The NCAA on Tuesday, October 27, asked the Kentucky Court of Appeals to overturn and immediately pause a Jefferson County judge's order that lets athletes from the high school class of 2022 compete this season under the association's five-year eligibility framework.
The association filed two motions, WDRB reported. One is a regular appeal of the October 16 injunction issued by Jefferson Circuit Judge Brian Edwards. The other asks a single appellate judge to put that injunction on hold right away. Until a court acts, the order stays in effect.
How the case got here
The NCAA adopted a rule in June allowing Division I athletes five seasons of competition within five years. The rule applies going forward and, according to AP reporting carried by the AJC, it leaves out athletes who finished high school in 2022 and used up their eligibility in the 2025-26 school year. Those athletes have since filed suits in several states.
In Kentucky, Edwards first granted the athletes relief, but on October 2 a three-judge appellate panel dissolved that injunction. WDRB reported the panel found the record lacked enough evidence and the necessary legal findings, and held that the NCAA's rule did not apply retroactively to athletes who had already exhausted eligibility before it took effect.
The athletes went back to Edwards. At a hearing on October 14 that ran four hours and 20 minutes, Louisville basketball player Seth Trimble, Louisville football player Kalib Perry and Kentucky linebacker Alex Afari Jr. testified, as did Louisville basketball coach Pat Kelsey and Missouri coach Dennis Gates. Two days later Edwards issued a new injunction, finding a substantial likelihood the athletes would win their breach of contract claims and suffer irreparable harm without relief.
What the filing actually says
The NCAA's central argument is about the hierarchy of courts. Its emergency motion says Edwards defied the October 2 decision. Ignoring a binding Court of Appeals decision, the motion says according to WDRB, is "an affront to precedent and the rule of law." It adds: "It was the trial court's job to apply the law, not to create it."
The association also argues the five-year rule covered only athletes who had eligibility left when it took effect August 1, that the athletes have not shown a contract right to challenge the decision, and that the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld its enforcement authority in NCAA v. Lasege. It says 29 plaintiffs were named but only eight testified, and it questions whether a Jefferson County court can bind the NCAA as to athletes with little or no connection to Kentucky. It further objects to provisions that block its restitution rule, which can penalize athletes and schools after an injunction is later overturned.
On harm, the NCAA says letting these athletes play takes roster spots, minutes and money from others, and that games once played cannot be replayed. The athletes' lawyer, Hans Poppe, made the mirror image argument on social media on October 17: "Every missed game and practice is irreparable harm."
The newsroom's read on the stakes
Both sides are arguing irreparable harm, and the calendar decides whose harm is real. The athletes have until November 6 to answer the regular appeal, according to The Courier Journal as cited by WDRB, and no deadline has been set on the emergency motion. Louisville opens its basketball season on Monday, November 2, against Chattanooga. That means at least one regular season game is likely to be played before the athletes' brief is even due.
The restitution fight is the sleeper issue. If the injunction is later reversed, the NCAA's rule could let it penalize schools for games already played. Edwards's order tried to block that, and the NCAA wants that protection removed.
Afari's season shows what is at stake. After the first injunction was dissolved, he missed Kentucky's overtime wins over South Carolina and LSU, WDRB reported.
Kentucky is not the only front
The NCAA sued Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in federal court on October 16, three days after he signed an executive order letting Ohio universities play class of 2022 athletes for a fifth season, AP reported. NCAA President Charlie Baker called that suit an "extraordinary step" and said the order would make it "impossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field." The Ohio Supreme Court has separately paused an appeals ruling that found the athletes ineligible in a case led by basketball player Filip Borovićanin.
Courts have been drawing lines around athletic eligibility all month, including an Alabama judge's ruling that high school sports are not a constitutional right. Basketball's other big legal story this week was the Malik Beasley guilty plea in the NBA betting case.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
