The chaotic off-season in college football has continued to play out in court rooms across the country, as athletes are suing the NCAA on a daily basis pertaining to their eligibility as part of the 2022 class.
When the NCAA released a statement last week harping on its decision to not grant a blanket-waiver to members of the 2022 class that were left out of conversation regarding the new ‘five-for-five’ eligibility guidelines, the floodgates were opened for athletes who felt as though they were being kicked to the curb.
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On Friday morning, the Tenth Circuit court granted the NCAA its motion for a ‘stay’, which puts a pause on athletes using the blanket waiver granted by Judge Sweeney to athletes from the 2022 class that had a year of eligibility left.
Although this puts a little bit of the chaos on hold, there will now be a further influx of lawsuits filed in state court, who have been presenting different arguments in their filings.
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While the NCAA should see this as a win, the cases against them will only increase from here, now that we have witnessed plaintiffs winning more often at the lower levels.
Those same athletes who were being denied an extra season of competition, based on the NCAA’s decision to exclude them, began filing lawsuits in courtrooms from California to South Carolina, arguing they should receive the same benefits as those covered under the new eligibility structure.
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And from what we’ve seen from injunctions and temporary restraining orders being granted on what has felt like a daily basis, a very large number of judges are in agreement with the athletes who have decided to fight the NCAA in a court of law.
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One of the latest wrinkles came on Wednesday, when the 19th District Court of Louisiana granted a TRO to a plethora of athletes who filed the same lawsuit that judges in other states have been ruling on over the past two months.
In the ruling, it allows for plaintiffs to return to college from the NFL, if they do so before a Sept. 1 deadline. But, in this case, only the athletes who were part of the lawsuit can take advantage of a seven-day transfer portal window ordered by the court.
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Yes, there are players who are currently in NFL camps that were part of this lawsuit, and technically have the court’s blessing to return for another season of college football. No, you aren’t going crazy, this is actually taking place.
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In response to the latest ruling, NCAA Vice President Tim Buckley released the following statement, taking aim at the courts granting these orders, along with the lawyers filing them.
“Courts across the country granting relief to ineligible athletes who already had every opportunity to compete in college — sometimes without even having a hearing — are failing to appreciate the destabilizing effect their rulings are having on college sports,” Buckley said. “The lawyers bringing these cases seemingly won’t be satisfied until every professional athlete can treat college sports as a fallback option, regardless of the opportunities it strips from those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience.”
While there are plenty of people who agree with the NCAA’s stance regarding athletes trying to get out of an NFL contract to return for one more season of college ball, this still falls on the organization who decided to exclude the 2022 class from their new guidelines.
For that, even though this has turned into something out of a John Grisham novel, it’s hard for the NCAA to garner empathy.
Tenth Circuit Court decision now throws a wrinkle into everything
When U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney of Colorado granted a class-wide blanket waiver for athletes in the 2022 class, by way of an injunction, the entire college athletics world started scrambling for answers.
Would a school decide it was in their best interest to bring an athlete back, just days before the college football season is set to begin?
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Well, that hasn’t been a problem for some schools, like Indiana. If there is a spot available, programs are going to use it.
They all knew that the entire ordeal could come to an end if the NCAA won their motion for a ‘stay’ while the Tenth Circuit court dealt with the appeal filed by the organization.
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Now, with the Tenth Circuit agreeing to administer a ‘stay’, this will only lead to lawyers filing additional cases in state court.