By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Imagine All-Big Ten center Ava Heiden playing five seasons for the Iowa women’s basketball team instead of four seasons.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine it anymore since the NCAA Division I Cabinet recently unanimously approved a new five-year, age-based eligibility model for student-athletes.

And while a lot can change over the next two years, Heiden right now sounds as if she will play five seasons for the Hawkeyes.

“Three more years, I feel like a freshman again; I’ve got so much longer to go,” Heiden said after a Thursday morning practice. “But I think that’s also a great thing to look forward to because I get to play alongside these guys for longer and keep those friendships alive, and just grow together as people and as a team.”

The 6-foot-4 Heiden is coming off a breakout season as a sophomore for the Hawkeyes.

After showing flashes of her immense potential during an up-and-down freshman season, Heiden took her game to a whole new level as a sophomore; averaging a team-high 18.0 points per game. The Sherwood, Oregon native also led Iowa with 43 blocks and finished second on the team in rebounding with a 7.2 per-ga me average.

Her 40 steals also were tied for second most on the team.

Heiden was asked Thursday if she might prefer to wait to see how things go before making a final decision.

“Geez, I’d get grad school paid for and that’ something that’s a big goal for me. Education, right. And so I might as well utilize that and then keep staying in great shape and playing basketball for a team that I love and for coaches that I love.”

Heiden is just as talented in the classroom as she is on the basketball court, earning Academic All-America accolades this past season.

She is a finance major where she carries a 3.7 grade-point average.

So, there would be a lot of incentive for her to play five seasons at Iowa.

But one thing could ultimately stand in the way because what if the WNBA were to come calling with a chance for Heiden to make even more money than she would make with NIL?

“I don’t know,” Heiden said. “We’ll see. Maybe they’d have to wait.”

Heiden turned down a chance to play with new Iowa teammate Dani Carnegie on the 2026 United States 3×3 Women’s Nations League Team.

“I would like to note that Ava did make that same team,” Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said Thursday. “That’s pretty cool to have two players make it. Ava declined. It’s a lot of wear and tear.

Carnegie recently traveled to Miami to train for the 3×3 event and she is now in Argentina participating in a qualifier with the hope of advancing to China for the finals

“They’ll do that in about 12 days,” Jensen said.

Jensen believes that Heiden made the right choice in declining the offer, partly because the 3×3 event is more suited for guards than post players.

“I think it was the wise choice,” Jensen said. “She really wants to focus on adding some different weapons to her bag. I think it’s wise for that bigger body.”

As for playing for five seasons, Heiden doesn’t have to make a decision right now, or even in a year. She can just let it play out and have fun being a Hawkeye.

Under the new rule, student-athletes in all sports will have five years of eligibility over five seasons once their college eligibility clock begins. The clock starts upon initial full-time enrollment in college or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever comes first.

“I think that’s awesome, just a great opportunity for all of us to have that education-wise and also basketball,” said junior guard Taylor Stremlow. “It’s pretty incredible.”

Iowa is coming off a season in which it finished 27-7 overall and a very respectable 15-3 in Big Ten play.

However, the season ended in disappointing fashion as Iowa fell to Virginia in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

It was the second straight season that Iowa lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament under Jensen, who is now entering her third season as head coach.

“Because we lost early, that’s definitely been in the back of my mind always,” Stremlow said. “I hate to lose. I hate to lose in Carver. I hate to lose when we should have won in my opinion.”

Iowa lost five players to the transfer portal since the end of the season, but has also added six new players, including 2026 five-star recruit McKenna Woliczok, a 6-2 forward from California.

“She’s really eager and a pretty quick learner, and really is taking it all in,” Jensen said. “She’s got a really humble confidence about her. She knows that she’s got as lot to learn, but she also knows that she’s got a lot of different weapons. She’s really versatile.”