The NCAA Board of Governors, among a suite of (positive) COVID responses, recently voted through a resolution that grants an additional year of Eligibility to all fall sports athletes, and an additional counter year. What that effectively means is everybody's eligibility is frozen in place.

They also ruled anyone on scholarship with senior eligibility in 2020 won't count against the 85-man limit in 2021. At the moment that does not extend to 2022, which will be a problem when schools are shedding players with eligibility remaining to get back under 85.

This is going to change some things. For one, the 2020 and 2021 classes are now effectively one big class. With most visits impossible this year, and no new information coming from the camp circuit most of the 2021 class has already committed to their schools. Michigan has 21 commits right now, and still need room for top targets like RB Donovan Edwards, OG Drew Kendall, DT Rayshaun Benny, DE/DT George Rooks, S Daymon David, and whatever elite prospects they're chasing.

The long-term effects of something like 50 true freshmen on campus at one time are staggering to think about in the macro. West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons, chairman of the Football Oversight Committee that drafted this, was pretty blunt about it:

"As administrators, as coaches, we're going to have to deal with a potential backlog on the back end, but I'm very confident that we've done it in other situations in a yearly basis. It may be greater numbers, but we can work through that with the normal attrition you have on your rosters, as well as discussions with athletes in the coming years about their playing time and their interest in potentially transferring to other institutions."

That is some quiet parts out loud right there. So let's break it into pieces, and consider how this changes the short- and long-term outlooks for different groups. Just promise me you'll treat this as one guy's speculation, nothing more.

General Effects

Any decision this huge is going to have far-reaching ramifications and not always equal ones. It's impossible to foresee all of them but I think we can project how this will affect different types of roster situations.

The grad transfer markets of the future are going to be flush. Many players will have degrees in hand years before their eligibility expires. Some will leave college football, but many more who are trapped on bloated depth charts will seek easier climbs. It's not that hard with the educational resources available and summer trimesters to complete a degree in three years (nine semesters) and grad transfer with two years of eligibility remaining (e.g. Brandon Peters). On the other end you're going to have a lot of teams needing to shed graduated players to make room for the new recruits. Come the 2023 offseason you'll have Class of 2020 guys ready to transfer and play immediately with three counters left, a ton of Class of 2019 guys who got their degrees in four years and still have two to play, and Class of 2018 guys who still have a sixth year of eligibility remaining.

Pro factories will have more turnover. At Ohio State, and to slightly lesser degree at Michigan, Notre Dame, and Penn State, the average length of career might not change that much because so many of their starters project to the NFL, meaning you can expect they will leave for the league at the first point they perceive they've maximized their draft stock. Expect a lot of roster turnover as these schools cram players into their rosters, and those who lose their position battles are given their degrees and shuffled out the door.

Schools with a lot of seniors win. It's unclear how many of Michigan's eight scholarship seniors (Evans, MASON, Nico, Eubanks, Kemp, Kwity, Hawkins and Nordin) would stick around for 2021. It would be cool if they extend that to walk-ons because we have plenty of those. Wisconsin on the other hand can likely hold onto their quarterback, 3rd down back, fullback, top three receivers, second tight end, best DE, two linebackers, and half of a secondary for a 2021 they weren't going to be eligible for.

Frey-types and middle-tier Power 5 schools win. This changes the math for schools who recruited small guys in 2019 and 2020, expecting to see what they have after three years in a weight room. We lost a year of Dax Hill and Chris Hinton; in return George Johnson III and Mike Morris get a free extra year of development. Programs that never get a Hill or a Hinton but are good at slowly growing GJ3s and Morrises now get an extra season with their hits. Ferentz and Dantonio showed the efficacy of this strategy with their endless waves of excellent run defenders who didn't play until they had four years to ken complicated zone systems. MSU even had its own 6th year cottage industry for a time. Now every Purdue and Indiana gets to hold onto their very good college players who aren't of interest to the NFL for a little longer during their developed stage.

Small schools who can't afford it lose. Once you're at the MAC level programs could barely afford the 85 scholarships to call themselves FBS before. And it's not like their finances are in great shape after no football in 2020. Also they regularly hemorrhage their best players to the grad transfer market. So at the same time bigger schools can pack in more players a lot of small schools are going to have tightened budgets while spending the next five years of trying to hold onto seniors who already have their degrees.

NIL just got more interesting. More eligible players who can play at a Power 5 level + a more open transfer market + players who can now profit off themselves all happening at the same time could blow the doors open on player free agency. Regardless of how you feel about this (as a Michigan fan you should feel good because we're positioned to be the #1 beneficiary of it), it's going to be wild.

