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n the midst of Katie Hoeg’s online classes, the North Carolina senior will wait for news from the NCAA Division I Council’s meeting Monday.

“I’m trying to keep myself updated with all their rulings and what possibly they could say about other aspects of playing, like scholarships and academics and that kind of stuff,” Hoeg said. “I don’t really know. I’m in the dark like most people are.”

Hoeg moved to the top of the North Carolina women’s lacrosse team’s all-time scoring list in her final game of 2020, a 20-18 win over Northwestern on March 10.

But she doesn’t want her college career ending there.

“If I have the chance to come back, I definitely will,” said Hoeg, whose Tar Heels were unbeaten and ranked No. 1 when the season ended prematurely due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. “I have a feeling that my story with UNC isn’t over yet, and I just can’t imagine ending it on the terms that we did.”

Hoeg gained hope when in the wake of canceling all spring sports, the NCAA Division I council announced March 13 that “eligibility relief is appropriate for all Division I student-athletes who participated in spring sports.” It was just a recommendation, but it got student-athletes, coaches, schools and conferences thinking about their possibilities and set into motion a litany of what-if scenarios for next year and well beyond.

“This whole thing, there are so many questions,” Notre Dame men’s lacrosse coach Kevin Corrigan said. “What I really wish is that they’d asked all these questions before they made a statement about what they were or weren’t going to do and put themselves in a position where they’re almost having to take something away from somebody that they never had.”

A March 20 release from the NCAA offered little more detail than a date for legislative action.

“The full Division I Council will discuss and vote on eligibility relief for student-athletes whose seasons were impacted by COVID-19 and other related issues on March 30,” the statement said. “In principle, the coordination committee agrees relief should be extended to spring sport student-athletes and supports providing schools with a framework in which they have the autonomy to make their own decisions in the best interest of their campus, conference and student-athletes.”

Any ruling will be official after a vote Monday, and it seems likely that the NCAA will offer eligibility relief.

“The NCAA manages the loss of competition opportunities that student-athletes experience all the time,” said Jennifer Heppel, the Patriot League commissioner who sits on the DI Council as a representative from the Division I Committee on Academics. “While we haven’t dealt with a pandemic before, our regulatory structure is designed to manage circumstances that are beyond the control of the student-athlete, whether that’s a medical injury or a family situation. In many ways, what’s happening right now is consistent with that, but on a much bigger scale. If you really think about what’s happened, student-athletes have lost a competitive opportunity due to circumstances that are beyond their control.”

The NCAA's coordination committee also announced it was issuing waivers that allows schools to reimburse collegiate athletes for any expenses related to canceled foreign trips, as well as high school prospects for expenses related to canceled official and unofficial visits. In-person recruiting activity already was suspended until April 15. With most student-athletes home now and doing remote learning, current college players also are away from their teams.

“We don’t have any direction and way of directing the team in what they’re doing just yet,” Cornell men’s lacrosse coach Peter Milliman said. “We’re hopefully going to get some allowances to have independent activities we can coordinate, but right now it’s about continuing to dialogue and making sure guys are getting the support they need because it’s a difficult time to not really know what’s going on.”

There are mounting questions surrounding how it will look if the NCAA does grant a year of eligibility to spring sports athletes, most concerning eligibility details and financial feasibility.

“Only time will tell how everyone decides to work this out,” Maryland women’s lacrosse coach Cathy Reese said. “It’s a tough thing. It’s easy to say off the bat, we’d love another year. I would love for everyone to get another year, for all the student-athletes from this spring to get another year. It’s something they could choose to take or not choose to take. But there are so many pieces that go into deciding whether that’s an option.”

Among the questions being raised are whether the NCAA grants an extra year of eligibility to just this year’s senior class or across all classes, how it would then adjust scholarship and roster limits, how additional scholarships would be financed and how they affect subsequent seasons.

