THE NCAA HAS NO ONE TO BLAME BUT THEMSELVES FOR THE CURRENT MESS IN COLLEGE SPORTS

Image by the NCAA

The high school Class of 2022 finished their college careers at the end of last season. Four years, four seasons, done. Then the NCAA changed the rules for everyone else and left them standing outside looking in.

Let me walk you through how we got here, because almost none of this had to happen.

The New Rule

The NCAA announced a new age-based eligibility model. It was simple: five years to play five seasons. No more redshirts, no more guesswork. The rule was effective immediately. For most players. However, one group got left off: the Class of 2022.

The Group Left Behind

The Class of 2022 enrolled in college for the 2022-23 school year. Under the old rules, they had four seasons to use across a five-year window, and by the end of the 2025-26 season, most of that class had used up all four.

With the new rule starting up for the Class of 2023, the NCAA said the Class of 2022's time was done. No fifth year. Their career was over because they were one year too late.

One Year Too Late, One Year Too Early

Here's the part that makes it indefensible to me. The four classes before 2022 already got a fifth year thanks to the COVID bonus year. The classes coming right behind 2022 get the full benefit of the new age-based model from day one.

The Class of 2022 was both one year too late and one year too early. They are the only group in this entire era of college sports that got nothing on either side, and I don't think there is a defensible answer for why the NCAA drew the line exactly where they did.

What The NCAA Does Best

So what happened next? The NCAA did what the NCAA does best: force players to file lawsuits, then lose in court. There is not a better duo than the NCAA and losing lawsuits.

Athletes began filing cases all over the country. Their argument was simple: their class was treated differently than the classes standing right next to them, and the courts agreed.

A class action landed in federal court in Colorado, led by Northern Colorado's Brock Wisne and joined by other Division I athletes including Minnesota's Cade Tyson. The case, Wisne v. NCAA, argued that handing out extra eligibility to the classes before and after 2022, while cutting off 2022 specifically, was arbitrary rule-making that violated federal antitrust law.

Colorado was not the only courtroom. Basketball players in Ohio, including Xavier's Filip Borovicanin, filed a similar case. Sixteen football players in Louisiana won a temporary restraining order. A separate case in California covered Jaxon Kohler. Different states, same argument, and the courts kept granting temporary injunctions against the NCAA.

The Ruling That Caused A Frenzy

On July 31, U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Colorado did something rare. She certified a nationwide class covering every Division I athlete from the Class of 2022 who had exhausted their eligibility, just weeks after the case was filed. Antitrust class certifications like that usually take years.

Sweeney's ruling granted eligibility back to the entire class. It caused a frenzy in every single sport. Programs across the country scrambled to bring players back for fall camp, and athletes who had already moved on with their lives were suddenly back on rosters.

Then It Got Pulled Away

The NCAA appealed it immediately, and on August 21, a divided panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA's request to pause the ruling while the appeal plays out. The vote was 2-1. It is in stay right now, but college sports are a mess.

That single ruling put thousands of athletes back in limbo. Arizona running back Ismail Mahdi and Indiana defensive linemen Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt are among the players who are ineligible again, weeks before kickoff, because their eligibility depended entirely on the nationwide injunction that just got stayed.

Meanwhile, athletes with their own separate state court orders, like the Louisiana 16 and Kohler in California, remain eligible. Same rule. Same situation. Different outcome, depending on which state their case happened to land in.

Where It Goes From Here

The Tenth Circuit's ruling is a stay, not a final decision. An expedited appeal hearing is already set, and more lawsuits are expected to fill the gap for athletes who are not covered by an existing court order.

The NCAA is not trying to fix this on its own, either. NCAA president Charlie Baker has repeatedly pointed to Congress, pushing for passage of the Protect College Sports Act as the only way to end the current patchwork of conflicting court rulings. The Big Ten and SEC have both signaled support for the bill.

Who's Actually To Blame

The NCAA.

They wrote the new eligibility rule. They picked the cutoff date. They chose not to grandfather in the one class of athletes caught in the middle of two more generous systems. Nobody forced their hand on any of it.

Now, instead of fixing its own rule, the NCAA is leaning on federal courts and asking Congress for a bailout, while conferences are the ones actually calling the shots on rosters week to week. This might be the beginning of the end for the NCAA ruling over its own conferences.

The NCAA built this mess, and they have no one else to blame but themselves.