The NCAA has filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Mike DeWine over an executive order he signed earlier this week on college athletic eligibility.
DeWine’s order allows students from the high school class of 2022 to have a fifth year of eligibility. It’s something he said is necessary, but the NCAA said it gives Ohio’s schools an unfair advantage.
DeWine’s executive order told the state’s colleges and universities to disregard the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility rule. He said it unfairly denies a fifth season of competition to a small number of students who graduated from high school in 2022, while granting five seasons to others currently playing on college sports teams.
“I think they’re getting discriminated against and I don’t think it’s fair to them. I don’t think it’s fair to the schools and basically it causes just chaos,” DeWine said.
DeWine said the NCAA rule creates an uneven playing field for Ohio’s athletes.
“We have schools in other states where courts have ruled differently, and they are playing fifth-year students, and in Ohio, we are not being able to play fifth-year students.”
But the NCAA's lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio said DeWine’s order was a “misguided attempt” to give Ohio’s universities an “unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted competitive advantage.”
The NCAA’s lawsuit also asked a judge to declare that DeWine's order is a violation of the U.S. Constitution; therefore, it has no "force of law.”
And the NCAA wants the court to prohibit DeWine from enforcing his order under state or federal law.
Earlier this week, DeWine told reporters his executive order is not a law but an advisory. It received immediate praise from Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, who is also Ohio State University’s former head football coach.
