NCAA files response in lawsuit on age-based eligibility, includes affidavit from conference commissioners
With an injunction hearing coming up Wednesday, the NCAA has filed a response in an eligibility lawsuit regarding the age-based eligibility model. It also includes an affidavit from the commissioners of the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and Big East conferences.
The suit was filed in Ohio after the NCAA unanimously approved the age-based eligibility model. Xavier’sFilip Borovicanin and Cincinnati’sMJ Collins are among the 15 athletes listed as plaintiffs. A judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order, but set a hearing for a preliminary injunction for July 1.
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Ahead of the hearing, the NCAA filed its response, and the conference commissioners defended the decision not to “grandfather” athletes who would have another year under the age-based model. They cited the need to protect incoming athletes and their roster spots in their decision.
“The downstream effects of granting an additional year of eligibility would, without question, harm college sports across the country,” the affidavit reads, in part. “If a court were to allow Plaintiffs and similarly situated student-athletes to compete during the 2026-27 academic year, immediate and significant uncertainty in the collegiate athletic landscape necessarily follows.
“Thousands of currently eligible student-athletes have already matriculated (or will do so soon) to NCAA member institutions based on athletic opportunities available to them under the current rules framework, and those member institutions have filled their rosters based upon the same. Granting Plaintiffs’ requested relief would harm these incoming student-athletes because they would stand to lose out on the opportunities for roster spots or playing time that factored into one of the most important decisions many young adults make in their lives: where to attend college.”
More on the NCAA’s age-based eligibility
The age-based model calls for an athlete’s eligibility clock upon initial full-time enrollment in college or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs earlier. Wednesday marked the Cabinet’s final meeting, meaning the model can become official.
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Implementation of the concept will begin this summer. Recruits from the 2027 cycle will be age-based only, as well. The cabinet tweaked the age-based model in May after recommendations from stakeholders in men’s ice hockey, men’s basketball and the service academies.
After making the move to age-based eligibility official, the NCAA Division I Cabinet released a statement and acknowledged the legal challenges that were likely coming. The Cabinet made it clear it has no plans to reverse course on its decision.
