Bill Belichick could be eligible to be selected for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026 instead of 2029 following significant changes made to the selection process. The Hall of Fame announced the new rules that were approved by the Board of Directors on Friday. They go into effect immediately, including reducing the waiting period for coaches to be considered from five years out of the game to one year.

That would make six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Belichick eligible to be selected for the 2026 class after he parted ways with the New England Patriots after last season. The new rules also could speed up the process for another Super Bowl-winning coach, Seattle’s Pete Carroll, who also was replaced after the 2023 season. Belichick and Carroll would have to wait again if they get hired by another team in the offseason.

The Hall of Fame also made several other changes, including splitting the coach and contributor categories, adding new screening committees to review the full list of nominees for players from the modern era and seniors category and requiring between one and three people picked each year out of the five nominees for seniors, coaches, and contributors.

The process for picking the class of 2025 will begin soon when new 11-person screening committees made up of Hall of Famers, former front office executives, football historians, and media members will reduce the list of nominees to 50 candidates for the modern era and seniors category. None of the 22 people on those committees will be on the selection committee that votes in early 2025 on who gets into the Hall.

The full selection committee will reduce the list of modern era candidates to 25 semifinalists in November and 15 finalists in December before the final vote. Among the top first-time candidates eligible this year are Eli Manning, Luke Kuechly, Marshall Yanda, Marshawn Lynch, and Terrell Suggs.

A seniors blue-ribbon committee consisting of seven people who are on the full selection committee and two others who could be Hall of Famers, historians, or anyone with expansive football knowledge will reduce that list and ultimately pick three finalists. There will be similar blue-ribbon committees that will select one coach and one contributor to be considered by the full selection committee.

The selection committee will then meet before the Super Bowl to discuss the 20 finalists from the four groups with approval from 80% of voters required to be selected. There will be between three and five modern candidates picked and between one and three people picked out of the five nominees from the seniors (three), coach (one), and contributor (one). That will lead to classes composed of between four and eight inductees each year with the Hall estimating there will likely be five or six picked.

“Forming two Screening Committees will bring added discussion of candidates, with input from more Hall of Famers,” Hall of Fame President and CEO Jim Porter said in a statement. “And splitting the Coach and Contributor categories allows for a Finalist from each one. What’s most important is continuing to elect great classes of enshrinees, and these moves help ensure that desired outcome.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL