Ohio Judge Christopher Wagner has granted a preliminary injunction for 24 men's and women's college basketball players suing the NCAA for eligibility. He sided with athletes who claim the NCAA's new age-based model unfairly shuts them out of further competition.
"We hope the NCAA reconsiders its position and allows all other similarly situated athletes from the high school class of 2022 to compete for remaining roster spots in all sports," attorney Ryan Downton said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Wagner's decision allows the 24 athletes named in the lawsuit to enter the transfer portal before the 2026-27 season.
According to the AP, Downton has filed similar lawsuits against the NCAA on behalf of nearly 30 men's and women's basketball players. The Cincinnati lawsuit came shortly after the NCAA Division I Cabinet approved changes to the organization's eligibility rules in June.
"When each plaintiff completed their fourth season of competition during the 2025-26 academic year, they had every reason to know it was the end of the line and time to make way for the next generation of college athletes," the NCAA wrote in a filing.
Downton argues that's not the case.
“Each plaintiff was harmed each time he or she competed in a basketball game against a fifth or sixth-year player without being offered the same opportunity to compete in a fifth season themselves,” he wrote in a filing.
The plaintiffs are seeking permission to compete during the upcoming season, contending they should be granted a fifth year of eligibility. They represent athletes who graduated from high school in 2022, enrolled in college that fall and exhausted four seasons of competition without using a redshirt.
Under the NCAA's new eligibility model, athletes receive five seasons of competition within a five-year window that begins with either their initial full-time college enrollment or the academic year after their 19th birthday, whichever comes first.
The change will all but eliminate eligibility waivers and the use of redshirt years to extend athletes' careers beyond five seasons, with exceptions for religious missions, pregnancy and active-duty military service. Injuries will no longer qualify athletes for eligibility extensions.
Athletes who exhausted their eligibility under the previous system — four seasons of competition over five years — by the spring of 2026 are not eligible for an additional season under the new rules, which take effect this fall.