“There’s been enough prep work going into it that the majority of the big questions will get answered through the vote on Monday,” said Mike Scerbo, compliance officer and former women’s lacrosse coach at Duquesne. “There’s been enough dialogue leading up to this that the major decisions will be made on Monday. Then it will fall in the hands of the conferences and individual institutions as to how they want to implement whatever rules the NCAA has put into place.”

Beyond those considerations, there are questions for the student-athletes. Do seniors graduate and try to get into a graduate school program? Do they put off graduation in favor of more undergraduate classes and work toward a minor or another major? Can families afford to pay for another year of school?

“What we’re going through is such a unique challenge and there are so many unintended consequences to an extra year and how it would impact the financial situation and things of that nature, and you realize the NCAA has some tough decisions to make,” Maryland men’s lacrosse coach John Tillman said. “I have young men I love being around and I know how much they love playing lacrosse.”

At the institutional level, there will be questions of financing larger rosters and space considerations for both locker rooms and traveling to games, even outfitting teams. Syracuse, which boasts the biggest-budget lacrosse programs on both the men’s and women’s side, spent $3.2 million and $2.6 million on the teams in 2018, respectively, according to the latest Equity in Athletics Data Analysis released by the U.S. Department of Education.

Changes could affect future budgets.

“The financial aid piece will be interesting and how that is managed,” Heppel said. “We’re very late in the cycle for next year. Institutions have committed to incoming student-athletes, and how is that balanced with student-athletes that now might be returning? That is what needs to be worked through and where some relief for schools might be granted.”

There are questions of whether certain options are even permitted at some institutions for student-athletes, who may have to remap their course loads if they alter graduation years.

“At Notre Dame, they are going to have to graduate,” Corrigan said of this year’s senior class. “Notre Dame is not going to let them not graduate.”

Maryland senior defender Meghan Doherty would like another chance to play, but it’s not that easy. She missed her freshman year due to a torn ACL and is set to graduate in May with a degree in kinesiology. She added a minor in this, her fifth year, and would be adding a sixth year if she returns. The three-time All-Big Ten Academic honoree wants to go to graduate school for occupational therapy, something that Maryland does not offer.

“Being already a fifth-year, it’s a lot on my body, it’s a lot of college,” Doherty said. “It’s an awesome opportunity for any senior to be able to come back if they do one. It’s also tough because a lot of people did have plans after college. It’s hard to pick what you want to do with everything being cut short so abruptly. Without having the details, I haven’t tried to think about it too much because then I’ll overthink and panic. It’s definitely a lot to process. There’s a lot that goes into making that decision.”

Rutgers attackman Adam Charalambides is already in his sixth year. Athletically, he’s a junior after taking three medical redshirt years due to injuries. With extended eligibility, the graduate school student theoretically could be in college for eight years. That, of course, is an extreme scenario — but a real one, nonetheless.

“We don’t know what two or three months is going to bring,” Heppel said. “It’s one thing to say, ‘I’m coming back,’ but we don’t know what we’re coming back to and when we’re coming back right now. We all hope it’s going to be in August, but who knows? That’s one of those bigger life questions we’re dealing with right now.”

The Ivy League, which had three of the top-five ranked men’s teams, does not permit graduate students to play but has allowed fifth-year undergraduates an extra year to compete. The most visible example was Cornell’s Rob Pannell, who played (and set the NCAA career scoring record since eclipsed by Lyle Thompson) in 2013 after he broke his foot the previous season.

“The Ivy League will not likely make wholesale changes to eligibility rules, but limited relief has been a topic of discussion,” the Ivy League office stated in response to an inquiry from US Lacrosse Magazine.

Asked to clarify if the limited relief would extend to current classes beyond this year’s seniors, the office responded, “None of those decisions have been determined yet.”

The Ivy League will determine how it will address eligibility relief following the NCAA Division I Council decision Monday, but its athletes may have to wait longer than other conferences to decide whether they try to play an additional year.

