An Ohio court has ruled against the NCAA in the first legal challenge to its newly introduced age-based eligibility model, granting 24 athletes who graduated high school in 2022 and completed four collegiate seasons a fifth year of eligibility.
Although the injunction currently applies only to the plaintiffs, the decision could pave the way for thousands of similarly situated student-athletes to seek an additional year of college eligibility. The NCAA is expected to appeal, while similar lawsuits have already been filed in other states.
The lawsuit followed the NCAA’s adoption of a new eligibility framework in June, which allows athletes five years to complete up to five seasons beginning after their 19th birthday or college enrollment, while eliminating the traditional redshirt system. The plaintiffs argued that excluding the Class of 2022 from the new policy unfairly restricted their earning potential through name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities.
The court found that the NCAA had applied its eligibility rules in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner and concluded that denying the athletes another season would cause irreparable harm. The ruling also allows the plaintiffs to enter the transfer portal outside the standard transfer window.
The NCAA criticized the decision, arguing that it undermines competitive fairness for schools and student-athletes that have already built their rosters under the existing eligibility rules, and confirmed it will continue defending its policy through the courts.