U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney late Monday denied the NCAA’s motion to stay her nationwide injunction permitting thousands of Division I college athletes who began college play in 2022–2023 and completed four years of eligibility by this past spring to play another season.
Sweeney reasoned the NCAA “essentially rehashes arguments that it previously made and that [she] rejected” in hopes the injunction would be put on hold while the NCAA appeals Sweeney’s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
The ruling isn’t a surprise, since the NCAA asked Sweeney to reconsider her core conclusions about the NCAA’s application and interpretation of a new eligibility system that provides up to five years of play but doesn’t benefit athletes who finished high school in 2022.
A group of a dozen athletes—including basketball players Brock Wisne, Aidan Shaw and Cade Tyson—maintain that it is a violation of antitrust law to deny them a chance to play another season when they could earn NIL and revenue-sharing money. The NCAA argues allowing players who have already exhausted their eligibility to play another season would jeopardize roster spots provided to freshmen and others who could be displaced, especially since many coaches would prefer seasoned, 22- and 23-year-old players as opposed to freshman.
