Most of the lawsuits that have shaped the post-reckoning NCAA have been filed against the now-toothless organization. On Friday, the NCAA attempted to bite back.
The NCAA has sued Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, two days after he signed an executive order giving the members of the high-school class of 2022 a fifth year of eligibility.
The 38-page complaint, a copy of which PFT has obtained and reviewed, makes a variety of arguments (citing among other things the First Amendment and the Commerce Clause) in an effort to block DeWine’s order.
The issue arises from the NCAA’s decision to create a five-year model that applies to the class of 2023. Already, there has been a flood of litigation from players who arbitrarily landed on the wrong side of the five-year window. DeWine’s order gives all of the players at Ohio institutions the fifth year.
Where it goes from here remains to be seen. But it’s another example of the chaos that the NCAA has created for itself, through years of blatant antitrust violations followed by a clunky effort to clean up the mess. In this case, why not make the five-year rule retroactive?
The five-year rule represents a partial surrender by the NCAA. The entire situation would have been avoided if the NCAA had simply decided to throw open the five-year rule to anyone who falls within its scope, without excluding the class of 2022.
Think of it this way. If the NCAA had made the five-year rule retroactive, who would have objected? Who would have sued? Instead, the NCAA chose a path that invited litigation, and that resulted in millions in legal fees. There will be even more fees incurred, now that the NCAA has filed a lawsuit of its own.