[After THE JUMP: A position-by-position breakdown of how it affects Michigan]

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Quarterback

Players: Michigan has one guy on the roster from every class since 2017. When we resume in 2021 McCaffrey will be a junior, Milton a sophomore, McNamara a redshirt freshman, and Villari and McCarthy will all still have freshman eligibility.

How it will shake Out: The winner of the next QB battle will probably start in 2021 and 2022; after that McCaffrey (if he wins) would be out of eligibility and you have to imagine Milton (if he wins) would be ready to leave for the NFL. The other two main contestants will likely transfer with degrees, with J.J. McCarthy your presumptive starter in 2023. In that case you could see Villari moved to tight end.

We'll have an idea by: The start of the 2021 season, when a starter is declared from among the above.

Running Back

All hail Hassan Haskins being too slow for the NFL. Long may he RAGE. [Bryan Fuller]

Players: Chris Evans wasn't chased away by the rest so I imagine he'll be back in 2021. Charbonnet, Haskins, and Turner will all have sophomore eligibility, and Blake Corum and any recruits (Donovan Edwards please) will be freshmen.

How it will shake out: Unless they lose a guy on the way it's a crowded room in 2021 but probably won't remain so. Charbonnet will be eligible for the NFL after that and I expect he'll take it. Over the course of 2021 we'll get a clearer picture of the Turner-Corum-Edwards? pecking order and will probably lose whoever's not getting on the field.

We'll have an idea by: The end of the 2021 season, maybe sooner depending on guys' decisions.

Fullback

Players: BEN MASON is the only one. He's expected to stay through the 2021 season.

How it will shake out: One more year of BEN MASON. Please use him. And please don't give up on fullbacks.

We'll have an idea by: We pretty much know now. Ben is the last of them. Unless he's so effective in 2021 that Gattis has no choice but to get more.

Wide Receiver

Players: Nico Collins is around for now, and would be allowed to play in 2021, but I have a hard time believing he won't be in the next NFL draft, which means he's probably done. That leaves you Ronnie Bell with junior eligibility, Cornelius Johnson with sophomore eligibility, and Roman Wilson joining the four-man class of Xavier Worthy, Markus Allen, Andrel Anthony and Cristian Dixon, unless something changes on that front.

How it will shake out: It's possible Bell too decides to try his luck in the NFL in 2022, especially if the young guys are pushing him. But let's presume a 2021 depth chart of Bell, Johnson, Wilson, and Worthy, with two of Anthony, Allen and Dixon redshirting, and various slots and tight ends filling in.

We'll have an idea by: The thinness of the roster now and the scouting on the incoming guys makes this position pretty easy to predict for now. The only question for 2022 is if Ronnie Bell sticks around for a senior season, unless Cornelius Johnson blows up into an NFL prospect.

Slot Receiver

Players: Mike Sainristil and Giles Jackson will remain sophomores and AJ Henning keeps his freshman eligibility. There isn't a slot receiver per se in the the 2021 class though the receiver depth chart might as well be considered part of this one. Worthy especially projects as the kind of receiver-sized speed demon Ohio State's had with Parris Campbell, KJ Hill, and now Garrett Wilson.

How it will shake out: Teams that have a regular slot receiver almost always use at least two in a rotation because they're doing so much straight-out running, and there are snaps available outside as well so there's no concern about having three guys. I foresee Sainristil-Jackson-Henning-Worthy playing together for awhile, kind of like how Kelvin Grady, Tae Odoms, Jeremy Gallon, and Roy Roundtree all fit together. Except faster.

We'll have an idea by: The middle of the 2021 season, when we have a good idea of which guys are getting used and how. I also expect whoever's not running crossing routes and bubbles and wheels to be getting some run at returner.

Tight End

Players: Sherrone Moore has his wards spaced out. Nick Eubanks will have to decide if he wants to still be in college in 2021, but he reportedly only had one class left for graduation (this is typical for 5th year seniors) and I assume he's going to the draft. Schoonmaker and All will have sophomore eligibility, and Hansen and Hibner (plus Fidone if he has a change of heart) will be freshmen.

How it will shake out: They'll probably try to redshirt Hansen since Hibner will have been around for a year and you need at least three guys. They'll also want to get some separation for Hansen from the starters. They were already talking about Schoonmaker as bulked up into a blocking guy when the season was cut short, which tracks with the expectation that he's expected to be the McKeon to All's Gentry or Eubanks.

We'll have an idea by: When they hit fall camp in 2021 we'll know where Hibner is in relation to the two sophomores, and go from there. Losing Eubanks sucks but another year of eligibility for All and Schoonmaker probably saves Michigan from having their #2 tight end be a guy who's still not sized to block.

