Florida's Denzel Aberdeen Files Temporary Injunction Against NCAA in Eligibility Battle

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Denzel Aberdeen's eligibility battle has taken another turn, with the Florida Gators guard filing for a temporary injunction in Gainesville for his fifth year of eligibility, his attorney Jesse Panuccio told Field of 68's Jeff Goodman.

Aberdeen was deemed ineligible last month after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA a stay of the Colorado court ruling that ordered the organization to declare all class of 2022 athletes eligible. Aberdeen's fight comes after the NCAA moved to a five-for-five eligible that does not include fifth-year athletes that exhausted their eligibility after the 2025-26 athletics season.

"Denzel Aberdeen, a senior at Florida, should be allowed to compete as a student-athlete under the NCAA’s 5-in-5 rule,” Panuccio said in a statement. “But the NCAA has announced an unwritten exception to its rule that strips Class of 2022 students from this policy, even though they competed for years against fifth-, sixth-, and sometimes seventh-year seniors who received Covid-era eligibility waivers. The NCAA’s decision violates its contractual commitment to fairness to all student-athletes, and we have sued to vindicate Aberdeen’s rights and get him back on the court as he finishes his degree at UF.”

Aberdeen spent three seasons at Florida before transferring to Kentucky for his fourth season. While Aberdeen never redshirted in any of his previous seasons, the core of his argument for a fifth year comes from his lack of meaningful minutes as a true freshman with the Gators during the 2022-23 season. That year, Aberdeen played in just 12 games, totaling 40 minutes on the court.

Another key feature of Aberdeen's argument is the fact that he never declared for the NBA Draft, never signed a professional contract and never played in the NBA Summer League or in the G-League.

"This isn't a 27-year-old trying to play his eighth year in college at his sixth different school. This is a 22-year-old within his fifth-year clock coming back to get his degree," head coach Todd Golden said earlier in the offseason. "And I think it would be a really weird stance to try to fight him from playing. Now if he had played 30 games and played 15 minutes a night, we wouldn't be going down this path.

"But to me there's a common sense approach on Denzel that I think should be solved pretty quickly."

Aberdeen's recent legal action does not come as a surprise after both Golden and athletic director Scott Stricklin pledged support for whatever path he decided to take. Golden even went as far as to say that they were "ready to take legal action" after saying earlier in the offseason that getting a temporary restraining order was a "last resort."

Aberdeen was previously ruled eligible in July after Judge Charlotte Sweeney of the U.S. District Court of Colorado granted a preliminary injunction that requires the NCAA to declare all members of the 2022 recruiting class eligible. He was ruled ineligible less than a month later after the NCAA's request for a stay of the ruling was granted.

Florida opens the 2026-27 season on Nov. 3 against Miami in Tampa.

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