring student athletes a break, voting Monday to provide an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility.

So what does this mean?

It means athletes at Georgia who compete in baseball, softball, tennis, golf, outdoor track and field can get a blanket waiver so they can keep their current year of eligibility.

There’s more.

The decision also adjusts financial aid rules to allow teams to carry more members on scholarship to account for incoming recruits and student-athletes who had been in their last year of eligibility who decide to stay.

The Council also voted to increase the roster cap for baseball to account for seniors who elect to return for another year. College baseball teams are allowed to carry 35 players. But say, for example, if a team has five seniors who wish to return, that team would be allowed to carry 40 players next spring.

"I'm pleased that the schools have been allowed to grant student-athletes an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility. However, we still need to get some clarity on how the 35-man roster and 11.7 scholarship rules apply as baseball is the only spring sport with such a limit," Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin said in a statement. "There is some flexibility that the schools have, and those decisions have not been made at this time. We’re all working through it, but bottom line, this was the right thing to do for the student-athletes.”​

Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity deferred comment until after teleconference with other SEC ADs set for noon on Tuesday.

The vote does not apply to men’s and women’s basketball, along with other sports that start in the winter and extend into spring.

According to a release by the NCAA, schools also will have the ability to use the NCAA’s Student Assistance Fund to pay for scholarships for students who take advantage of the additional eligibility flexibility in 2020-21.

The Council’s decision allows schools to self-apply waivers to restore one of those seasons of competition for student-athletes who had competed while eligible in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 spring season.

The Council also will allow schools to self-apply a one-year extension of eligibility for spring-sport student-athletes, effectively extending each student’s five-year “clock” by a year. This decision was especially important for student-athletes who had reached the end of their five-year clock in 2020 and saw their seasons end abruptly.

“The Council’s decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Penn in a statement. “The Board of Governors encouraged conferences and schools to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and their communities, and now schools have the opportunity to do that.”