When the NCAA extended eligibility for athletes during the pandemic, it increased the number of players across the country who were pursuing master’s degrees or post-bachelor certificate programs while still playing. Arizona was no different. You can still find graduate students up and down rosters as players finish their extra eligibility.

The question is what happens when a player completes her eligibility or leaves to go pro but hasn’t completed the graduate degree. Former Arizona women’s basketball star Aari McDonald found that it isn’t so easy to go back.

When McDonald opted to return to Arizona for a fifth year in college in 2020-21, she had already completed her bachelor’s degree. She began a master’s program but had not finished when the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream took her as the third overall pick in the April 2021 draft. Now, McDonald says she had to enroll at Arizona State to complete that program.

McDonald posted her acceptance letter to ASU’s master’s program in applied behavioral analysis on her Instagram story on Sept. 24. At the bottom, she added, “This is what happens when Arizona didn’t finish paying for my masters.”

McDonald continued working on her degree during her rookie season in the WNBA. The Dream occasionally posted videos of her doing homework at their facility during training camp. However, she said she had to take time off for mental health reasons and didn’t complete the work. She informed her academic program about her intentions to take time off almost two years ago.

A recent attempt to return to class turned up problems. McDonald said she couldn’t register. Then, she learned that she had been turned over to collections by the University of Arizona after her departure.

McDonald believed that the financial arrangements would be taken care of out of the Arizona women’s basketball budget and expressed frustration that it didn’t happen. Head coach Adia Barnes said she’s unsure where that understanding came from because it isn’t possible.

“I don’t have the ability to do that or else I would for her,” Barnes said, adding that it’s not something any program in the country can do under existing rules.

Barnes said she was unaware that McDonald was even interested in finishing the program, although the two had last communicated via text on McDonald’s birthday in late August. However, there were possibilities for getting things taken care of at Arizona.

“I could have made her a (graduate assistant) for a year,” Barnes said.

The roots of the issue go back some time. Some are particular to women’s basketball players who often spend the entire year playing in different countries.

It was a rough period for McDonald and many other players who went through their college careers during the pandemic. What she expected to be her final collegiate season in 2019-20 was disrupted first by an injury that kept her out of two games and then by the shutdown that led to the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament.

McDonald had intended to go into the draft after that season but decided to come back to have a run in the tournament and be fully healthy when she finally entered the draft. It worked out well for her on the court, and Barnes touted the advantage of getting a master’s paid for at the time.

McDonald had a superb final season as a Wildcat, albeit during a year that required all players to be cut off from almost everyone outside their team. She was the breakout star of the 2021 NCAA Tournament as she willed the team to the national championship game and a one-point loss to Stanford.

The national media members who hadn’t paid much attention to her over her career finally had to take notice—and learn how to pronounce her name. She became the highest draft pick in the history of Arizona women’s basketball.

The rookie had an unstable opening season in the WNBA, though. The coach who drafted her left before the season started. The first interim coach stepped down partway through. She had three coaches in her first season then got a fourth for her second campaign.

On the court, her playing time was erratic. Off the court, the Dream was a font of drama. A few players had conflicts or off-court incidents, although none of those reportedly involved McDonald. Some teammates were not brought back due to a fight with locals at an Atlanta food truck.

McDonald decided to play overseas after her rookie season in the WNBA, signing with Hungarian club Uni Gyor. She spent just a few days in Hungary before returning to the U.S. While the team was scathing in its press release about her departure, McDonald cited mental health as the reason for her return. Considering the challenges of the previous two years, it was a reasonable explanation.

Her next season in Atlanta was more stable. She started six games and played a career-high 24.3 minutes per game while getting career highs in points (11.1/gm) and steals (1.5/gm).

During the WNBA’s offseason, she returned to Arizona to work as the recruiting coordinator on Barnes’ staff for the 2022-23 college season. She was eligible for the steeply reduced tuition offered to University employees. It would have required working, doing off-season training for her third WNBA season, and completing the academic program at the same time, but the reduction is 75 percent of tuition (not including fees, books, or housing costs).

“She was gonna take classes then,” Barnes said. “I don’t know. I guess she never did.”

McDonald got more starts in her third and final season in Atlanta. Her scoring went down but her assists went up and her turnovers dropped as she became more of a distributor. She followed that up with another attempt to play overseas.

This time, it was a spectacular outing for most of the season. She was a starter for the Perth Lynx in Australia’s WNBL. Her scoring prowess was on full display. She was one of the league’s top players. The downside was that she missed over a month in the middle of the season due to injury.

McDonald was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks before the 2024 WNBA season. It allowed her to go back to her native California, but it also put her on a rebuilding team after she had gone to the playoffs with the Dream the year before.

She started nine games with LA. Her points per 40 minutes were the second-highest of her career at 15.9 points per standard contest. Her assists were the highest of her career per game and per 40 minutes.

Once again, though, she missed considerable time due to injury. McDonald appeared in just two games after July 16, averaging six minutes of play in those contests.

LA finished last in the league at 8-32. Second-year head coach Curt Miller was fired last week, putting McDonald in the position of having a sixth coach in five years when the 2025 season rolls around.

McDonald has the opportunity to complete her academic program without other distractions while getting back to full health during the WNBA offseason. However, the misunderstandings at Arizona kept her from doing that at her alma mater.

The University offers the CATS Forever program to help athletes complete their bachelor’s degrees if they leave before they are finished. This program was primarily implemented to help men’s basketball players who came for a year or two before leaving for professional basketball without a degree. Even athletes who played for Arizona for four seasons often stopped going to classes and left town to prepare for the NFL or NBA drafts as soon as their final season was over. Under CATS Forever, they could return to UA years later and get the degree.

The situation is more complicated for athletes like McDonald who were in the process of completing master’s degrees or certificate programs when they left. While that kind of student-athlete was once rare, it was bound to increase after a fifth year of eligibility was granted by the NCAA.

Before the pandemic, having a graduate student on the roster was usually due to the year-in-residence or redshirt year that was once required of transfers. McDonald actually had a sixth year of eligibility after sitting out a year under the old transfer rules. She passed that up to go professional.

While it may have been more difficult to access existing aid programs after a year-and-a-half break, Barnes thinks the situation could have been worked out if she had known. With a personal relationship stretching back to McDonald’s sophomore year in high school—one that Barnes characterizes as “family”—she would have been more than willing to try to get it done.

“I probably would have got it approved if she would have told me she’s going back now,” Barnes said.

The lingering question is what happens to other athletes across the department who run out of eligibility before finishing the graduate degrees they have already started.