Judge blocks NCAA from enforcing new eligibility rules

A Hamilton County judge has issued a ruling that for now allows at least dozens of Division I college athletes to gain an additional year of eligibility − a decision the NCAA said was "wrong."

>Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Chris Wagner's July 9 decision impacts both the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University men’s basketball teams, which can now add key players to their rosters.

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>In a written decision, Wagner granted a preliminary injunction, blocking the NCAA from enforcing new eligibility rules that granted a fifth year to athletes who graduated high school in 2023 and all subsequent years – but excluded most who graduated in 2022.

>The NCAA “claims to value competition,” Wagner said. “However, it is unclear how these rules, arbitrarily enforced against these plaintiffs, promote competition.”

>In a statement, an NCAA spokeswoman said the organization "will immediately seek all avenues for reversal," including asking an appeals court to intervene.

>"The court disregarded over a century of precedent and substituted its own judgment, on a limited factual record, for the collective expertise of the nation's leading higher education institutions. The court also based its decision on assertions by plaintiffs’ counsel about the NCAA and its bylaws that bear no resemblance to reality," the statement said. "The effect of this ruling will be to take away valuable participation opportunities from student-athletes who are eligible to compete, in favor of those who have already received exactly the number of seasons of competition they expected."

>The preliminary injunction was granted in a lawsuit filed June 24 on behalf of two dozen college basketball players who are seeking a fifth year.

>Wagner's ruling means that Filip Borovicanin, who played at Xavier last season, and MJ Collins Jr. and Kolby King, who played for new UC head coach Jerrod Calhoun at Utah State last season, now would be eligible to compete in a fifth season.

>Collins and Borovicanin both testified at a July 1 court hearing surrounding the preliminary injunction.

>Wagner also said the athletes would not be affected by any requirements of the NCAA's "transfer portal." At the July 1 hearing, an attorney for the NCAA asked Calhoun about new rules that impose sanctions on coaches and/or universities if they add a player to their roster, like King, who was not in the portal.

>"Despite arbitrarily excluding a class of athletes from taking part in a fifth season of intercollegiate competition," Wagner said, "the NCAA seeks to evade judicial review and possibly punish member institutions for their participation in the legal process."

>The NCAA also said the decision by some schools to support the lawsuit was "disappointing" and characterized the lawsuit as something that was "designed to circumvent the rules by which those same schools agreed to be bound."

>"Integrity in college sports relies on all members abiding by the same standards," the NCAA said.

>It called on Congress to act swiftly "to restore stability, uniformity, and fair competition in college athletics."

>This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Judge blocks NCAA from enforcing new eligibility rules