Offensive Line

When's it Filiaga time? [Patrick Barron]

Players: There are no seniors except the walk-ons, among whom Andrew Vastardis was expected to be on the two-deep. Andrew Stueber, Chuck Filiaga and Joel Honigford remain juniors, Ryan Hayes is the only sophomore, and Michigan will have a metric ton of freshmen because they got redshirts on the entire six-man class of Trente Jones, Trevor Keegan, Zach Carpenter, Nolan Rumler, Karsen Barnhart, and Jack Stewart last year. To them add the 2020 class of Reece Atteberry, Zak Zinter, and Jeff Persi, and then also add the incoming class of Tristan Bounds, Greg Crippen, Raheem Anderson, Giovanni El-Hadi, and hopefully MA 4* Drew Kendall, who would almost certainly be in the fold now if not for COVID throwing all of those other names into his eligibility.

How it will shake out: The departure of Jalen Mayfield throws off our plans to transition from last year's line to the next generation but also gives Michigan another year to prepare the new generation. Expectations were that decision would shift Andrew Stueber back to tackle and draw in whichever guard was closest to making the top five. The early fall reports made a mess of our expectations, adding Trevor Keegan and Zak Zinter to our internal list of Carpenter, Barnhart, Filiaga and Trente Jones of guys in the hunt for the last three open positions.

The extra year is a benefit to all of the Frey types Michigan has been building, giving them an extra year before they're needed to get up to playing weight. Ryan Hayes was going to start even if he was a still a little undersized. Zak Zinter has to be in your starting plans now since he was already making his presence felt as a true freshman and won't have that going against him anymore. I think they'll figure out what their future line is over the course of their 2020 practices, with Filiaga and Honigford, who should have their degrees in hand, free to move on if they don't move up to first team. Another season also secures projected center Zach Carpenter and Karsen Barnhart, the furthest along of the Frey types, who was projected to start at guard before Mayfield left and was practicing at tackle.

So Hayes-Zinter-Carpenter-Barnhart-Stueber seems like the most plausible 2021 and 2022 starting five, with Trevor Keegan and Trente Jones closest to cracking the order. That makes 2023 tricky, because six of those seven guys could come back, and surely by then there will be an Atteberry, El-Hadi, Persi, Crippen, Anderson, Bounds, Kendall(?), Stewart, or redshirt sophomore from the 2022 class pushing through. It's a good problem to have in the short term, but it's going to take some management to avoid a situation where your backups all transfer right before your starters all leave for the NFL.

Honestly that seems the most likely scenario. Every guy on campus right now could conceivably have a degree before the 2023 season and all but three will have eligibility for it. At the same time every projected starter save Zinter would be eligible for the 2022 NFL draft, and all but Carpenter have the kind of athletic profile that would be of interest.

We'll have an idea by: This situation will remain fluid for the next four years. Ideally some guys blow up and head to the NFL in time for the next wave to have a few years, and so on. Worst case scenario we have a wave of attrition in May 2022 of guys who are sick of waiting, followed by a run to the NFL from those who are, and little behind them because recruits felt the depth chart was too daunting.

Defensive Tackle

Players: It would make sense for him to keep playing but I think Carlo Kemp is ready to move on, even if the NFL doesn't have much interest. If he doesn't return Michigan still has a junior in Donovan Jeter, sophomore blue chips Matt Hinton and Mazi Smith with another year to develop, and importantly another year to hang muscle on Julius Welschof, Kris Jenkins, Michael Morris, and Gabe Newburg. They'll also have Dom Giudice and the rest of the 2021 recruits arriving. Michigan also has a Jess Speight retaining his junior eligibility, and Brown grad transfer Elijah Pierre, who's presumably a walk-on too but gets his eligibility extended.

How it will shake out: Michigan needed another year for their DT situation to improve, certainly, but we were hoping to get a big one out of Chris Hinton, whom I imagine plans to move on to the NFL after 2021. If Mazi Smith comes on he can leave after 2021 as well. The good news is those grow-a-dudes, particularly Kris Jenkins, could be ready to play in 2021, and giving them an extra year is a major boon considering they needed to spend a chunk of eligibility just getting there.

It also helps them with recruiting in 2021 and 2022 (when Alex VanSumeren is slated to arrive). One of the big problems the players have with their conference canceling while other conferences play is that another year on the field is going to give players in those conferences another year of film and an apparent edge. That works backwards in recruiting; all the open jobs stay open, with a few more opening up as well. That's attractive to play-immediately types. I think if Pierre is still around next year it's a sign things haven't gone great.

