Okay, so let’s talk about this little story weaving through the world of college basketball. It’s got everything you never knew you wanted in a sports twist: a 32-year-old former athlete, a transfer portal, and a possible rule shake-up in the NCAA. Grab your favorite snack, ‘cause you’ll want to hear this.
Meet Janae Jackson. She graduated from Youngstown State back in 2016, and now, nearly a decade later, she’s looking at a potential return to college hoops. How, you ask? Well, she’s putting her name in the transfer portal just in case the NCAA overhauls its rules on athlete eligibility.
Picture this: the NCAA might give athletes an extra eligibility year. Imagine getting a sixth man off the bench who’s been chilling, working, living life outside of basketball for nine years! Seems wild, right? But Jackson’s got some strategic reasoning.
So, here’s where it gets interesting—Janae played at Northern Illinois before transferring to Youngstown State. During her five years of college life, she only suited up for three actual seasons. Thanks to injuries and old-school transfer rules that made players sit out a whole season, she’s like a basketball sleeper cell just waiting to be activated again.
Basketball
Want to Learn More About Transferring?
Checkout our Guide to the Basketball Transfer Portal
Currently, NCAA athletes have five years to play four seasons. There’s chatter about changes as lawsuits and settlements hover like a hazy future looking to redefine what’s possible. Janae might just be playing chess while the NCAA’s playing checkers by tossing her name into the portal—an expected move if rules get the green light to change.
Youngstown State had to acknowledge this curveball. They basically said, “Yeah, she’s exhausted her eligibility as we know it but we’re putting her in the portal anyway.” If you’re a school and an athlete wants in, well, sometimes you just roll with it.
I bet other players are eyeing the same play. After all, as rules hang in limbo, who wouldn’t want to keep hope alive for another shot at the college sports big time?
Right now, we’re in this weird liminal space in college sports with NILs and potential eligibility shifts. Schools are maybe scratching their heads about roster sizes and how long a player can stick around campus, but change breathes in innovation, right?
Janae’s move is a bold headline for sure, opening the door for all sorts of debates and possibilities. What she’s doing might not be a sign of things to come, but if it pans out, she could be back in action, maybe putting up shots better than before. And man, wouldn’t that be something?
