This whole mess was completely avoidable.
The NCAA only had to say: five-in-five starts now. If you are currently playing college sports and are still within five years of the first season you played, you transition to the new rule. Everyone entering college from here forward is obviously under five-in-five as well.
Done. End of problem.
That would not be “grandfathering” current players under the old system. It would be transitioning everyone who can still fit within the new five-year window onto the new rule. So a 2022 freshman? First season was 2022-23. The 2026-27 season is year five. He gets to play. Simple.
If someone is already more than five years past when he first played, then he is done. Also simple.
Then, because you just changed the eligibility rules after the normal spring portal had already closed, you open one short transition portal and tell the conferences to recognize it as the equivalent of the spring portal for those players. That solves Mark Mitchell's entire situation before it ever becomes a lawsuit.
He finishes Missouri thinking he is out of eligibility. Then the NCAA changes to five-in-five. Under a sensible transition rule, he is still within five years of his first season, so he gets year five. He enters the special transition portal, Kentucky takes him, and everybody moves on.
No TRO. No argument that he should have somehow known in April that a rule that did not yet exist would later give him another season. No SEC threatening Kentucky because he failed to enter a portal for a season he didn't know he had. No judges having to decide this player by player. No hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees.
Oddball cases involving medical redshirts, military service, missions, etc., would still exist, but those already do. What you would not have is an entire class of healthy players having to sue because the NCAA managed to create a five-in-five rule while somehow excluding people who are literally still inside the five-year period.
It was an incredibly easy transition to write. Five-in-five starts now. If you are still inside your five-year clock, you are in. Open a transition portal for anyone whose eligibility changed. Done.
Instead, they chose the most complicated path possible, and now everyone acts shocked that lawyers and judges are involved.
The NCAA only had to say: five-in-five starts now. If you are currently playing college sports and are still within five years of the first season you played, you transition to the new rule. Everyone entering college from here forward is obviously under five-in-five as well.
Done. End of problem.
That would not be “grandfathering” current players under the old system. It would be transitioning everyone who can still fit within the new five-year window onto the new rule. So a 2022 freshman? First season was 2022-23. The 2026-27 season is year five. He gets to play. Simple.
If someone is already more than five years past when he first played, then he is done. Also simple.
Then, because you just changed the eligibility rules after the normal spring portal had already closed, you open one short transition portal and tell the conferences to recognize it as the equivalent of the spring portal for those players. That solves Mark Mitchell's entire situation before it ever becomes a lawsuit.
He finishes Missouri thinking he is out of eligibility. Then the NCAA changes to five-in-five. Under a sensible transition rule, he is still within five years of his first season, so he gets year five. He enters the special transition portal, Kentucky takes him, and everybody moves on.
No TRO. No argument that he should have somehow known in April that a rule that did not yet exist would later give him another season. No SEC threatening Kentucky because he failed to enter a portal for a season he didn't know he had. No judges having to decide this player by player. No hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees.
Oddball cases involving medical redshirts, military service, missions, etc., would still exist, but those already do. What you would not have is an entire class of healthy players having to sue because the NCAA managed to create a five-in-five rule while somehow excluding people who are literally still inside the five-year period.
It was an incredibly easy transition to write. Five-in-five starts now. If you are still inside your five-year clock, you are in. Open a transition portal for anyone whose eligibility changed. Done.
Instead, they chose the most complicated path possible, and now everyone acts shocked that lawyers and judges are involved.
