About two months after the NCAA issued a waiver allowing him and legions of similarly situated players another year of eligibility, Kansas guard David Coit said he would be eager to come back to the Jayhawks for the 2025-26 season.
“When I came here in August, another year was something that I wanted because I only played four years anyway, not thinking I was going to get it,” Coit said on Thursday. “And then being blessed to have a blanket waiver to get another season to play, of course I’m (going to) want that. Of course. I mean, it’s a place like Kansas, why wouldn’t you come back, you know?”
It wouldn’t be Coit’s first experience with a waiver. He had to get one just to attend KU in the first place, which is part of why he joined the team so much later in the summer than the typical transfer addition. As Coit has previously explained, that waiver essentially originated from administrative errors by his former institutions and Coit himself in documenting his time at a post-graduate prep school, Scotland Campus.
Coit, who is from Columbus, New Jersey, went on to play one year at Atlantic Cape Community College and two at Northern Illinois before joining the Jayhawks.
The season he spent at Atlantic Cape is the reason why he now has the opportunity to play a fifth year of college basketball.
The NCAA put out its waiver shortly after Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia earned an injunction to play another year of football by arguing that his time in junior college should not count toward four-year NCAA eligibility, and that to count it would restrict his economic opportunities.
While the exact terms of the NCAA’s blanket waiver have been litigated and re-litigated in the months since by players with all sorts of disparate eligibility situations, Coit is a rather clear-cut case as a player who began his college career in 2021 at a junior college and would normally exhaust his eligibility following the conclusion of the 2024-25 season.
KU coach Bill Self previously acknowledged on Dec. 30 the possibility that his team could get Coit back for another year.
Coit said that an additional year of college basketball could help him both on and off the court.
“I think it’s a blessing,” he said. “I think it’s going to be fun, but got to be where my feet is at, and just focus on one day at a time, and then obviously use that extra year to my advantage, get my master’s and different things like that.”
The 5-foot-11 guard has been a key piece off the bench for the Jayhawks this season, exceeding expectations on the defensive end, even as he endured a protracted shooting slump through much of January. He has played in every game for KU, averaging 15 minutes off the bench with 4.5 points per game and 37.1% shooting from beyond the arc.
