​SOUTH BEND – This coming season should be it for two Notre Dame basketball players.In any other year, this coming season would be it for two Notre Dame basketball players. Thanks to the NCAA, this coming season might not be it for two Notre Dame basketball players.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementStarting spot: How last season ended cannot ever happen again to Notre Dame basketballNoie: This is a big swing for Notre Dame basketball assistant coach Tony RackNo matter how 2026-27 unfolds for Notre Dame basketball, guards Logan Imes and Braeden Shrewsberry, the only traditional seniors on the roster, will have something they never planned to have after four full seasons of college basketball.The option to call it a career or return for a fifth season.Starting with the 2027-28 academic year, all Division I athletes will follow the new five-for-five (age based) athletic model in late June by the NCAA. No longer will there be redshirt seasons to delay the competition clocks of an offensive lineman in football or a shortstop in softball. All athletes will receive five years of eligibility. They could play for one year. They could play all five.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementUntil 2027-28, the four classes of athletes (let’s drop the student tag, shall we?) will have the option of staying/playing the standard four years or returning for a bonus fifth. This year’s senior class of college athletes will be the first with that option.“That’s nice to know,” Imes said. “It’s hard to think about that when the whole time (in your career), you’re thinking about four years. We’ll see how the year goes and then think about it after the season, but it is nice if I want to do that.”Like his former AAU teammate and current college teammate, Shrewsberry hasn’t thought much — really, hasn’t thought at all — about what a fifth year at Notre Dame (or somewhere else if they choose) might entail. He’s focused on this coming season and what it could/should look like.There’s plenty to do now without worrying about what to do later.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It’s exciting,” Shrewsberry said of a fifth year. “I came in (to college) at the right time, I guess. It’s a blessing to know that, but anything can happen.”Former Notre Dame guard Dane Goodwin currently holds the program record for games played at 158. Classmate Nate Laszewski is second at 157. Both played five full seasons after being granted an added year because of COVID-19. Both career games played marks carry an asterisk in the record book.Prior to them, former Irish guard Rex Pflueger (2015-20) held the school record for games played with 141. He also played five seasons, but not five full seasons, after suffering a knee injury that wiped out the second half of his junior year in 2018-19.Rounding out the top five in career games played at Notre Dame are Pat