MCLA Announces Details of Five-Year Eligibility Policy

ATLANTA- The Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA), the preeminent club league in North America, has released the details of the new five-year eligibility policy.  The new policy was approved during the 2026 Winter Meeting of the MCLA Board of Directors.  The policy will go into effect for the spring season of 2027 and will cover any players on MCLA rosters for that season.  The five-year policy will be forward facing and will not cover players who completed their eligibility prior to the 2027 season.

The five-year policy will only apply to athletes who have spent their entire career in the MCLA and will not be extended to players that have appeared on spring rosters for NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA institutions regardless of on field participation.  As a result of the five-year policy the current MCLA redshirt system will be eliminated.  Graduate student participation will remain under the five-year policy.

MCLA President Ken Lovic said, “There has been a lot of conversation about collegiate eligibility recently and this new policy allows the MCLA to be on forefront of those changes.  The MCLA Eligibility Committee did an outstanding job considering the various nuances and angles of the new policy.  The policies they recommended that were ultimately adopted help us protect competitive balance while also simplifying the administration of this massive change to our eligibility policy and position us as the forerunners of the potential five-year participation window across college athletics.”

For further details regarding the five-year eligibility policy teams can contact their conference directors.

It should be noted that the policy takes effect for the 2027 season, but players who exhaust their eligibility under the current policy in 2026 will not be eligible to compete in 2027.  2028 will be the first season that players will be using the fifth year.