When it comes to college basketball, not all players go to four-year schools straight out of high school. Some go the route of two-year institutions, or junior colleges to play their first NCAA games.
“There’s a stigma on it,” Trinidad State College guard Lateef Patrick said. “And, honestly, I just had no problem with it. It’s just the same as college basketball. It prepares you. But in a sense of recruiting, it’s just like high school again. You’re trying to battle with other guys to get that Division I offer.”
Patrick reflects fondly on his experience playing junior college basketball. He established himself as a dominant scorer in his two years at Trinidad State. Averaging 20.7 points per game while shooting 37.8% from three-point territory, Patrick got his team to the second round of the 2024-25 NJCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. But playing basketball at the junior college level wasn’t the immediate preference. His high school grades weren’t high enough to receive Division I scholarships.
“I had a situation with grades, trying to meet that 2.3 GPA requirement and I was on the verge of getting on the way to be eligible,” Patrick said. “But I didn’t find out till I graduated and got that final grade. So I was playing in Indiana, waiting for that answer, and Coach Fold was just telling me ‘yeah, if anything goes wrong with it, you should come here’. Then I heard from my school, a couple of days before our last day, and then I just told him I was gonna end up going to play for Trinidad State.”
Patrick knew when he committed to play basketball at the junior college level, that his time playing at the Division I level would be limited. The NCAA counts any years spent at the junior college level towards total years of eligibility. Student-athletes have five years to complete four seasons of play barring a serious injury. However, this factor may no longer impact his ambitions of playing more Division I years.
In December 2024, the NCAA Board of Directors passed a waiver allowing athletes who played a year or more at the junior college level that would have graduated and ran out of eligibility in 2025 to be given an additional year. This ruling came after Vanderbilt Quarterback Diego Pavia was successful in a lawsuit against the NCAA where he argued that he should be awarded an extra year of eligibility because he was unable to benefit from the rewards of the Name Image and Likeness (NIL) policy while he was playing at the junior college level. With an additional year being granted to Pavia, he now will have the opportunity to earn NIL money for another year. After Pavia’s win, the NCAA was flooded with numerous other cases with athletes arguing that they should be given an additional year of eligibility as well.
“Having two years puts a limit on how much time you get to play for your next program,” Patrick said. “So having the extra year or years to come, or something like that would be cool to like, actually use all those eligibility years and like, and you can get masters and all that stuff off the court stuff that’s not basketball.”
Making the jump to play at a Division I program is in the back of the minds of lots of junior college players. According to a study conducted by the NCAA, 14.8% of junior college players in 2018 made the jump to Division I programs in 2018.
Head Coach John Ball, who has been coaching at Harcum College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania for eight years, was shocked initially by the junior college eligibility rule change. After thinking about how big of a grasp NIL opportunity has had on the NCAA in recent months, it was more understandable.
“The free-market argument that right now is going on with NIL is it’s kind of hard to argue against it when you’ve been making a substantial amount of money off these kids for free without having to worry about giving back in terms of direct compensation,” Ball said. “There’s scholarships, facilities, the food and weight training, academics and all that investment into them. But the actual, tangible physical money in hand… [college programs] have made a lot of money off it.”
While Division I is the highest level of collegiate play, not every athlete who aspires to continue playing competitive sports can start at that level. The NJCAA is built of community colleges and junior colleges, designed to give students two-year degrees for them to transition to four-year colleges and complete undergraduate degrees.
For borderline Division I players, why spend time at the JUCO level?
“Playing time,” Ball said. “For the most part, most freshmen across the country at every level aren’t playing. If they’re lucky, they get six to 10 minutes a game. So now you can come to the junior college level. Get better, develop, get coached, get college credits and still be able to play, 15 to 20 or 25 or 30 minutes. That’s the pitch. Do you wanna go sit and be able to enjoy the shiny things and travel at a high level? Or do you want to come and continue to play?”
Having more opportunities to get onto the court was something Fordham shooting guard Dejour Reaves took advantage of. Like Patrick, he spent time playing at Trinidad State to hone his craft. After starting 49 games for the Trojans during two seasons, he started his Division I journey at Northern Colorado in the Big Sky conference. Moving to New Rochelle, New York for his senior year with the Iona Gaels, it seemed like that would be the end of Reaves’ journey. However, the additional year is giving Reaves the opportunity to play at a stronger program. For this chance, Reaves is extremely grateful.
