{"id":397753,"date":"2026-09-12T08:40:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/397753\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T08:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:40:22","slug":"denzel-aberdeens-eligibility-fight-headed-to-a-state-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/397753\/","title":{"rendered":"Denzel Aberdeen’s eligibility fight headed to a state court"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE \u2014 Gators\u2019 shooting guard Denzel Aberdeen<\/a> will have a Florida court decide whether he can play this season.<\/p>\n

Aberdeen has hired attorney Jesse Panuccio, who has offices in Fort Lauderdale and Washington, D.C., to help him secure a temporary restraining order allowing him to play in 2026-27.<\/p>\n

Jeff Goodman of the Field of 68<\/a> reported Friday night that Panuccio released a statement saying Aberdeen should be allowed to compete under the NCAA\u2019s new \u201c5-in-5 rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Orlando native is in his fifth year of college after enrolling at UF in 2022. He returned to the Gators<\/a> last spring after transferring to Kentucky following Florida\u2019s 2025 national championship season.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the NCAA changed its eligibility rules to allow athletes who entered college fresh out of high school or before turning 20 to play five seasons in a five-year window while eliminating redshirting.<\/p>\n

Outgoing seniors who had played in each of their four years argued the new rule should apply to them. But in June, the NCAA\u2019s Division I board of directors ruled the new model would not apply retroactively to players in the 2022 class.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NCAA has announced an unwritten exception to its rule that strips Class of 2022 students from this policy, even though they competed for years against fifth-, sixth-, and sometimes seventh-year seniors who received Covid-era eligibility waivers,\u201d Panuccio wrote. \u201cThe NCAA\u2019s decision violates its contractual commitment to fairness to all student-athletes, and we have sued to vindicate Aberdeen\u2019s rights and get him back on the court as he finishes his degree at UF.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aberdeen became ineligible Aug. 21 after the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA a temporary stay, reversing a Colorado judge\u2019s July 31 decision<\/a> that would have awarded Aberdeen a fifth season in 2026-27.<\/p>\n

\"FloridaFlorida guard Denzel Aberdeen, right, hopes to be able to play a fifth season of college basketball. (James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Aug. 21 ruling halted a preliminary injunction issued last month by U.S. District Court judge Charlotte Sweeney of Colorado. Her decision granted a fifth season to all athletes who entered college during the 2022-23 academic year and played for four consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n

At the time, the NCAA\u2019s chief legal officer, Scott Bearby, sent a memo to schools acknowledging his organization would continue to defend lawsuits.<\/p>\n

In state courts across the country, dozens of athletes have received restraining orders to play a fifth season.<\/p>\n

Florida coach Todd Golden<\/a> said he remains confident the 22-year-old Orlando native will suit up for one of nation\u2019s top title contenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cDenzel has hired great representation, and everyone agrees he has unique facts to himself that puts him in great position,\u201d Golden told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Supporting Aberdeen\u2019s argument, Golden has pointed out he will earn an academic degree within five years of enrolling in college. The Gators also did not free up a roster spot so he could re-join the Gators, Golden said.<\/p>\n

After serving as a key reserve for Florida\u2019s title team, the 6-foot-5, 195-pound Aberdeen averaged 13.5 points, 3.4 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 30.6 minutes for the Wildcats last season.<\/p>\n

Under the NCAA previous eligibility rules, Aberdeen gave up his opportunity to redshirt when he played as a true freshman. But the former Dr. Phillips standout appeared in just 12 of 36 games and logged 41 total minutes during Golden\u2019s first season in Gainesville.<\/p>\n

Golden has argued football\u2019s previous redshirt rule allowed players to appear in up to four of the team\u2019s 12 regular-season games during a season and still redshirt \u2014 the same percentage of games Aberdeen played as a freshman.<\/p>\n

Other athletes seeking a fifth season played considerably more games and minutes than Aberdeen.<\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE \u2014 Gators\u2019 shooting guard Denzel Aberdeen will have a Florida court decide whether he can play this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,2530,2496,114,139,141,140,76046,110],"class_list":["post-397753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-gainesville","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}