The has spent the past few years pleading with Congress to help rein in the chaos engulfing college athletics, with a large chunk of the focus centered on the wave of lawsuits challenging student-athlete eligibility.
At this point, it feels like a daily occurrence. The organization tasked with enforcing its own rules is constantly reacting to another lawsuit filed in state or federal court by an athlete seeking an additional year of eligibility.
While NCAA officials continue lobbying lawmakers to pass the âwhich would provide the organization with greater antitrust legal protections against these challengesâthey had the opportunity to avoid the chaos centered around the most recent flurry of lawsuits themselves.
When the NCAA adopted its new age-based eligibility model, giving athletes five years to play five seasons, it made one critical decision that is being argued in courtrooms across the country on a daily basis: it excluded the 2022 recruiting class from the new rule.
From that moment on, pure chaos has reigned down upon state courtrooms, while senators try to push the ‘Protect College Sports Act’ through congress.
Athletes who believed they were unfairly denied an extra season of competition began filing civil lawsuits across the country, arguing they should receive the same benefits as those covered under the new eligibility structure.
Had the NCAA implemented the five-and-five rule a year earlierâor simply grandfathered in the 2022 classâcollege athletics might not be facing its current legal mess that has lawyers fielding more phone calls than a 9-1-1 operator on a Saturday during the football season in a college town.
One of the bigger problems in the aftermath of some injunctions granted is that there are too many athletes and not enough roster spots. As college football teams open fall camp to prepare for the 2026 season, there are not just a plethora of open spots on the roster left for those who now have eligibility, or will gain eligibility.
In college basketball, teams were anticipating the potential for madness this summer, so leaving one or two spots open for an occasion like this was a tad easier to navigate for the sport compared to football.
But even then, being in this spot of pure legal chaos was on the mind of plenty, including the NCAA.
The mind-boggling part of this entire saga is that attorneys, like Ryan Downton, essentially told the NCAA this was coming.
When former Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson sued the organization in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee over the amount of years athletes are allowed to participate in college athletics, the warning shot to the NCAA was clearly given.
“We asked the NCAA to give everyone five years last year when we filed the Patterson lawsuit. They said no,” Ryan Downton told OutKick-FOX News. “Now theyve done it, but excluded the athletes asking for the change. Â It feels like the NCAA is saying, you had a good idea, but we cant let you enjoy the benefits of it. Just like they changed the name. We called it five-for-five. They call it age-based eligibility. Â Its the same thing, but the NCAA tries to pretend it isnt.”
I’ve seen a few public relations’ nightmares over the years that involve the NCAA, but this summer has been one for the ages. But
