# Eligibility for College Football

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eligibility-for-college-football/215954>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2003, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eligibility-for-college-football/215954 "2003-11-29T20:12:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hydrocortisone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e19b73/32.png) [@Hydrocortisone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hydrocortisone)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eligibility-for-college-football/215954/1 "2003-11-29T20:12:44Z")

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If a student never participated in any sports in college, are they still eligible to play college football if they go to grad school, law school, medical school, etc?

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**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eligibility-for-college-football/215954/2 "2003-11-29T20:45:05Z")

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[Here](http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/membership_svcs/eligibility-recruiting/faqs/eligibility_seasons.html#twentyone_year_rule) is more than you ever wanted to know about eligibility.

> [@](#):
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> A student-athlete who is enrolled in a graduate or professional school of the college or university which he/she previously attended as an undergraduate student may participate in intercollegiate athletics, provided he/she has eligibility remaining and is within five calendar years of initial full-time collegiate enrollment for Division I and within the first ten full-time semesters of collegiate enrollment for Divisions II and III.