“My dream would be to be back in a Princeton uniform,” said Princeton’s Michael Sowers, the Tewaaraton Award frontrunner. "That’s the goal right now to make that happen, but we haven't gotten much clarification from the Ivy League in terms of how to actually do that. We’re just patiently waiting to see what happens."

“The hardest hurdle would be expecting a change in policy from the Ivy League,” Milliman said. “In any capacity, that’s the hardest thing to imagine, and the problem is that almost all the possibilities include that.”

Hoeg feels fortunate that her long-terms plans won’t be changing too much if she gets an extra year of eligibility. She was planning on teaching during a gap year, but would put that off for another year at UNC before starting dental school in the fall of 2021.

“It will be an incredibly individual decision,” Heppel said. “We as administrators in college athletics owe it to them to give them the complete information and then let them make the decisions that are best for them. That’s the goal in trying to make these decisions Monday, to provide a level of transparency in information to student-athletes. They’re smart young men and women. They’ll make the right decision for them.”

Hoeg said that three of the seven current UNC seniors are considering more seriously returning if given the chance, which is in line with estimates of 25 to 50 percent of seniors who might return. There is a narrow timeline to consider for many.

“Our kids start to register for classes at the end of this week,” Reese said. “They’re already registering for next fall. You’ve got some seniors set to graduate in May. If they have the opportunity to maybe double major or change their course — maybe they apply to grad school — we don’t know what’s in the cards until the NCAA gives us some direction.”

Every action will incur consequences and adjustments. One concern is how eligibility relief for current players would influence incoming freshmen next year.

“There’s no question those kids are affected,” Corrigan said. “That’s one of the things the NCAA failed to take into account. If what you’re trying to do is take the senior student-athletes from the spring sports, what about the incoming freshman student-athletes? They had their senior year in high school affected, and now you’re going to affect their freshman year in college. So didn’t you really just shift what you’re trying to eliminate from one group to another?”

There are concerns at all college levels. Hoeg is on scholarship to North Carolina, but that’s not an option for Division III and club players. Defending WCLA champion Pittsburgh has 10 seniors on a team that went unbeaten in 2019 and was 7-0 to start this season.

“They’re not going to put their life on hold so they can get another shot,” Pitt coach Kevin Tidgewell said. “We talked about trying to get this team together and doing Lake Placid or doing Vail in the summer. We said we didn’t get to go to Nationals, but let’s get everyone together for one of the big lacrosse tournaments and bring everyone back and let the seniors have their last game on the field together. That’s the thing that sucks the most. They played their last game together, but they didn’t know it.”

It’s the same scenario for defending MCLA champion South Carolina. The Gamecocks also have 10 seniors, and coach James Harkey only foresees one of them, Hank Chastain, playing again for the team next year even though the MCLA already said it will grant players another year of eligibility regardless of the NCAA decision. Chastain transferred in and has some school left to complete. Graduate students can compete in MCLA if they have not played four years of a college sport.

“For us, where guys are paying their own way to play, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to incur additional costs if you weren’t already planning on it,” Harkey said. “I hope some guys, if they have the opportunity and choose to go to grad school, explore the possibility of using that extra year if it’s a possibility for them.”

It’s a waiting game for now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The NCAA Division I Council meeting Monday aims to make clearer the next steps ahead.

“The hardest part about this conversation with each of these guys is I don’t know what the answers are going to be and I don’t know when we’re going to know those answers,” Milliman said. “There’s very little to talk to our guys about except we will support you with whatever we’re able to do. I will work as hard as can to get you what you deserve as a member of this program, and every single guy in our program deserves to have that experience.”

Monday’s decision could have far-reaching effects over the next four seasons at a minimum. Student-athletes, coaches, institutions and conferences are waiting to see how it plays out.

“Right now, this is still my dream and we’re going to make it work and everything will happen the way it’s supposed to,” Hoeg said. “But there are so many unknowns.