Tamin Lipsey has joined a group of student-athletes suing the National Collegiate Athletic Association to obtain a fifth year of competition eligibility.
Lipsey is among dozens of plaintiffs added to a First Amended Complaint filed Sept. 14, 2026, in the Monroe Circuit Court of Indiana (Stephen Daley et al. v. NCAA, Cause No. 53C06-2609-PL-002418).
The expanded lawsuit also includes former Iowa State guard Jackson Paveletzke, who played for the Cyclones during the 2023–24 season before transferring
to Ohio University for his past two seasons.
If the court grants injunctive relief restoring their eligibility, Lipsey plans to return to Iowa State for the 2026–27 season, while Paveletzke intends to spend his fifth year at Ohio University.
Lipsey played all four seasons of his collegiate career at Iowa State, where he regularly competed for playing time against fifth-year veterans such as Tre King, Aljaz Kunc, Robert Jones, Jaren Holmes, Osun Osunniyi, Gabe Kalscheur, Hason Ward, Nate Heise, Brandton Chatfield and Curtis Jones.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys John William Richards and William Jonathan Beggs of Bunger & Robertson LLP, along with Ryan Hedley Downton of The Texas Trial Group.
The amended complaint was submitted on the same day that Monroe Circuit Court Judge Kara Krothe presided over more than five hours of testimony regarding a preliminary injunction without issuing an immediate ruling. Court records indicate that both sides have been ordered to submit proposed findings and conclusions of law by Sept. 17, 2026.
The legal battle centers on the NCAA’s adoption of the “Five-for-Five” age-based eligibility model on June 23, 2026, which permits Division I athletes to compete in five full seasons within a five-year window without needing a redshirt year. However, the NCAA excluded student-athletes from the high school graduating Class of 2022 who went directly to college and played four consecutive seasons without taking a redshirt year.
The lawsuit contends that this exclusion inflicts arbitrary harm on Class of 2022 athletes, who spent four years competing against older opponents granted extra eligibility through COVID-19 pandemic waivers. Furthermore, the complaint points out that the NCAA has granted up to four years of eligibility to former professional basketball players from European leagues and the NBA G League—including James Nnaji, London Johnson, and Thierry Darlan—while denying an additional season to college veterans who enrolled immediately after high school.
The suit asserts that student-athletes are intended third-party beneficiaries of the NCAA Manual and Constitution, arguing that excluding the Class of 2022 constitutes a breach of contract. Denying a fifth season truncates athletic development and deprives players of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) compensation as well as institutional revenue-sharing payments authorized up to $20.5 million annually per Division I school under the House v. NCAA settlement.
The plaintiffs are asking the court for temporary, preliminary, and permanent injunctions declaring them eligible to compete in Division I athletics during the 2026–27 season. The lawsuit also requests that the NCAA Transfer Portal be opened for one week for all plaintiffs to allow roster mobility and seeks to enjoin enforcement of the NCAA’s “Rule of Restitution” (Bylaw 12.9.4.2) to protect member schools and coaches from punitive action.
