NCAA challenges Florida judge's ruling backing Bethune-Cookman basketball player

The NCAA late Wednesday asked a Florida appeals court to overturn a judge's decision backing a basketball player who challenged the denial of an additional year of eligibility to play at Bethune-Cookman University.

The NCAA went to the 5th District Court of Appeal after Volusia County Circuit Judge Dennis Craig on Jan. 9 issued a temporary injunction in favor of the player, Doctor Bradley, who argued the college-sports governing body violated a state antitrust law in refusing to let him play this season.

The legal battle is playing out amid massive change — and questions — in college sports about issues such as players transferring between schools and getting paid. Both sides in the Bradley dispute have pointed to potentially far-reaching implications of the case.

The NCAA's brief Wednesday said a rule that generally gives athletes four years of eligibility over a five-year period "was enacted by the NCAA's member institutions to preserve the distinctive nature of college athletics, ensure roster turnover so new student‑athletes have access to competition, and align athletic participation with academic progress."

"(Permitting) judicial interference with NCAA eligibility determinations serves no end but to invite piggyback litigation, diverting resources from the NCAA's core mission and burdening courts with institutional governance disputes," said the brief, filed by attorneys James McKee and Kevin Fowler of the Foley & Lardner law firm.

But the Fort Lauderdale-based law firm Heitner Legal, which represents Bradley, said on its website that Craig's injunction decision was a "significant victory for college athlete rights."

"The Bradley case represents more than one athlete's fight for eligibility," the firm said on the website. "It's a challenge to the NCAA's monopolistic control over college athletics and its procedural framework that denies athletes basic fairness protections. Judge Craig's ruling provides both a legal roadmap and a moral imperative for reform."

The NCAA brief said Bethune-Cookman in May submitted a waiver request for Bradley to receive another year of eligibility. The request came after he had a series of college stints that started in 2019 at California State University at Fullerton. He later enrolled at Salt Lake Community College, New Mexico State University, Nicholls State University and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where he played during the 2024-2025 season, according to the brief.

Several issues impacting the player's "eligibility clock," the NCAA says

Bradley redshirted during the 2019-2020 season at the California school, a move that effectively preserved a year of eligibility. Bradley, while still at the California school, also received an eligibility waiver for the 2020-2021 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the NCAA brief said "had the effect of extending his five-year eligibility clock into a six-year eligibility clock."

One issue in the case is that Bradley ended up sitting out the 2023-2024 season at Nicholls State as he fought criminal charges related to his time during the previous season at New Mexico State, the brief and information on the Heitner Legal website said.

In all, the NCAA contended in Wednesday's brief that Bradley was seeking to extend his "eligibility clock" to a seventh year. Bradley filed the lawsuit in November in Volusia County after the NCAA denied the waiver request.

In granting the temporary injunction, Craig wrote that Bradley "has a likelihood of success on the merits of his antitrust complaint in that defendant (the NCAA) is the sole arbiter of who is eligible to compete in college sports, for which, as defendant contends, athletes have no other recourse."

But the NCAA brief filed at the appeals court argued that Craig improperly applied the antitrust law.

"In short, there is no competent and substantial evidence in the record — and no 'clear, definite' factual findings — to establish that the five‑year (eligibility) rule produces substantial anticompetitive effects in any market," the NCAA's attorneys wrote. "At most, the record shows that Bradley is displeased with the five-year rule as it applied to his waiver request. Indeed, he does not purport to challenge the five-year rule itself, but instead he convinced the trial court to second-guess how the NCAA rules should have applied to his circumstances."

The Bethune-Cookman basketball website shows that Bradley has played in four games since Jan. 10.