“5 for 5” eligibility ruling throws college sports into chaos! What does it mean? What MW/PAC teams benefit? Insider analysis, takeaways, & how the ruling HURTS college sports in 2026! HP Ep. #165 OUT NOW!
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Welcome back everyone to the Hike’s Peak Podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! It’s a bit of a different episode this week, as the college sports landscape was just shaken up again with a major change to eligibility rules, colloquially known as the “5 for 5” rule, giving hundreds of 5th years across the country one final year. We’re going to talk about what that means, what Mountain West and PAC-12 players can now play because of it, as well as a whole lot of my thoughts on how this ruling will go on to shape the 2026 season, with some positives and a bunch of negatives. I’ve got a lot to say this week, so let’s dive in!
Note: If you haven’t heard already, the Mountain West and PAC-12 have officially settled their litigation and the divorce is now finally over. We’ll dive into all of the information about that next week, I just wanted to take a little more time to understand the specifics of what we know and don’t know officially.
Show Notes:
- Breakdown of “5 for 5”, what is changing and who it affects
- Mountain West/PAC-12 teams that have brought back/are exploring possible returns for 5th year players
- Benefits of this ruling for 2026
- Issues/fallout from this ruling for 2026
That is it for this week’s episode of the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you so much for listening! I had a lot to get off of my chest there, so I hope my ranting gave you a better understanding of what we’re in for for the future of college sports. Find all 21 of our full length interviews from Mountain West Media Days in Las Vegashere, as well as our Media Days episodes spotlighting the attending players, every head coach, and MW Commissioner Gloria Nevarez and college sports business expert KC Smurthwaite! Make sure to explore the FREEdepth chart tracker app, which provides starting lineup projections for every team in the Mountain West and PAC-12! If you like the show & enjoy our coverage, leave a rating on whatever platform you’re listening on, every single one of those helps us out immensely. Follow us on twitter atMWCConnection & find all of your Mountain West news atMWCConnection.com. Also make sure to check out our site’s brand new podcast, “The Pac-Mountain Pulse”, with Derek & Dom’s conversations airing on Thursdays! Thank you so much for listening, tune in next week for our Mountain West/PAC-12 litigation breakdown! Until next time, I’m Jack Thompson, and thank you for coming back to the mountain!
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