April 13, 2011

Conditions and procedure for obtaining an NCAA medical hardship

It is common that a student-athlete will miss part of a season or a whole season of competition at some point during their years in college.  Sometimes these missed opportunities are due to circumstances within the student-athlete’s control, and sometimes they are not.  An example of a missed opportunity within the student-athlete’s control would be academic ineligibility.

The most common example of a missed opportunity due circumstances outside of the student-athlete’s control would be a medical hardship or injury.  An institution can request another year of competition to make up for the missed season if the following conditions are met: 1) the incapacitating injury or illness occurs in one of the four seasons of intercollegiate competition at any two year or four-year collegiate institution; 2) the injury or illness results in an incapacity to compete for the remainder of that playing season; and 3) the injury or illness occurs when the student-athlete has not participated in more than two contests or dates of competition or 20 percent of the maximum permissible number of contests for that sport, whichever is greater (NCAA Division II Bylaw 14.2.5).

An institution first requests a medical hardship through their conference office, and then has the option to appeal any decisions to the NCAA.  A conference office can even accept a medical hardship request on behalf of an institution who had a student-athlete injure him or herself at a non-NCAA institution (ex – injury occurred at a two-year school and then the student-athlete transferred to a NCAA institution).  The following criteria is used to evaluate all medical hardship requests: 1) Nature of the injury or illness; however, it is not a requirement that the injury was a direct result of athletics participation; 2) medical documentation that establishes the student-athlete’s inability to participate for the remainder of the playing season, and 3) game statistics to verify that the student-athlete has not participated in more than either two games or 20 percent of the season (NCAA Division II Bylaw 14.2.5.2).  

Alison Fitzgerald is the assistant athletic director for compliance, student services, and special events at Barry University.