NCAA rocked by Colorado judge's 2022 class eligibility ruling that could reshape college sports this year

The NCAA took a massive hit to its new five-and-five eligibility rule that was implemented earlier this month, thanks to a District Court judge in Colorado.Over the past number of weeks, a plethora of lawsuits have been filed by athletes across the country who were part of the 2022 class that entered college that say the newly introduced rule by the NCAA infringes on their rights to make a living through NIL and have an additional year of eligibility.The arguments made in court centered on the idea that players who completed their fourth year of eligibility and would have been ineligible under the previous rule should have been grandfathered in because of how the entire process unfolded this summer.PRESIDENT TRUMP PUSHES LAWMAKERS ON LEGISLATION AS 'PROTECT COLLEGE SPORTS ACT' HANGS ON BY A THREADAfter exhausting their fourth and final season (under previous rule), their time in college would have been completed.This was essentially how lawyers were attacking the NCAA in a court of law, arguing that if the new five-and-five rule was being implemented, then athletes who exhausted their clock this past season under the old rule should be granted the same rights that players under the new guidelines would be entitled to.Well, Judge Charlotte Sweeney of the U.S. District Court of Colorado has granted a preliminary injunction that is class-wide and orders the NCAA to create a blanket waiver that grants all athletes an additional year of eligibility for the upcoming year."All persons in the United States who began to play in collegiate sports in the 2022–2023 season, competed in NCAA Division I sports, and completed four years of eligibility as defined by the NCAA’s prior rules by the conclusion of the 2025–2026 season, and are therefore barred from playing a fifth season due to the NCAA’s adoption and immediate implementation of the Five-Year Eligibility Rule," Judge Sweeney said in her order on Friday.NCAA D1 BOARD HAS NO PLANS TO CHANGE AGE-BASED ELIGIBILITY RULEA number of notable names in college basketball filed lawsuits against the NCAA, which included a suit that involved more than 50 different plaintiffs filed on Friday.