NCAA sues Ohio governor over his executive order allowing schools to ignore new eligibility rule

The NCAA filed a federal lawsuit against Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday, three days after he signed an executive order giving the state’s universities the option of allowing athletes who graduated from high school in 2022 to play a fifth year in defiance of the organizations’s new eligibility rules.

NCAA President Charlie Baker said the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Ohio, was an “extraordinary step” designed to prevent DeWine from taking a step that would make it “impossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field.”

Under the order, public and private universities in Ohio can allow the Class of ’22 athletes to play, even though the NCAA’s new guidance excludes those who have already played four seasons. The rule, passed in June, is the subject of multiple court fights.

“This Complaint seeks to halt a misguided attempt to give Ohio colleges and universities an unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted competitive advantage in stadiums and arenas throughout the country,” the introduction to the lawsuit reads. “College sports, like all sports, depend on participants following the rules. (DeWine) is attempting to give Ohio institutions a hall pass to break the rules.”

DeWine’s move was the latest in what has become a daily digest of legal maneuverings that are creating new rules on a state-by-state basis.

In reaction to the governor’s move, the Ohio Supreme Court said it would step in and determine the legality of the executive order. As part of that, it paused an appeals court ruling in a case there that had declared the ’22 athletes ineligible. The court asked both sides to file briefs in the case, in which basketball player Filip Borovićanin is the lead plaintiff, by next Monday.

Baker said the NCAA did not believe the Supreme Court’s order did, in fact, declare those players immediately eligible to compete and said it would submit arguments in that case by Monday.