The NCAA sued Ohio’s governor Friday, three days after he signed an executive order giving state universities the option to allow athletes who graduated from high school in 2022 to play a fifth year in college, in defiance of NCAA guidelines. new eligibility rule.
NCAA President Charlie Baker called the lawsuit filed in federal court in Ohio a “extraordinary step” designed to prevent Gov. Mike DeWine from making it “impossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field.”
The lawsuit itself claimed that DeWine, a former two-term Republican attorney general who cannot seek re-election this fall because of term limits, was trying to give his state’s players “a free pass” for not following the rules.
DeWine decree and the NCAA’s lawsuit in response to it marks the latest blow-for-blow in a torrent of legal maneuvering that creates new rules on a state-by-state basis.
“This has all become comical,” Tennessee athletic director Danny White said on social media in reaction to the NCAA announcement.
Under DeWine’s order, public and private universities in Ohio could allow athletes from the Class of 22 to play, even though the new NCAA guidelines exclude those who have already played four seasons. The rule, adopted in June, is the subject of multiple court battles.
DeWine’s office said it declined comment on the litigation. The NCAA suing a governor is rare but not unprecedented. She won a lawsuit in the early 1990s against then-Nevada Gov. Bob Miller over a law that would have required the NCAA to provide more due process protections in enforcement proceedings.
None of Ohio’s eight Division I programs commented on DeWine’s order, which was also touted by Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, the championship-winning coach at Ohio State and Youngstown State. Programs include No. 4 Ohio State of the Big Ten, Cincinnati of the Big 12 and six Mid-American Conference schools.
In its court filing, the NCAA said it was trying “to stop a misguided attempt to give Ohio colleges and universities an unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted competitive advantage in stadiums and arenas across the country.”
“College sports, like all sports, depend on participants following the rules. (DeWine) is attempting to give Ohio institutions a free pass to break the rules,” the lawsuit states.
The Ohio Supreme Court has already said it will determine the legality of the executive order. As part of that, he suspended an appeals court ruling in a case that found ’22 athletes ineligible; The court asked both sides to file briefs in the case, in which basketball player Filip Borovićanin is the main plaintiff, by next Monday.
Baker said the NCAA does not believe the Supreme Court order actually declared these players immediately eligible to compete.
This case, like others in the country, becomes more urgent by the day, as it concerns football players, as well as a handful of basketball players whose status for the upcoming season is in jeopardy. Among them: Gonzaga transfer Javon Bennett, MJ Collins from Cincinnati and Borovićanin himself, who played in an exhibition against Tennessee on Thursday night after DeWine’s order put him back on the eligible list.
Another case in Louisiana concerns basketball player RJ Luis, who was granted eligibility by the court but was not placed on the roster by LSU. The Southeastern Conference is continue school in an attempt to make it conform to his own policy, which would not allow Luis to play.
The NCAA has long explained that it knew excluding the Class of 22 from the five-year rule would cause hardship for those athletes, but the decision was between them and the new class of high school recruits entering college this year, many of whom would be displaced if veterans were allowed an extra year.
Ultimately, the NCAA argued that it made its decision based on the measure that harmed people the least.
The NCAA lawsuit traces the history of the rule and the flood of lawsuits that have followed since. One of the original cases, a federal lawsuit involving basketball player Brock Wisne, leans in favor of the NCAA, although victories in that area have only spawned more suits in state courts.
“The results of this second wave of lawsuits have been mixed, with the NCAA winning some and losing others,” the lawsuit states. “But the lawsuits have undoubtedly destabilized college sports, with increasingly disruptive lawsuits challenging the fundamental rules at the heart of organized sports. »
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 seeking Class 22 athletes when NCAA rules prohibit it.
“From a coach’s perspective, every time the NCAA says something, we all shrug our shoulders and say, ‘Is this going to stand? Is this a rule?'” Kelsey said. “We don’t think there are any rules right now. That’s why we want safeguards, we want Congress to act, we want the chaos to end. Because no one knows what’s going on. No one.”
The NCAA has long pushed for federal legislation to end lawsuits undermining its rules for hundreds of thousands of athletes across the country. The Senate has sent a bill with this protection – the Protect College Sports Act — in the House, where its fate is uncertain in this election year.
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