Xavier basketball player Filip Borovicanin and 23 other college basketball players were awarded an injunction by an Ohio judge to play college hoops this fall, hours after three college football players petitioned a judge in Tennessee to be able to play another season.
These players are from the high school class of 2022 and maintain it is illegal for the NCAA to deny them eligibility for another season when its new eligibility rules permit others to play a fifth season.
The core of the dispute rests in the NCAA Division I Cabinet last month unanimously approving a system that provides five years of eligibility beginning at the start of the academic year following an athlete’s 19th birthday or upon full-time enrollment in college, whichever comes sooner. The rule does not apply to college athletes from the high school class of 2022 who didn’t redshirt as freshmen, even though these athletes, as Borovicanin insists, “spent four years competing against athletes who received an extra year through COVID-era waivers.”
Led by attorneys Darren Heitner and Ryan Downton, Borovicanin’s group argues that the NCAA has breached obligations owed to them in the Division I Manual. The alleged breaches center on assurances of fundamental fairness, good faith and consistency. They also portray the NCAA as hypocritical in rendering them ineligible while allowing former G League players and other ex-pros to play.
