As first-year classes begin across DU, sports quota aspirants are still waiting on their allocation list — a delay that students and college administrators say has become a recurring feature of the admission process.
First-year classes have begun across Delhi University’s colleges, but the Sports Supernumerary Quota allocation list, which informs which student-athletes get admitted and to where, is yet to be released. For the hundreds of aspirants who cleared their trials over the past week, the admission process remains incomplete even as their prospective classmates settle into lecture halls.
This year, DU’s sports trials were held from July 29 to August 3 across colleges and sports venues, covering over 25 disciplines including athletics, basketball, football, and swimming. The university has maintained that sports and ECA quota seat allocations will only begin after the third round of the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS-UG) admissions, pushing admissions under these quotas well behind the general merit timeline.
In conversation with DU Beat, an administrative staff member at Jesus and Mary College, who wished to remain anonymous, acknowledged the disconnect but placed the responsibility squarely on the university’s centralised process. She said,
We understand that classes have started. But the admission process is handled entirely by the University portal. The students will miss classes, and they may have to individually ask their professors to adjust their attendance according to their late joining date.”
This isn’t the first time sports quota admissions have trailed behind the academic calendar. Last year, regular first-year classes for the 2025-26 session commenced on August 1, even as sports and ECA quota seats were officially allocated only after the third CSAS round, which was well into August. Taken together, the recurrence suggests this is less a one-off hiccup and more a structural feature of how DU sequences its admission rounds — one that consistently leaves sports quota candidates joining after their peers, year after year.
For aspirants, the wait compounds an already demanding admission season. Speaking to DU Beat, Shreyoshi Patil, a state-level basketball player awaiting her sports quota allocation said that the delay adds to a semester already disrupted by her sporting commitments. She said,
Now not only do I have to worry about the classes that I’ll miss due to tournaments and practices, but these first few days as well, when I expected to get familiar with the college environment and professors.”
For now, students like Patil are left tracking the admission portal for updates, while colleges point back to the university-run process as the source of the delay. Until the allocation list is released, sports quota aspirants remain caught between the admission process still underway and a semester that has already begun.
Read Also: Delhi University CSAS UG Second Allotment List Today: Over 43,000 Students Eye Seat Upgrades
Image Source: Jesus and Mary College Website
Aamna Rehman
