Courts hand NCAA major loss on five-year eligibility rule

A federal court dealt a perhaps chaos-inducing blow to the NCAA's new eligibility rule Friday when it ruled that all high school class of 2022 athletes who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring are eligible for a fifth season this school year. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Denver, expected to be appealed, undercuts the NCAA's plan to have the so-called “five for five” rule go into play starting with athletes who enroll in college in fall 2027. It also has potential to wreak havoc on rosters across the country — for instance, opening the possibility that an undrafted player in an NFL training camp could decide to try to head back to college for a fifth year this upcoming season. In granting the preliminary injunction, Sweeney said the players “will suffer irreparable harm without” it. She did not sign onto the governing body’s argument that applying the new rule retroactively would create “roster chaos.”But NCAA President Charlie Bak