Why Miami QB Carson Beck Is Still Playing After Graduating

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Carson Beck #11 of the Miami Hurricanes warms up prior to a game against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

When the Miami Hurricanes take the field Monday night to face the upstart Indiana Hoosiers for the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship, one of the most prominent players on the gridiron will not, by his own admission, be an actual college student.

Carson Beck transferred to Miami after five seasons as mostly a backup QB for the Georgia Bulldogs, though as a backup the now 23-year-old will be appearing in his 55th and final college game Monday night. For comparison, New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye — the 2024 No. 3 overall draft pick who will start the AFC Championship game on Sunday — did not appear in his 55th game including both college and pro football until Week 7 of this NFL season.

At a press availability session on Sunday, a reporter asked Beck if he attended classes at Miami in the week leading up to Monday’s championship game. That produced a laugh from the 23-year-old.

Beck Explains Why He Doesn’t Go to Class

“Uh yeah, no class,” Beck replied to the reporter. “I graduated two years ago.”

His admission startled many fans, at least online, who responded with such comments as “College football is dead,” “Playing college football but not attending class for two years is crazy,” and “Bro turned ‘College Athlete’ into a full time career.”

But there should have been no surprise at Beck’s revelation. By continuing to play college football after graduation, he is not breaking any NCAA rules. Nonetheless, Beck went on to clarify that he is enrolled at Miami as a graduate student — but only for the current year.

“I’ve been working towards other degrees now that I’ve gotten to Miami, but these programs take a little longer than just a year to finish,” Beck said. “So obviously I’m not enrolling again next semester. I will be done after this season.”

Asked if he spends time on the University of Miami campus, taking part in school activities, Beck said that he lives at the football team’s facility, adding, “That’s about it.”

How is Beck Still Eligible to Play?

Beck will play his final college game when the Hurricanes meet Indiana in what will be essentially a home game for Miami, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens — the regular site of the team’s home games. But for this one more game, concluding his sixth college season, he remains eligible to play under NCAA rules.

Why? The answer has less to do with his enrollment status than it does with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In 2020, his true freshman year at Georgia — after being recruited from Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, where he led his team to a state championship and was named Florida’s “Mr. Football” — Beck was redshirted, meaning the year did not count against his four seasons of eligibility.

But the NCAA also decided that 2020, the year of the pandemic, would not count against a college athlete’s eligibility — in effect giving Beck two “free” years to play college football on top of the usual four allowed by the NCAA.

Beck is Essentially a Professional Player

The NCAA allows students who have not used up their eligibility to play after graduation, as long as they are enrolled as graduate students for nine hours of coursework, which appeared to be the case for Beck — though he admitted he will not finish the requirements for a graduate degree.

But Beck also admitted that he does not have classes and did not specify what his graduate coursework consisted of exactly.

The fact is, Beck is already a professional player. While typical college and graduate students pay to attend their schools or receive financial aid, Miami pays Beck a salary to play football there. He is currently estimated, by the sports business site On3, to be making $3.1 million in NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money for his services.

That money allows Beck to act as a full-time football player while at least nominally still in college, before he enters the NFL draft in hopes of becoming a full-time pro player after college as well.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin