Tenth Circuit Hears Arguments In Challenge To NCAA's "Five-for-Five" Eligibility Rule

This morning, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit heard oral argument concerning an injunction issued in a Colorado federal class action. 

The injunction requires the NCAA to allow student-athletes in the 2022 freshman class a fifth year of eligibility, consistent with the NCAA’s new eligibility rule for students entering college in 2023 or later. The NCAA did not apply the new rule retroactively to student-athletes who completed college in May or June. Those student-athletes, who entered college in 2022, remained subject to the eligibility rules in effect at that time. 

Under the new rule, student-athletes who begin college in 2023 or later will have five seasons of eligibility within a five-year window — commonly called “Five for Five” — starting the year after they graduate from high school or turn 19, without regard to a redshirt year, injury, or another circumstance for which a waiver is currently available.