College basketball eligibility lawsuits created a summer free agent class. Now what?

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — College basketball coaches are preparing for a summer free-agency window they didn’t expect — and aren’t sure they agree with.

Two weeks ago, an Ohio judge granted a temporary injunction to 15 Division I players from the class of 2022 whose eligibility expired after last season, cracking open the window for them to play another season of college basketball. Those players — including All-Mountain West guard MJ Collins, who has since transferred to Cincinnati, and Xavier forward Filip Borovicanin — are suing the NCAA over the governing body’s new age-based eligibility rules, colloquially known as “5-in-5.” Since the Ohio ruling, several more lawsuits have been filed in other states, most recently one in California involving 45 players, including former UCLA guard Donovan Dent and Michigan State big man Jaxon Kohler.

Major questions remain: Will these players actually be eligible? Are coaches and teams willing to gamble on that? And which teams still have available scholarships and resources to commit to these suddenly available players?

Should they win in court, a substantial number of players — all veterans with four years of experience — will reenter the college basketball pool at a time when most programs believed their rosters were already set.

The Athletic surveyed 25 high-major coaches at Nike’s EYBL Peach Jam this weekend — all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could speak candidly without disclosing their recruiting strategies — about the new group of eligible players, and the only clarity we found is that there is none.

The NCAA has said it will seek a reversal of the injunction in Ohio. An NCAA source, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the NCAA’s strategy, told The Athletic that the NCAA does not plan to offer a blanket waiver, even if court rulings continue to go in the players’ favor, but admitted the NCAA has only so much enforcement power if judges rule otherwise. The source added that the NCAA anticipates more lawsuits leading up to the 2026-27 season, timed so that the injunctions will clear in time for the start of the season and the wave of lawsuits will make it difficult for the NCAA to appeal them all.

Poor timing for eligibility rule change

Among coaches surveyed, there was no consensus on the “right thing to do.” Most opposed this late change because they built their teams with the understanding that those players would not be eligible, and lamented that the NCAA’s June rollout of the age-based eligibility change opened a summer window for players to fight for another year.

“I feel like a lot of these problems would have been solved if it would have been instituted back prior to the offseason,” an SEC head coach said. “I believe the ‘22 class deserves to play, just like every other class that’s gotten an additional year. And once that stuff gets ironed out, I think it’s going to be good for all the guys.”

The other option could have been to wait until the fall to announce, which would have made it too late for the ineligible players to enroll in school.

“The timing of it is silly just because it’s like you’re going to reward these teams that didn’t necessarily get their rosters done,” an SEC assistant said. “And now you’re going to open up a whole new pool of players?”

Among coaches who do not have a roster spot, not one coach polled said they would create a spot for this new pool of players. Other coaches said they believed adding a player now would be unfair and disruptive to the team they already signed.

“I think the thing that’s tricky right now is you’ve been practicing all summer with your team,” a Big Ten coach said. “You’ve really started to develop a team chemistry, culture, start to maybe try to figure out some roles. So if you’re going to add somebody at this time of the year, it’s gotta (be) somebody that you really believe can fit into your team and your culture and make a difference.”

Others see it as an opportunity. One Big 12 coach said he immediately abandoned his previous strategy of plugging holes on his roster with international recruits, instead targeting multiple players from the 2022 class who had just run out of eligibility. That’s because there could be less paperwork involved in getting a Class of 2022 player eligible than an international pro.

Is there enough money?

A Big 12 assistant coach who said he was “not a fan” of the developments admitted his program had saved a few spots and there were multiple players listed in the lawsuits who his team is eyeing, though raising money would be difficult.

Most high-major programs have either spent their entire budget or exceeded their planned spending this cycle, and are already going back to their donors to ask for more. Multiple coaches said the market for these players seeking an extra year is likely to be lower than they anticipate.

“I don’t think there’s enough teams that have enough money leftover to be doling out like what their peers have already gotten,” a Big 12 head coach said.

Even at a discounted rate, those players will likely earn more in college next season than they could anywhere else. And there are programs that missed on targets in the spring, or, for a school like Gonzaga, which just experienced the downside of college basketball’s fluid rules when guard Mario Saint-Supery surprisingly signed with a Spanish club and left the school midsummer, this could be an opportunity to rescue the roster.

Ultimately, coaches wish the rules and guidelines were clearer. That’s not new to college basketball, which has seen eligibility rules muddled by graduating players suing to play additional seasons, international professionals viewing college basketball as a newly lucrative opportunity, and former college players attempting to return after leaving for the pros.

The NCAA’s new age-based eligibility model is meant to simplify things, but the first year of implementation is going to be bumpy. One Big East coach said he tried before the spring transfer cycle to find out whether Class of 2022 players would be eligible, but he could never get a definitive answer “from people who would know, including in and around the NCAA.”

He decided not to risk recruiting those players, and now he’s out of roster spots.

“If this thing passes,” the Big Ten coach said, “you’re going to see an influx of talent here almost like at the (NBA trade deadline) before school starts.”