Fifth-year NCAA basketball players ineligible again following appeals court ruling

Filed 2h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

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Alexander Nakarada · creatorchords.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Daan Noske / Anefo · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

An Ohio appeals panel vacated a preliminary injunction that had let a group of fifth-year basketball players compete, ruling they are unlikely to win their breach of contract claim against the NCAA.

Twenty-four players sued after the NCAA's June rule change denied a fifth season to athletes who graduated high school in 2022, even as the new age-based model allows others five seasons in five years. The panel found the NCAA's unanimous, non-retroactive rule change wasn't arbitrary, and that letting extra players stay would hurt teammates' roster spots.

The court acknowledged the players suffered real harm — lost eligibility and NIL income — but said uncertainty across college sports litigation outweighed that. The case now returns to Hamilton County Common Pleas Court for further proceedings on the merits.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A court telling a private association it gets to interpret its own rulebook is about as surprising as a referee calling his own game fair. The players lost a year they can't get back while everyone involved congratulates themselves on predictability. Funny how often predictability means the folks who wrote the rule also get to win the argument about it.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Banjos Unite · Alexander Nakarada · CC BY 4.0

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