NCAA wins Ohio appellate ruling, but eligibility chaos persists nationwide

On Friday, an Ohio appellate court reversed a preliminary injunction that had allowed Xavier basketball player Filip Borovicanin and nearly two dozen other college basketball players to compete this fall after exhausting their NCAA eligibility, according to www.sportico.com.

Judge Candace C. Crouse of the Ohio First District Court of Appeals wrote for the court and acknowledged the “frustration” the player plaintiffs felt when they were excluded by the NCAA’s new eligibility model. The full text of her opinion is not in the source; only her acknowledgement of frustration and the reversal are confirmed.

The Ohio ruling is consistent with one issued in August by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which vacated a nationwide injunction in Wisne v. NCAA. Under that injunction, high school class of 2022 players could have used it to restart their college careers.

These rulings, however, are not national in effect. They govern specific jurisdictions, and courts outside those jurisdictions can reach conflicting decisions in essentially the same case involving different athletes and schools.

That is why a court in Louisiana could rule that LSU was allowed to play players who had already played for NFL teams over the summer. It also explains why some schools, though contractually obligated as NCAA members to follow NCAA rules, have opportunistically encouraged athletes to sue the NCAA in hopes of convincing a court to let them play — giving the school a competitive advantage over others.

With the fate of the Protect College Sports Act in limbo in Congress, the NCAA will need to continue litigating lawsuits over player eligibility.

WHAT HAPPENED

On Friday, an Ohio appellate court reversed a preliminary injunction that had allowed Xavier basketball player Filip Borovicanin and nearly two dozen other college basketball players to play this fall after exhausting their NCAA eligibility.

The injunction had permitted these players to compete despite having exhausted their eligibility under NCAA rules. The reversal means those players no longer have that court-ordered protection in Ohio.

The Ohio ruling is consistent with the one issued in August by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which vacated a nationwide injunction in Wisne v. NCAA. Under that earlier injunction, high school class of 2022 players could have used it to restart their college careers.

These rulings, however, are not national in effect. They govern specific jurisdictions, and courts outside those jurisdictions can reach conflicting decisions in essentially the same case involving different athletes and schools. That is why a court in Louisiana could rule that LSU was allowed to play players who had already played for NFL teams over the summer.