What 5-in-5 actually means for field hockey families
More competition, fewer spots, and what you can actually do about it
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while. The NCAA’s “5-in-5” proposal has been in the works for months, and there’s been no shortage of hot takes about what it means for recruiting.
I didn’t want to add to that noise until it was actually law. It was unanimously approved by the NCAA Division I Cabinet last week, so here we finally are.
What actually changed
Under the previous rules, Division I athletes had five years to complete four seasons of competition - with the option to redshirt one year. The new model gives athletes up to five years of eligibility, provided they enroll in college no later than the academic year after their 19th birthday.
In plain terms: most players who go straight from high school to college now have the potential for an extra year of eligibility. Redshirts effectively disappear. Most eligibility waivers are gone too.
A few important nuances worth knowing:
Athletes who completed their fourth season by spring 2026 are not entitled to a fifth year under the new rules.
Currently enrolled student-athletes with eligibility remaining after 2025-26 get flexibility - schools can apply either the old rules or the new ones, whichever benefits the individual athlete most.
Prospects graduating high school in spring 2027 and beyond are under the age-based model only.
This currently only applies to Division I athletics - nothing has changed, so far, for Division II and Division III
What’s coming for field hockey
The broad coverage of this ruling has focused on roster bloat in revenue sports. Field hockey has its own specific implications.
Allison Keefe at The Field Hockey Analyst ran the math - average recruiting class sizes across D1 field hockey could shrink from approximately 6.5 players to around 5.4.
That’s not a small shift. Across a sport with around 80 D1 programs, that’s a meaningful compression of opportunity for high school players.
One near-certain consequence is a significant increase in transfer portal activity - likely approaching the volume seen during COVID when everyone received an extra year of eligibility.
Some current players will be pushed out. Programs that want to keep their best current players for a fifth year while still bringing in new recruits will face hard roster math. Not everyone currently on a roster is going to be invited back.
Some players will choose to pursue opportunities elsewhere, even if they’re welcome to stay. We will very likely see an increase in “two-school” playing careers as a result. Ivy League graduates - who can’t play a fifth year at their own institution anyway - were in high demand during COVID, and will be again now.
Of course, there will also be players who are happy to move on from college, and field hockey, upon graduation, who won’t take their fifth year. But in an era of AI-driven job market uncertainty, it wouldn’t surprise me if many choose to stay and play to delay the onset of the working world.
What this means for the class of 2027
Players who committed under the old rules are about to arrive on campuses where the rules have changed.
Coaching staffs now have to evaluate their incoming recruiting class while also deciding which current seniors they want to keep for a fifth season - all while staying under the 27-player roster cap.
Some 2027s may find the program they committed to looks different than expected when they arrive - again, something we saw in COVID when the 2021 freshmen arrived on campus and found many of the seniors were sticking around for a fifth year instead of moving on.
Another tricky part is that many Division I-bound 2027s have been verbally committed for quite some time now, but won’t officially sign until at least November.
I don’t want to be alarmist here, as verbal commitments are thankfully something that is still honored in the majority of cases in field hockey.
Proactive coaches will likely have reached out to assure you that you are still part of their plans, but if not, I think you’re perfectly entitled to ask if anything is changing to get that reassurance.
Either way, the environment the class of 2027 is entering will likely be more crowded and more competitive than the one they signed up for.
What this means for the class of 2028
If you’re the parent of a current sophomore - the class that just had their June 15 contact window open - this ruling landed at a complicated moment.
Coaches were already deep into their June 15 preparation when this passed. Many were simultaneously running two parallel processes: deciding which high school prospects to prioritize for the class of 2028, while quietly having conversations with current players about whether they’d be interested in staying for a fifth year.
The result is that coaches are working with less clarity about their own roster needs than they normally would at this stage of the cycle.
What that means in practice: some programs that seemed warm may go quiet while they figure out their roster math. Others that seemed lukewarm may suddenly get more serious if a fifth-year conversation falls through.
If a coach has been actively recruiting your daughter, it’s reasonable to ask directly where they stand on their class needs, or how they are thinking about 5-in-5. The answer will tell you more than any amount of reading between the lines.
The bottom line
Coaches who are uncertain about their roster needs will be watching this summer’s tournaments carefully to confirm or update their evaluations - and what they’re looking for in high school players has shifted.
In an era where every roster spot is harder to justify, they want to see the player who makes the decision easy. The one who shows up ready, competes hard, communicates well, and carries herself like someone who’s going to make their program better from day one.
The broader dynamics of this ruling - which programs keep which seniors, how the portal shakes out, how roster math plays out across 80+ different institutions - are out of your control. Every program is navigating this differently, and trying to second-guess all of it will drive you crazy.
What you can control is the impression you leave every time a coach watches you play. Be the player they still want to take a roster spot on in the new era. Make yourself undeniable.
In Thursday’s paid piece, I’ll get into the mechanics of how this is playing out inside programs right now - the roster calculations coaches are making, the strategic decisions around the portal, and what the short-term versus long-term thinking looks like from the other side of the desk.
In the meantime, if you want a guide through the post-June 15 madness, The Recruiting Advisor is available 24/7, is trained specifically on field hockey recruiting, and can help you strategize your next steps.