RUSTON, La. – Following the NCAA's ruling last week that granted an extra year of eligibility to all spring sport athletes, including 2020 seniors, athletic departments across the country are now determining if and how they will finance the additional scholarship amounts for the upcoming 2020-21 academic calendar.

Sports that are in question at Louisiana Tech include baseball, softball, men's and women's outdoor track and field, golf and tennis. University athletic departments have the choice of funding the individual scholarships for each of those seniors who choose to return for another year up to the same amount they received this past year or at a level below or not at all.

According to Louisiana Tech Director of Athletics Tommy McClelland, the financial component would be significant if every spring sport senior student-athlete returned. However, many of them have already chosen to move on following graduation.

McClelland said after figuring up the cost and looking at the upcoming budget year while taking into consideration a number of factors, Louisiana Tech (via donor solicitation) is going to cover the cost of funding the additional scholarships for baseball and softball.

"This was the second straight year that those two sports were hit with such unique challenges," said McClelland. "A year ago we were talking about those two programs finishing out their season without fields following the tornado and of course that bled over into this year.

"We would love to be able to do it for all of our sports, but from a budgetary standpoint, it's just not feasible. You are seeing colleges across the country doing a variety of things when it comes to funding the additional year. Some universities are not funding any of them. Some are funding all of them. And some, like us, are funding just some of them.

"Everyone knows we have some fiscal challenges every year, and the additional cost of these scholarships along with so much other uncertainty in the upcoming year is forcing us to make some hard decisions. However, our commitment to this group of seniors has already been made."

McClelland pointed out that the seniors from the other sports (tennis, golf, m/w track and field) are eligible to return and compete for another year. The head coaches for those sports have the ability to work them into their normal scholarship limits (student-athletes could also compete as walk-ons if scholarship dollars within the normal limits are not available).

"I want to commend our head coaches in those three sports," said McClelland. "They were all very understanding of where we were in this decision. They are approaching this with a team mentality. We are obviously in a unique time, a challenging time economically. I appreciate the continued leadership of all of our head coaches."