The extra year of eligibility afforded to college athletes due to the COVID-19 pandemic-impacted 2020–21 season has caused plenty of longevity records to be broken, but one well-traveled men’s college basketball player may take the cake.
Dejuan Clayton, who spent the 2022–23 season at Cal, has entered the transfer portal in pursuit of an eighth season of college basketball, per Travis Branham of 247Sports. Clayton spent the first five years of his collegiate career at Coppin State, then played the 2021–22 season at Hartford before spending last season at Cal.
He’d join a very small group of college athletes to play for eight years and appears to be the first basketball player ever to play in eight different seasons, assuming he finds a landing spot for the 2023–24 season. East Tennessee State linebacker Jared Folks was the first college athlete to play for eight years (2014–2021), but had two seasons without participating in a game.
