The NCAA filed a 41-page federal lawsuit against Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The association is suing a sitting governor over a three-page executive order about who gets a fifth season of college sports.
That is not a show of strength. That is what it looks like when an organization has run out of other options.
What the order does
DeWine signed it Tuesday. It bars Ohio public and private institutions from enforcing rules that keep high school class of 2022 athletes from competing in 2026-27, provided the athlete is 24 or younger, academically eligible and has never signed a professional contract.
It does not compel any school to roster anybody and does not direct courts. DeWine has told reporters it is advisory rather than law. His reasoning was simple.
“I think they’re getting discriminated against and I don’t think it’s fair to them,” he said of athletes denied a fifth season.
Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, the former Ohio State head coach, praised the order immediately, which tells you something about the politics inside the state.
The NCAA’s three arguments
The complaint runs on the Commerce Clause, claiming the order burdens interstate commerce and reaches beyond Ohio’s borders; on the First Amendment, claiming it infringes the NCAA’s rights; and on Ohio state law, claiming DeWine lacks authority to order schools to roster ineligible athletes.
It asks for a declaration that the order is unconstitutional and has no force of law, plus an injunction barring enforcement.
The language is sharp. The order is a “misguided attempt” to give Ohio schools an “unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted competitive advantage,” and amounts to “a hall pass to break the rules, in violation of multiple provisions of the United States Constitution.” Using state law to undermine fair national competition, the complaint says, threatens the viability of college sports.
Charlie Baker had already drawn the line in a letter to member schools on Oct. 14: “The Governor of Ohio cannot legislate NCAA eligibility rules.”
The scoreboard explains the desperation
Since June, roughly 330 players have won an extra year across more than 150 lawsuits. About 300 have been denied. The rule at issue moved the NCAA to an age-based model granting five seasons but did not apply retroactively to seniors who finished a fourth season in the spring, most of them from the 2022 class.
The association is fighting this in every available venue. Ohio’s First District Court of Appeals reversed a trial court on Oct. 2 in a case brought by 24 players. The 10th Circuit heard arguments Tuesday in a Colorado case. The Indiana Court of Appeals denied an NCAA emergency stay on Friday, leaving 97 athletes eligible. Louisville coach Pat Kelsey testified in a Kentucky case this week and summed the environment up: “We don’t think there are rules right now.”
Tennessee athletic director Danny White’s reaction to the DeWine suit was shorter. “This whole thing has become comical.”
Why the NCAA keeps choosing this
The association concedes the rule harms these specific athletes. Its argument is that a fifth year for them displaces a larger number of incoming high school recruits, which is a real trade-off and a defensible position.
The problem is that nobody believes the NCAA is litigating on behalf of 18-year-olds. It is litigating to keep control of eligibility, which is the last piece of authority it has left, and it is now willing to sue a governor to keep it.
Baker’s actual fix is in Congress. The Senate has passed the Protect College Sports Act, which would write the age-based policy into federal law. The House has yet to act, and it would not dismiss suits already filed. Ohio State, for what it is worth, is not expected to be affected by the order at all.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.