The fallout from a federal judge granting a nationwide injunction that extends the eligibility of players who began in collegiate sports in the 2022–2023 season and who finished college this past spring is growing, as the NCAA and the plaintiff athletes escalate their battle over what exactly U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney ordered last Friday.
In a brief filed Thursday, the NCAA insists a dozen players led by former—and perhaps future—Northern Colorado basketball player Brock Wisne have wrongly interpreted Sweeney’s injunction to “massively” broaden what it actually does.
The NCAA stresses that Sweeney has clarified her order did not “enjoin the operation of the transfer rules” or other eligibility-related rules outside how the NCAA interprets its new age-based eligibility rule that allows for up to five years of eligibility.
But there’s debate over another statement Sweeney made as part of her intended clarification.
The judge, whom President Joe Biden nominated to the bench in 2021, wrote the NCAA is enjoined from prohibiting the players in the class “from competing in a fifth season of collegiate athletics under the rule (as defined in the preliminary injunction order) or any NCAA bylaw.”
