The New Jersey Bridge Year (or Gap Year) is raising a lot of questions from athletes and their parents regarding eligibility. So let’s sort this all out.
What is the Bridge Year?
The Bridge Year (as it is called in New Jersey) offers the ability for Class of 2021 and 2022 graduates to stay enrolled in their high schools and defer graduation for one year. During that time they can play their sports at the school or club sports. They can also take colleges courses on a part-time basis (nine to twelve credits).
Why was this implemented?
Because of Covid the NCAA allowed the extension of the eligibility for their 2021 seniors who lost their senior season due to the lockdowns implemented because of the virus. Those seniors are remaining on the roster and in many cases under scholarship.
What does that mean to high school athletes?
Colleges keeping those seniors on their rosters and under scholarship means:
a) They do not have enough roster spots for incoming Freshmen who graduate high school in 2021.
b) Or they do not have enough money to extend athletic scholarships to incoming Freshmen who graduate in 2021 because that money is being paid to the Seniors who have to stay on the roster in college.
Because of these roster issues many 2021 students are missing opportunities to earn athletic scholarships. These students now have an option to take a Bridge Year (Gap Year) and remain in high school taking college courses part-time while still participating in their sports. That way these students can enter the 2022 recruiting class.
How does that affect college eligibility?
As long as you are registered only as a part-time student and don’t take enough credit hours to be considered full-time this will not affect your eligibility. I reached out to my point of contact at NCAA Legislative and he confirmed this.
What does this mean?
This means that if you play a sport in high school and are class of 2021 or 2022 you can continue to participate in that sport for one more year and be recruited with the class of 2022 or class of 2023.
How does this affect college recruiting?
While the college teams will lose their 2020 seniors after the 2021 season (through which they were extended), they will now have a much larger class of 2022 coming out of high school.
Those 2021 students who choose a Bridge Year thereby basically extending their graduation to 2022 will be included in the 2022 recruiting class. That is going to significantly increase the number of athletes that need to be scouted by colleges for a Fall 2022 athletic scholarship.
Colleges will not have more slots on their rosters unless the NCAA decides down the road to increase roster slots, but don’t expect that. Colleges will also not have more money for scholarships, so expect the competition to be even tougher for the 2022 recruiting class.
Example: If each high school basketball team in your district has five seniors per team and your district has three teams that equals 15 seniors (Class of 2021).
If all of those seniors use their Bridge Year to enter the 2022 recruiting class then those 15 seniors will join the existing 2022 seniors (let us assume 9 more seniors in the district). That will now give you 24 seniors fighting for the same number of slots in the 2022 recruiting class from the same district.
Now imagine that nationwide.
Currently there is a 3.5% chance to make it to an NCAA Basketball team out of High School. Expect that percentage to increase with a larger pool of athletes from which the colleges have to recruit.
This will carry over from year-to-year depending on how many college students choose to take that extra year of eligibility. Any year, Freshman through Senior can decide to take that extra year of eligibility. Not all will because they could declare early or choose that it’s just not worth it to stay in college for another year simply to play their sport, but there is a chance that many will. This will have a cascading effect over recruiting for many years.
My point of contact at NCAA Legislative said, “This is probably going to affect recruiting for the next five or six years.”
Should I take a Bridge Year?
That’s up to you. Since you lost a year a competing in high school and development and you want to improve and get more exposure then it might be a good idea. If you don’t have a problem through yourself into the mix with an increased 2022 or 2023 recruiting class then take the chance.
I just wanted to make sure I offered the options and information to help you make your decision. And that decision is totally yours.
Who can I go to help me through the process?
You can contact me and my team at Titan Scouting.
Visit our website at www.TitanScouting.com or email us at Scouting@TitanScouting.com and we will increase your exposure to help you stand out among the rest of the athletes out there.
Copyright © 2021, Pro Dynamix, LLC
