Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking an additional year of eligibility in 2026, a source briefed on the suit said Tuesday. This comes after a request for a waiver and a subsequent appeal on Morris’ behalf were denied by the NCAA.
Morris has participated in six seasons of college football, including the pandemic season of 2020 and a redshirt year in 2021. Morris retained Ben O’Neil and JP Kernisan of Quinn Emanuel law firm as legal counsel and filed the lawsuit in Virginia state court, a source confirmed. A copy of the complaint was not immediately available online.
Morris led Virginia to an 11-3 record in 2025, the most wins in program history, including a trip to the ACC championship and a top-20 finish in the final rankings. He threw for 3,000 yards and contributed 21 total touchdowns in his lone season with the Cavaliers.
The lawsuit is pursuing a medical redshirt for the 2022 season, when Morris was at TCU and a knee injury impacted his mental health. He started the season opener at quarterback before exiting in the third quarter with the injury. He returned in November and played sparingly in three games as a backup to new starter Max Duggan, who helped lead TCU to the national championship game. Morris is seeking to recoup a year of eligibility on mental health grounds, claiming there was sufficient mental health documentation submitted to the NCAA along with his eligibility waiver.
The Texas native has played for four schools over six seasons. Morris started his career at Oklahoma in 2020, which did not count against his eligibility clock due to the COVID-19 exemption giving players an extra season. He spent three seasons at TCU, including a redshirt season in 2021. After being limited by injury in 2022, he appeared in seven games with six starts for the Horned Frogs in 2023, then transferred to North Texas in 2024, where he started all season and threw for a career-high 3,774 yards and 31 touchdowns.
Morris, 25, is the son of former SMU and Arkansas head coach Chad Morris, who is currently the offensive coordinator at Clemson. Virginia signed former Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula out of the transfer portal for the 2026 season.
The NCAA has been facing a deluge of legal challenges to its eligibility rules recently, with lawsuits from high-profile quarterbacks garnering headlines.
Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia started the trend in 2024, suing to have his years at a junior college not count against his eligibility clock. While that case has not even had a trial date set, Pavia was granted a preliminary injunction by a federal judge in Tennessee that allowed him to play last season for Vandy.
That set a blueprint for others.
Earlier this month, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss was granted an injunction by a Mississippi judge that cleared him to return in 2026. Chambliss challenged the NCAA’s denial to grant him a medical hardship for one of the seasons he did not play at Division II Ferris State before he transferred to Ole Miss in 2025.
The NCAA has had its fair share of victories, including last week when a judge in Tennessee denied Volunteers quarterback Joey Aguilar an injunction that would have paved the way for him to play a sixth season of college football.
Chandler Morris, like Aguilar, is not considered a potential early-round draft pick. Aguilar argued in his lawsuit that he was set to make more than $2 million if he could return to Tennessee.
Morris would likely land a deal of at least that much from a college team. As a late-round draft pick or undrafted free agent, he would not be guaranteed to make nearly that much on an NFL rookie contract.
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