In a new court filing on Sunday, U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney clarified her class-wide injunction against the NCAA. In her initial ruling Friday, Sweeney ruled that all high school class of 2022 athletes who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring would be eligible for a fifth season in 2026-27.
In an order Sunday clarifying her decision, Sweeney wrote the injunction only grants athletes in the class a fifth year, per court documents. It does not enjoin transfer rules, roster caps or rev-share caps, part of the House settlement agreement. Boise State associate professor Sam Ehrlich first reported the news.
“The Court’s order does not enjoin the operation of transfer rules,” Sweeney wrote in Sunday’s order. “As the plain language of the preliminary injunction order and this order make clear, the Court’s injunction concerns only the implementation of the Rule (as defined in the preliminary injunction order) and any Bylaw that prohibits Plaintiffs and Class Members from competing in a fifth season of collegiate athletics.”
The injunction is not intended and does not enjoin any provisions of the House settlement. The court is not enjoining operation of the transfer rules. The court also clarifies that it is not enjoining the age-based portion of the new eligibility rule, meaning athletes who were 20 or older at the start of their five years are not eligible per the injunction.
One key question is whether players will be able to leave their former programs if there is no roster space. The NCAA ghost transfer rules, which include penalties for adding players outside of the transfer portal window, stand in place.
The NCAA responded to Friday’s rulings in a letter to membership on Saturday, stating the ruling “plainly lacks the authority to undermine the House injunction, which all of the plaintiffs in the Colorado case are bound by, including the roster limits and revenue share cap.”
The NCAA is expected to appeal the injunction.
“Schools and coaches must make their own independent decisions, but an injunction is intended to be short in duration, and the NCAA intends to appeal it on an expedited basis,” the governing body wrote in the letter to membership.
The age-based model calls for an athlete’s eligibility clock to start with initial full-time enrollment in college or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs earlier. The age-based eligibility implementation will begin this summer. Recruits starting in 2027 are age-based only.
An Ohio judge granted a preliminary injunction for 24 men’s and women’s college basketball players suing the NCAA for eligibility on the age-based eligibility model earlier this summer. The win has spurred another set of suits against the NCAA.