Georgia judge clears college basketball players to compete in 2026-27 amid NCAA eligibility fight
A Cobb County judge has granted an injunction allowing a group of Division I basketball players to compete during the 2026-27 season as their legal challenge to the NCAA's eligibility rules moves forward.
The ruling involves 16 men's basketball players who sued the NCAA in Cobb County Superior Court in July after exhausting four seasons of college eligibility.
According to attorneys representing the players, the injunction allows the plaintiffs to compete during the upcoming season and prevents the NCAA from penalizing schools or coaches for putting them on their rosters.
The players argue they were effectively caught between two different NCAA eligibility systems.
For years, NCAA athletes generally had five years to complete four seasons of competition, with exceptions including the additional season provided to athletes affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NCAA adopted a new Division I eligibility model this summer that generally gives athletes a continuous five-year eligibility period beginning when they first enroll full time in college or around their 19th birthday, whichever comes first.
But athletes who used their final season of competition during the 2025-26 academic year were not automatically granted another season under the transition rules.
That includes many athletes who graduated from high school in 2022.
The Cobb County lawsuit argues that excluding those players while expanding eligibility for other groups is unfair and has cost them opportunities to compete and potentially earn money through name, image and likeness deals and revenue-sharing agreements.
Attorneys for the players said Thursday that the Cobb County court found the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on claims that the NCAA applied its eligibility rules arbitrarily and inconsistently.
Among the players involved in the Georgia case are former Clemson and Georgia forward RJ Godfrey, former UCF forward Jamichael Stillwell and former Georgia Tech guard Lamar Washington.
The Georgia case is one of several legal challenges confronting the NCAA over the transition to its new eligibility system. Courts in other states have also granted relief to athletes seeking an additional season.
A federal judge in Colorado last week issued an even broader preliminary injunction covering certain Division I athletes from the high school Class of 2022 who had exhausted four seasons of eligibility.
The NCAA has defended its new age-based eligibility model as an effort to create a more consistent system and has said it plans to appeal the Colorado ruling.
The underlying lawsuit in Cobb County remains pending.