We'll have an idea by: Spring 2021, when we see whether the kids have grown into guys and the guys are now dudes, and when the rubber meets pavement with the opening of the Big Ten season in Fall 2021.

Defensive End

From our photographers' awesome Kwity collection: use 'em or lose em [Bryan Fuller]

Players: The talk is Kwity Paye is almost certainly in the next draft but also that Aidan Hutchinson plans to play one more season for Michigan in 2021. That can change of course. He'll still have junior eligibility; he's not going to be around in 2022 barring something catastrophic. Junior Taylor Upshaw should be in the mix, Braiden McGregor, David Ojabo, and Jaylen Harrell will still be freshmen but not super-raw, and Luigi Vilain, who lost two seasons to injury, could potentially be eligible through 2022. Quintin Somerville, TJ Guy, and Kechaun Bennett arrive, but they don't figure to play right away.

How it will shake out: Trading one year of Kwity to get another year before playing McGregor, Ojabo, and Harrell probably works out in Michigan's favor. The first two were already making practice waves as WDE/SAMs, but McGregor is coming off a bad injury and Ojabo lost most of August practices when he got stuck in Scotland. I don't know if either was going to stick around for his entire eligibility anyways, but an extra year to get them acquainted with the nuances of Brown's defense would help regardless, and also gives both time to grow into standard defensive ends. One or both was also expected to generate some hype this year as a passing down specialist. Absent some gaudy sack numbers on a freshman, the depth chart looks a little more open for that 2022 elite the staff's trying really hard to corral.

We'll have an idea by: We know most of it now. The hype for McGregor in practice has him on the Aidan track, and Aidan has mostly made up his mind. We'll learn more about Vilain's status over the course of 2020 practices. I don't expect Harrell or the 2021 recruits to be major contributors before 2022.

Linebacker

Players: Everybody on the roster now should return. Josh Ross got a medshirt last year so he has eligibility through 2022 now, while Cam McGrone is good through 2023, and all of the freshmen, Charles Thomas and the 2020 foursome of Kalel Mullings, Nikhai Hill-Green, Osman Savage, and Cornell Wheeler, get another year to be ready to fill in the depth chart. Junior Colson, Jaydon Hood, Tyler McLaurin, and Casey Phinney will join them.

How it will shake out: Ross was publicly very upset about the canceled season but this works out for all of these guys pretty well, save Ross and McGrone if they wanted to leave for the NFL next winter. Michigan should have them through 2021 and probably not beyond, but now get hella depth they weren't going to have this season. Charles Thomas gets shafted; he had a year on the four-man class that just arrived and two years on the four-man class that's on its way. Now he'll have eight other guys with the same freshman eligibility and Mullings/Hill-Grenn/Savage/Wheeler have a year to catch up. That helps Mullings the most, since he was the most raw with the highest ceiling. It hurts Wheeler, who was the most college-ready. Hill-Green was getting some hype this spring already but you have to imagine he wasn't going to be more than a specialist this season.

Down the road, it'll be a battle royale, probably in 2022 when Cam and Josh leave early. This was going to happen anyways. While an extra year of eligibility should hurt the 2021 class in general, it has the potential to really block them now. The idea was the 2020 wave was going to have two guys at least burn their redshirts, putting some distance between them and the 2021 wave. Now they're all going to be butting up against each other, which will lead to some attrition. Michigan should be fine unless a commit flips.

We'll have an idea by: Fall 2022 and not before. Cam and Josh will have to make their stay-or-go decisions, and then we'll look at who played in 2021 as the the presumptive heirs, and then they'll fight.

Viper

Players: Poor damn Michael Barrett was ready to assume the role this year but he has the same sophomore eligibility as Anthony Solomon and SAM Ben VanSumeren. Joey Velazuez and William Mohan will be freshmen. Presumably someone from the safety depth chart will be here too.

How it will shake out: Solomon now gets another year to challenge Barrett, or grow into the kind of guy who forces Brown to play double vipers more often. BVS recently moved to SAM and was reportedly picking it up well, but another year to practice the new position has to be meaningful for him.

But things probably won't change that much unless they like someone from the safety roster better than Barrett. He'll be the starter with Solomon backing him up, and Velazquez and Mohan battling to be the heir apparent.

We'll have an idea by: Now. The canceled season hit right in the middle of a very orderly transition of power, and shouldn't interrupt things too much.

