NCAA challenges DeWine’s eligibility order in federal court

The NCAA has sued Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in federal court over an executive order allowing student-athletes from the Class of 2022 to seek a fifth season of eligibility. The filing challenges the order’s effect on national eligibility rules and asks a federal judge to intervene, according to the reports. The NCAA argues that the order gives Ohio schools an advantage over programs that follow its eligibility limits. The organization’s rules, passed in June, exclude athletes who have already played four seasons from a fifth season, according to 55KRC. The NCAA said that if governors or state courts can change eligibility rules for particular schools, maintaining a level playing field would become impossible. NCAA President Charlie Baker called bringing the lawsuit an “extraordinary step.”

DeWine’s order applies to student-athletes from the Class of 2022. The NCAA’s framework, as described by Tampa Free Press, sets a five-year eligibility window beginning on an athlete’s 19th birthday or initial college enrollment, whichever occurs first. The dispute therefore concerns the order’s relationship to NCAA-wide limits and who sets the rules governing eligibility at Ohio colleges. The NCAA filed its lawsuit in the Southern District of Ohio on Friday, October 16. Tampa Free Press reports that the complaint asks a judge to strike down Executive Order 2026-04D before it takes effect in competition. The report describes the filing as an effort to stop colleges from bypassing national athletic eligibility limits; the NCAA’s stated concern, also reported by 55KRC, is the competitive advantage it believes the order could give Ohio schools. The federal case comes as eligibility questions are also before Ohio courts. 55KRC reports that the Ohio Supreme Court paused an appeals court ruling finding the Class of 2022 athletes ineligible and asked both sides to submit briefs by the following Monday. That account also identifies basketball player Filip Borovićanin as among those whose eligibility proceedings have been affected by the order. Tampa Free Press describes an earlier state-court sequence: a county judge granted players an injunction, and the Ohio First District Court of Appeals overturned it on October 2. The federal suit now places the NCAA’s challenge to DeWine’s order before a federal court while the Ohio Supreme Court has intervened in the state-court proceedings. The reports do not establish a final resolution of the athletes’ eligibility or a ruling on the federal complaint.