Kentucky Court Rejects NCAA Appeal, 30 Athletes Keep Eligibility
A Kentucky Court of Appeals judge denied the NCAA's request for emergency relief Friday, allowing roughly 30 college athletes to remain eligible as the basketball season nears its start. The decision keeps a temporary injunction in place until a three-judge panel can review the NCAA's appeal.
The athletes, including Missouri basketball player Mark Mitchell and LSU's Skyy Clark, had received the injunction on Oct. 16, permitting them to compete while the NCAA challenged a lower-court ruling. That ruling allowed members of the 2022 high school graduating class to play a final season under the NCAA's new "five-for-five" eligibility model. Judge Sara Walter Combs wrote that the NCAA failed to demonstrate the injunction caused "imminent, ruinous and incalculable injury," adding that it serves no purpose "to flip-flop repeatedly as our courts work through the underlying issues." bandy online betting
The case centers on the NCAA's upcoming eligibility framework, set to take effect next fall, which grants athletes five years of competition starting when they turn 19 or graduate high school, whichever comes first. Athletes who began college in 2022-23 and have already completed four years were excluded from that model, prompting several lawsuits across multiple states. Some of those athletes have since played professionally and are now seeking a fifth collegiate season. Besides the basketball players, the Kentucky ruling also keeps football players eligible, including Kentucky's Alex Afari Jr., Texas Tech quarterback Thomas Castellanos, and Louisville's Jabari Mack and Kalib Perry, all plaintiffs in the litigation.
The Kentucky decision follows a similar setback for the NCAA in Ohio, where the state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an earlier ruling preserving eligibility for roughly two dozen players, including Xavier's Filip Borovicanin, Gonzaga's Javon Bennett and Cincinnati's MJ Collins. In a memo to its members, the NCAA said it was "deeply disappointed" by the Ohio outcome, warning that allowing ineligible players to compete "deprives" eligible student-athletes of opportunities and gives an edge to teams fielding more experienced rosters. With both state court battles ongoing, the NCAA's broader eligibility model remains unsettled as the season approaches.