Safety

Yay we finally got a redshirt on a Michigan safety finally worked. [Barron]

Players: Well there goes one third of our time with Dax Hill and one half of our time with a fully armed and operational Dax Hill, since I doubt he's planning to stick around after he becomes eligible for the 2022 NFL draft. How weird that both he and Peppers will leave with technically two years of eligibility remaining. Brad Hawkins isn't draftable right now so he should be back for a senior season. After the starters you have some current redshirt sophomores in German Green and Sammy Faustin who haven't earned much playing time yet, one Quinten Johnson who got a medshirt for 2019, and then the 2020 freshmen Jordan Morant, Makari Paige, and RJ Moten, who remain freshmen.

How it will shake out: Better for Michigan, awful for the remainder of the 2017 big and tall club. Losing a year of Dax hurts but not as much as losing a year of Michigan football entirely, and it doesn't change the schedule for him. It does give us an extra season with Brad Hawkins however before the next generation has to be on the field.

Green and Faustin were probably already falling behind the freshmen—Morant and Paige have been getting consistent coach hype in practice—and giving those talented youngsters a free year to catch up all but dooms the vets to second string or transfers. It also lets Quinten Johnson fully heal, though he too appears to be already slipping against the newcomers.

This is all fine for Michigan, which was facing a 2020 season of Hawkins/Dax and freshmen and a 2021 of having to start at least one of the kids. Hawkins in 2021 gives them a buffer, and gives the Morant-Paige-Moten trio a redshirt only one or none of them were going to get otherwise. Remember when Dymonte Thomas and Jarrod Wilson ran out of eligibility after very good seasons then went undrafted before catching on as free agents? The new versions of those guys will have another year in college. It also saves Michigan some from missing out on a few of their 2021 targets, and doesn't put too much film of young new players out there to deter the 2022 blue chips they're after.

We'll have an idea by: Fall practice 2021 when they name probably Paige and Morant the heirs apparent for 2022. Moten is a wild card who could move to Viper or blow up; he's currently visiting family instead of practicing so we don't know how he looks on the field. You really want three guys available here so I expect those three will have the position locked down for 2022 and 2023 at least.

Cornerback

Players: This is the position where COVID did its most damage, since it robs us of the last season of Ambry Thomas. Without him there's Vincent Gray, probably the lone survivor of the long and tall class, who will still only be sophomores by eligibility. His classmate Gemon Green hasn't factored in yet. Jalen Perry, DJ Wilson, and George Johnson remain redshirt freshmen, and newcomers Andre Seldon, Darion Green-Warren, and Eamonn Dennis remain also freshmen. Michigan's still after a second corner for 2021 after speedster Ja'Den McBurrows.

How it will shake out: This year was going to be a hanging by the Ambry and hoping to see one of the kids stand out season, with 2021 the find-one-or-die (or suck it up and play zone, Don) season. The bad news is now we skip to the find-one season. The good news is we get a redshirt on Andre Seldon, who never was going to be of great interest to the NFL, and get another year to convert slot bug athletes George Johnson and Eamonn Dennis, who put up the team's fastest forty this fall, into plausible cornerbacks. In Johnson's case that might be enough; I still expect Dennis to need until 2022 at least.

It's also bad news for Jalen Perry and Gemon Green, who were already looking passable and give the down-roster kids more time to do so. I didn't include DJ Turner in there because he was reportedly the guy along with Seldon looking to be ready for playing time. Best case scenario they return with a solid three-guy platoon of Turner, Seldon, and Gray backed up by Stribling-like Darion Green-Warren, and GJ3 and Dennis are ready to stick with Ohio State receivers by the November of next year.

The extra year does not relieve the pressure to find instant contributors in the 2021 and 2022 classes. By keeping the on-roster situation cloudy it might help Michigan to sell a wide-open depth chart to a position where talent shows early.

We'll have an idea by: Spring Game 2021. Pending injuries that's when Worthy and Wilson and all the #SpeedInSpace will be unleashed in public against the new secondary, and since those guys' game is speed we should be able to tell right away who has it.

Special Teams

Players: Giles Jackson and the slots can handle return duties as long as Gattis is around to recruit them. The kicker and punter situations however are big question marks. Quinn Nordin was planning to graduate in December and enter the draft but without a season who knows if he'll want to come back, which leaves Jake Moody, still with junior eligibility, waiting yet another year. I kind of think Nordin is going to the NFL. The punter situation is similar, with Will Hart hanging around and holding off Brad Robbins. Michigan was bringing in 6-star(!) Tommy Doman in 2021 when the plan was for Hart to be gone and Robbins to be in his senior season. Is Hart planning to play out his eligibility? Is Robbins going to stay if he's got to hold off Doman too? We don't know.

How it will shake out: Lol nobody knows they're college kickers.

We'll have an idea by: 2044, because college kickers.