College athletes in 2025 seem to be older than ever before.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a number of players who participated in the affected 2020-2021 year getting blanket waivers for an extra year of eligibility. Then, in 2024, senior athletes who spent at least a season at the junior college level received a blanket waiver from the NCAA for one extra year, a ruling that stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia.

Pavia’s lawsuit inspired many players who had exhausted their eligibility to appeal for an extra year, once again bringing up the debate over college athletes getting a fifth year to play altogether.

Currently, college athletes are eligible to play four full seasons, allowed one redshirt and can apply for a separate medical redshirt if injury takes away one of those four seasons.

The most recent high-profile case of a player filing a lawsuit for an extra year of eligibility is Tennessee men’s basketball star Zakai Zeigler. He just finished his fourth season with the Vols, playing in each of them. Zeigler also didn’t play in the COVID-19 affected 2020-2021 season, meaning he did not get a blanket waiver.

Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey was asked directly about Zeigler’s case during SEC spring meetings Monday evening and whether he’d like to see college athletes get a fifth year of eligibility.

Sankey pointed to previous times in which the idea of athletes playing five seasons was brought up, and the conversation never advanced. Because of that, Sankey said he personally put the conversation aside, but talked about how it should be approached now.

“I think the conversation has to be informed with the why it didn’t advance before,” Sankey said. “I think some of the rationale for advancing the idea ties back to, ‘Can you get through the waivers and just have something standard?’ You could do that at four years of eligibility.”

Sankey also brought up the idea of athletes debating whether a year at the Division II or Division III level should count against their eligibility, a conversation that existed within Auburn basketball this season.

Auburn forward Chaney Johnson completed his final season of eligibility in 2025, but started his career at the Division II level with Alabama-Huntsville. There’s precedence for a Division II athlete obtaining an extra year, with Wisconsin football player Nyzier Fourqurean doing so after filing a lawsuit against the NCAA.

Fourqurean started his career at Division II Grand Valley State and was granted a preliminary injunction, allowing him to play for Wisconsin this season.

Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl said in February that they would “go through the process about seeing whether or not Chaney would be eligible for another year.” Following Auburn’s Final Four loss to Florida, Johnson said “no” when asked if he knew what was next for him.

Since then, nothing else has come out about Johnson’s future or any appeals for an extra year of eligibility, and Auburn seems to be building its 2025-2026 roster under the assumption that Johnson won’t be back.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m