Mike DeWine order gives Ohio athletes a fifth year

It's a governor telling the NCAA that its rulebook doesn't outrank Ohio's, and the national college sports reporters picked it up within minutes.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

An executive order from Ohio governor Mike DeWine, which appears to impact every Class of 2022 athlete at a college in Ohio who is seeking a fifth year. (And hasn't played professionally.) Essentially, he's saying NCAA rules can't trump the rules of the state of Ohio.

The order is Executive Order 2026-04D. It covers Class of 2022 athletes at Ohio colleges who want a fifth season and haven't played professionally. It doesn't force any school to play those athletes. It gives Ohio's public and private schools the option to ignore the NCAA restriction while the lawsuits play out. The pitch from DeWine was simple: 'When the rules change, fairness has to remain part of the equation. We want Ohio's student-athletes to have the same opportunity as student-athletes in other states.'

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed an executive order allowing Class of 2022 college athletes at Ohio universities to compete in the 2026-27 academic year, even if they've exhausted their NCAA eligibility. The order opens up a 5th season of eligibility for athletes. It prohibits Ohio colleges from enforcing NCAA eligibility restrictions

Here's how it got this messy. In June the NCAA moved to a 5-year eligibility model, with the clock starting the academic year after an athlete turns 19 or when they first enroll full-time, whichever comes first. The catch is the NCAA's implementation guidance, which shuts out 2022 high school grads who already used 4 seasons. Those players are stuck in the gap between the old system and the new one, and they sued. In Wisne v. NCAA, led by former Northern Colorado basketball player Brock Wisne, U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney certified a nationwide class and granted a class-wide preliminary injunction restoring eligibility to that group. Then the 10th Circuit stayed the injunction, which put the NCAA rule back in force while the appeal moved forward.

The timing is what makes Ohio's move interesting. DeWine signed this on the day the 10th Circuit heard oral arguments in Wisne, and the early reports from that courtroom were not good for the players.

Ross Dellenger

@RossDellenger

This Ohio order - the enforceability of which is in question as with any executive order - drops on the same day as oral arguments in the NCAA's federal eligibility case (Wisne) in the 10th Circuit. Per @McCannSportsLaw, NCAA may win based on arguments: t.co/JlQpUj1YdZ

Pete Nakos@PeteNakos

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed an executive order allowing Class of 2022 college athletes at Ohio universities to compete in the 2026-27 academic year, even if they've exhausted their NCAA eligibility. The order opens up a 5th season of eligibility for athletes. It prohibits Ohio colleges from enforcing NCAA eligibility restrictions t.co/85ekOWmv76

Judges Carolyn B. McHugh, Paul J. Kelly and Nancy L. Moritz heard the case, and Sportico's read was that the panel appeared likely to reverse the nationwide injunction. If that happens, the federal route for the Class of 2022 mostly goes away, and Ohio's order turns into the backup plan. That's probably the point. Sign it now, while the appeal is still open, and Ohio schools have cover no matter what the 10th Circuit decides.

Now for the obvious problem. As Dellenger points out, an executive order's enforceability is an open question, and this one is a governor trying to override a private association's membership rules. The NCAA can still treat players as ineligible, and it can still go after schools that play them. An Ohio school that leans on the order and suits up a 2022 grad is betting that a state order holds up against the NCAA's enforcement power. Expect athletic directors to want that answered before anyone takes the field.

What to watch: the 10th Circuit's ruling, whether any Ohio school actually uses the order, and whether other governors copy Ohio. If DeWine's 'same opportunity as other states' line catches on, the NCAA could be fighting 50 separate eligibility battles instead of 1 federal case, and it has lost that kind of state-by-state fight before.