The NCAA filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Mike DeWine, rebuffing an executive order he signed earlier this week allowing student athletes from the Class of 2022 to have a fifth year of eligibility and claiming the governor is giving Ohio universities "a hall pass to break the rules."
The 41-page lawsuit was filed Oct. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. In it, the NCAA condemns DeWine's executive order as a "misguided attempt" to give Ohio universities an "unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted competitive advantage."
It also asks a judge declare that DeWine's executive order violated the U.S. constitution,
rule that it has no "force of law," and prohibit the governor under federal and state law from any enforcement of the order.
DeWine signed an executive order on Oct. 13 granting a year of availability for the upcoming year to all players who seek to play in the state even if they had previously exhausted their eligibility under previous NCAA rules, prevents Ohio colleges from enforcing eligibility restrictions imposed by the NCAA.
The move comes as programs, particularly in men's and women's basketball, are finalizing rosters amid the ongoing uncertainty around new rules permitting five years of eligibility to all players who were already slated to be eligible under the prior, four-year landscape.
That meant players from the class of 2022 who finished the 2025-26 season having exhausted their four-year eligibility clock were excluded.
There are some exceptions in DeWine's order. A student-athlete has to be within five years of their 19th birthday and five years of enrolling in college as of the start of the 2026-27 academic year, had to be eligible at the end of their last season of competition and did not participate in a professional sports league.
A few hours after DeWine's order was issued, NCAA President Charlie Baker distributed a memo acquired and published by ESPN that disputes his authority to do so.
"The Governor of Ohio cannot legislate NCAA eligibility rules," it states. "One elected official seeking to make their own rules for their own schools' advantage is a terrible way to run athletic competitions and precisely why Congress must pass the (Protect College Sports Act) as soon as possible."
This story will be updated.
Dispatch reporter Adam Jardy contributed to this article.
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: NCAA sues Gov. DeWine over state executive order on fifth-year eligibility
