The NCAA’s New Eligibility Rules Have Already Invited a Successful Legal Challenge

Good news out of Ohio for the high school Class of 2022.

Xavier’s Filip Borovicanin was among the plaintiffs a lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s new eligibility rules. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

When the NCAA announced its new eligibility model on June 23, it likely banked on a decline in legal challenges to its rules.

That decline may indeed come—but on Thursday, the NCAA lost yet another eligibility-related lawsuit for the road.

On Thursday, Judge Chris Wagner of the Hamilton County (Ohio) Court of Common Pleas granted injunctive relief to a group of basketball players from the high school Class of 2022, who sued with the aim of being grandfathered into the NCAA’s new model.

“The NCAA is a ‘voluntary membership organization’ that controls, markets, and sells a product: student-athletes,” Wagner wrote via Ralph D. Russo and Justin Williams of The Athletic. “Despite arbitrarily excluding a class of athletes from taking part in a fifth season of intercollegiate competition, the NCAA seeks to evade judicial review and possibly punish member institutions for their participation in the legal process.”

The NCAA’s five-to-play-five model would have excluded members of the high school Class of 2022

The organization’s framework for the five-to-play-five model—which permits athletes to receive five flat years of eligibility if they enroll in college by the academic year after their 19th birthday—included specific language surrounding the fate of athletes who exhausted their eligibility under the old system this past academic year.

“Student-athletes who used their final season of competition (under previous rules) during 2025-26” gain “no additional eligibility,” the NCAA wrote in tabular form.

The injunction paves the way for the athletes who sued to enter the transfer portal. Per the AP, a pretrial conference is scheduled for Aug. 4.

The group of 15 players suing includes several notable names, in both the men’s and women’s games

Here’s a table of the plaintiffs.

PLAYER	POSITION	2026 TEAM	NOTES
Filip Borovicanin	Forward	Xavier	10.8 PPG in `26
Malik Moore	Guard	Xavier	All-Big Sky for Montana in 2025
MJ Collins	Guard	Utah State	All-Mountain West in `26; attempting to transfer to Cincinnati
Kolby King	Guard	Utah State	10.4 PPG for Tulane in 2024; attempting to transfer to Cincinnati
Javon Bennett	Guard	Dayton	All-Atlantic 10 in `26
Chevalier Emery	Guard	Cleveland State	Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year in `26
Jalen Quinn	Guard	Drake	All-Missouri Valley in `26
Savannah White	Forward	Xavier	7.3 RPG in `26
Donovan Brown	Guard	Massachusetts	0.8 PPG in `26
Christian Henry	Guard	Fordham	10.7 PPG in `26
Ziare Wells	Guard	Oakland	9.9 PPG in `26
Cris Carroll	Forward	Youngstown State	All-Horizon League in `26
Shawn Phillips Jr.	Forward	Missouri	.683 FG% in `26; signed with the Pelicans on June 25
Caden Powell	Forward	Baylor	10.4 PPG in `25 for Rice
Josh Reed	Guard	Penn State	11.5 PPG in `26

Most of these players are no slouches—the list includes five different All-Conference players, and two players who could play key roles as ex-Aggies coach (and Penguins coach) Jerrod Calhoun takes the reins of the Bearcats. The list also contains multiple junior college transfers and a productive former Division II player in Brown, Florida Tech’s leading scorer in `25.

Once again, the NCAA shoots itself in the foot—to a degree

The general public reaction to the five-to-play-five policy has been positive, as it will—in theory—eliminate longstanding procedural loopholes like redshirts and waivers. It will also save college sports from public-relations disasters like center Charles Bediako’s five-game return to Alabama in `26.

However, by refusing to grandfather in the high school Class of `22, the NCAA left itself open to what it needs least: yet another legal challenge. On June 26, in one of the most attention-getting headlines of the college sports offseason, Daniel Libit of Sportico reported that the NCAA’s five-year legal fees came out to a gobsmacking $293 million. That is, ironically, $13 million more than the CNBC-estimated worth of Cincinnati’s entire athletic department.

It’s easy to say that the NCAA made this problem for itself by not including a grandfather clause in the five-to-play-five rules, but consider the roster havoc the implementation of a grandfather clause right before the 2027 academic year has to potential to wreak. This may be a small legal tiff as the NCAA’s docket goes, but it could have big implications if it leads to relief for athletes across the country.

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