CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois’ baseball season ended before it could really get started.

The Illini had an exciting opening to the season, to say the least, achieving an 8-5 overall record with wins over highly regarded programs in Coastal Carolina, then-No. 13 Texas A&M and then-No. 23 Oklahoma State. Illinois had also just won three of its last four games and were preparing to head to Carbondale, Ill, to face Southern Illinois in a weekend series riding this momentum.

The Thursday before the team left, however, was the day the players found out their year was over. Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb said he wanted his team to enjoy one more practice before he broke the news to his men.

“Had a much different practice. Let everybody in batting practice hit, had the pitchers hit, just tried to have some fun with them knowing there was going to be a blow to them in a matter of minutes,” Hartleb said during a teleconference on March 17.

Now players are back home training and Hartleb is back home. His wife, Gina, is trying to figure out what to do with him.

“This is the first time in 37 years I have not made a baseball decision on the weekends in March, so different,” he said. “I walked down after working out and showering on Friday and my wife was sitting at the table with one of her friends having coffee and I just smiled at her and said, ‘Okay, what’re we doing this weekend?’ And she looked at me like, ‘Oh crap, I have to put up with you for three or four more months. I usually don’t have to.’”

Uncertainty hovers over the baseball program, though, just like the rest of the sports world. The NCAA granting seniors in spring athletics another year of eligibility has opened another door of opportunity for them but has brought plenty of potential complications as Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman alluded to during his press conference on March 13.

“It's not as straightforward as it might first seem,” Whitman said. “I think that certainly, the opportunity to come back in a lot of ways is a no-brainer for student-athletes who want to take advantage of that opportunity. But you're also going to have to look at scholarship limits, you're going to have to look at roster sizes because most of those spots have been given to somebody for next year, and so you may have to grow the scholarship support for a year while we work through the transition.

“Not to mention things that you probably won't be able to work through as much, but if an incoming baseball player thought that the stud center fielder in front of them was going to graduate and move on and that spot was going to be there for them to try and compete for, and all of a sudden that stud center fielder is coming back, that changes that internal dynamic, that one is probably not something that we can deal with legislatively.”

Hartleb echoed a lot of the complications of the extra year of eligibility Whitman did, stating that there are great financial implications and roster situations that are going to need to be addressed, which Hartleb said he believes the NCAA will expand the roster compacity.

Hartleb said regarding incoming freshmen that this year of eligibility would take five years for rosters and scholarships “to get back in order.” When asked if any of his current seniors have approached him or if there’s been any communication with them regarding the fifth year, Hartleb said there hasn’t and is waiting for emotions to die down before those conversations start.

“When we had our meeting, I made a general statement to those guys that it looked like they were going to be granted another year of eligibility and that I would love to talk to them about that,” Hartleb said. “We had one senior stop in right away and we had a conversation on different avenues or things that could happen. We’re still in a wait and see mode. Quite honestly, I haven’t had those conversations with our seniors because I don’t think it’s fair to have them yet. We’re less than a week out from those guys having their world turn around on them. I want to give them some time to digest things a little bit and have some time to settle down and then be able to have some conversations with them where the emotions won’t be so high.”

For senior pitchers Garrett Acton and Ty Weber, they both said they’re considering all their options. Both players are looking for professional baseball careers, so they expressed interest in that option, but also see the benefits of returning for another season and getting their master’s degrees.

“If everything gets figured out with the (MLB) and the draft, then things will probably become a little bit more clear on that side,” Acton said. “I’m looking at all options right now. If I go end up at the end of the year here and get a master’s degree, that’s a great opportunity for me. If I play professional baseball and end up in the right situation, that’s a great opportunity for me. So, kind of out of all this darkness and this dark situation, there’s great opportunities either way for me. I just need to approach those as they come.”

The one and pretty much only thing that is certain about this extra year of eligibility for spring athletes such as Weber are they now have another avenue opened during a time where uncertainty is closing the others.

“The Thursday that we found out our season was done, I didn’t even think about the possibility of getting an extra year of eligibility back,” Weber said. “All I was really thinking at that point was ‘Wow, my team here at Illinois might be over,’ and now with that option, it does make it a little bit easier on my mind due to the fact that I do have options and it allows me to really navigate different avenues and see where my life may potentially end up.

“The extra year of eligibility, no matter if I end up using it or not, is definitely an option that I’ll think about a lot and will have a big impact on my life.”