About Eligibility Decoder

Eligibility Decoder is an independent, plain-English guide to the NCAA's new five-year, age-based eligibility model. When the rule was adopted on June 23, 2026, the coverage was everywhere — but it was scattered across articles and written for reporters, not for the athletes, parents and coaches trying to answer one question: how many years do I have left?

So we built the thing that didn't exist: a clean checker plus straight explainers, grounded only in what the NCAA actually published.

We are not affiliated with the NCAA, any school, conference, or athletics body, and we don't make eligibility determinations — your school's compliance office does. We just make the rule easy to understand.