{"id":375222,"date":"2026-10-16T22:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T22:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375222\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T22:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T22:46:10","slug":"ncaa-suing-ohio-gov-over-executive-order-allowing-schools-to-ignore-new-eligibility-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375222\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA suing Ohio gov over executive order allowing schools to ignore new eligibility rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NCAA sued the governor of Ohio on Friday, three days after he signed an executive order giving state universities the option of allowing athletes who graduated from high school in 2022 to play a fifth year in college in defiance of the NCAA\u2019s new eligibility rule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NCAA President Charlie Baker called the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Ohio, an \u201cextraordinary step\u201d designed to prevent Gov. Mike DeWine from making it \u201cimpossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit itself claimed DeWine, a two-term Republican former state attorney general who cannot seek re-election this fall because of term limits, was trying to give players in his state \u201ca hall pass\u201d from following the rules.<\/p>\n

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine talks with former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel on the sideline prior to the start of an NFL football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 20, 2024, in Cleveland. AP Photo\/Kirk Irwin<\/p>\n

DeWine\u2019s executive order and the NCAA\u2019s lawsuit in reaction to it marks the latest tit-for-tat in a torrent of legal maneuverings that are creating new rules<\/a> on a state-by-state basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole thing has become comical,\u201d Danny White, the athletic director at Tennessee, said on social media in reaction to the NCAA announcement.<\/p>\n

Under DeWine\u2019s order, public and private universities in Ohio would be able to allow the Class of \u201922 athletes to play, even though the NCAA\u2019s new guidance excludes those who have already played four seasons. The rule, passed in June, is the subject of multiple court fights.<\/p>\n

DeWine\u2019s office said it was declining comment on the litigation. The NCAA suing a governor is rare but not unprecedented. It won a case in the early 1990s against then-Nevada Gov. Bob Miller over a law there that would have required the NCAA to provide more due process protections in enforcement proceedings.<\/p>\n

None of the eight Division I programs in Ohio have commented on DeWine\u2019s order, which was also touted by Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, a championship-winning coach at Ohio State and Youngstown State. The programs include No. 4 Ohio State of the Big Ten, Cincinnati of the Big 12 and six schools in the Mid-American Conference.<\/p>\n

In its court filing, the NCAA said it was trying \u201cto halt a misguided attempt to give Ohio colleges and universities an unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted competitive advantage in stadiums and arenas throughout the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie Baker speaks onstage during Puck x MoffettNathanson\u2019s In the Arena at Second NYC on Oct. 1, 2026, in New York. Getty Images for Puck<\/p>\n

\u201cCollege sports, like all sports, depend on participants following the rules. (DeWine) is attempting to give Ohio institutions a hall pass to break the rules,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

The Ohio Supreme Court has already said it will determine the legality of the executive order. As part of that, it paused an appeals court ruling in a case there that had declared the \u201922 athletes ineligible; the court asked both sides to file briefs in the case, in which basketball player Filip Borovi\u0107anin is the lead plaintiff, by next Monday.<\/p>\n

Baker said the NCAA did not believe the Supreme Court\u2019s order did, in fact, declare those players immediately eligible to compete.<\/p>\n

That case, like others around the country, is becoming more urgent by the day, as it involves football players, along with a handful of basketball players whose status for the upcoming season is in jeopardy. Among them: Gonzaga transfer Javon Bennett, Cincinnati\u2019s MJ Collins and Borovi\u0107anin himself, who played in an exhibition against Tennessee on Thursday night after DeWine\u2019s order put him back on the eligible list.<\/p>\n

Another case in Louisiana involves basketball player RJ Luis<\/a>, who has been granted eligibility by the court but not placed on the roster by LSU. The Southeastern Conference is suing the school in an attempt to make it conform to its own policy, which would not allow Luis to play.<\/p>\n

The NCAA has long explained that it knew excluding the Class of \u201922 from the five-year rule would cause those athletes hardship, but the decision was between them and the new class of high school recruits coming into college this year, many of whom would be displaced if the veterans were allowed another year.<\/p>\n

University logos cover a wall in the lobby of NCAA headquarters on Sept. 25, 2026, in Indianapolis. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the NCAA has argued it made its decision based on which move harmed fewer people.<\/p>\n

The NCAA lawsuit goes through the history of the rule and the flood of legal actions that have come since. One of the original cases, a federal lawsuit involving basketball player Brock Wisne, is leaning in the NCAA\u2019s direction, though victories there have only spawned more lawsuits in state court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results of this second wave of lawsuits were mixed, with the NCAA winning some and losing others,\u201d the lawsuit said. \u201cBut the lawsuits unquestionably destabilized college sports, with ever-more disruptive lawsuits challenging foundational rules at the heart of organized sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

During testimony in a similar case in Kentucky earlier this week, an NCAA attorney asked Louisville basketball coach Pat Kelsey why he was among those looking for Class of \u201922 athletes when the NCAA rules forbid that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a coach\u2019s standpoint, every time the NCAA says something, we all shrug our shoulders and say, \u2018Is that going to stand up? Is that a rule?\u2019\u201d Kelsey said. \u201cWe don\u2019t think there are rules right now. That\u2019s why we want guardrails, we want Congress to act, we want the chaos to end. Because nobody knows what the crap is going on. No one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NCAA has long called for a federal law to tamp down on the lawsuits undermining its rules for hundreds of thousands of athletes across the country. The Senate has sent a bill with that protection \u2014 the Protect College Sports Act \u2014 to the House, where its fate is uncertain in this election year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NCAA sued the governor of Ohio on Friday, three days after he signed an executive order giving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3361,11590,32394,2850,12612,9,11,10,49,51,50,1758,7460,319],"class_list":["post-375222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-football","tag-executive-orders","tag-lawsuits","tag-ncaa","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-ohio","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}