“It’s a better opportunity for everyone to get to the level they wanna get to,” Reaves said. “I know I was happy when I heard I got an extra year. I know other guys in JUCO have probably been struggling trying to find cultures. I know my little brother, he’s a JUCO kid right now. I know he’s going through it, but he’s happy he’s got another year. It’s giving him more confidence to go out there and be himself.”
In a very similar style to Reaves, his former teammate at Iona, Jalen Barr, believes the junior college experience strengthened him as a player and person.
“JUCO is the way to go”, Barr said. “There’s not a lot of people that can go JUCO cause it’s tough mentally. If you get through JUCO you can do anything in the world. It’s helped me get here to who I am today.”
From a coaching perspective at the Division I level, the eligibility rule change for this upcoming season will see more veteran players in the transfer portal. Patrick Sellers, the head coach at Central Connecticut State University, has always been a big proponent of adding former JUCO players on his roster.
“We’ve been successful the last couple years because we have older guys,” Sellers said. “I don’t mind older guys, they know how to play, they get coached, they get in the weight room. I think it’s going to make the game better.”
Many players will take advantage of an extra year by trying to jump to Power 4 programs. Power 4 programs are the strongest institutions in college athletics, made up of the SEC, ACC, Big 10 and Big 12. Mid-major programs are lower-level Division I institutions that don’t have the resources of Power 4 schools and don’t play in the stronger conferences. The alternative option for mid-major players is to stay with their teams, which could make their roles and impact on the team increase. From an administrative perspective, Travis Tellitocci, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) commissioner, hopes more players will spend their extra time continuing to develop at the mid-major level.
“I think for the MAAC, it’s about trying to retain some of these student-athletes,” Tellotocci said. “You’ve seen full rosters turn over in men’s and women’s basketball. How do we continue to try to retain talent in this league?”
While giving players an additional year to compete at the highest level and make NIL money at the same time might seem like a clear positive addition for college basketball, Quinnipiac University Head Coach Tom Pecora points out that it will also come with some negatives.
“It’s concerning,” Pecora said. “And I worry about it for my young assistants because they’re gonna be in this business a long time. It’s taking a lot of the fun out of it. Are guys gonna have their numbers hung in arenas anymore?”
While the current eligibility rule change only has a temporary effect on players graduating in 2025, the junior college eligibility landscape is a constantly evolving process. There are some
people calling for the NCAA to award athletes competing across levels a guaranteed fifth year of play despite plans to earn graduate degrees. For Coach Ball, believes a permanent additional fifth year across the board would benefit players and programs.
“I think a fifth year would be good,” Ball said. “These kids will have an opportunity for a fifth year and if they play it right, they can walk out with undergraduate and master’s degrees for free which is huge. And there’s a chance these guys make a lot of money on it while doing it.”
Giving players opportunities is important to Coach Ball, but he also believes that some regulations should be in place to keep college basketball competitive for mid-major programs.
“My hope is moving forward after the settlement kind of comes down, there’s some sort of Players Association that’s put together,” Ball said. “And now we get into a contract situation with buyouts and whatever because I don’t know how mid-major basketball survives without buyouts. They put all this money and effort into these players. And the next thing you know, the Power 4 schools just come in and like they’re going to Whole Foods, go grocery shopping with who they want and pay what they want. So maybe a FIBA model with some sort of a relegation system. They gotta you know they gotta pay a transfer fee like they do in FIFA and FIBA over in Europe. I think that’s a pretty interesting model to move forward for athletics.”
For Patrick, he’ll be playing his first year of Division I basketball at Stephen F. Austin State University after decommitting from Quinnipiac. While it’s uncertain whether the NCAA will pass rules granting players across all levels five guaranteed years for the future, players like Patrick will continue to do everything they can on the court. He believes that his time at the Division I level will be pivotal to his playing goals post college.
“My goal after college is to be a professional,” Patrick said. “So either an overseas league, or whatever. I just want to work to be a professional, especially all the work I put in to get to this spot. I think that it will help me shape up in the next few years, build up and polish my game.”