HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) \u2014 Twelve former Marshall University athletes are suing the NCAA over its new five-year eligibility rule approved last month, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges that the NCAA made an exception to the new five-year eligibility rule for only one group of athletes who graduated high school in 2022. The athletes in the lawsuit claim they were excluded from the rule.<\/p>\n
The new five-year eligibility rule, known as the \u201c5 for 5 rule,\u201d passed by the NCAA on June 23, 2026, gives athletes a five-year clock that begins either at the start of the athlete’s academic year after their 19th birthday or the moment the athlete enrolls full-time in college, whichever occurs first.<\/p>\n
The rule also eliminates redshirting, as athletes will now have only five seasons guaranteed to play in their sport. Some exceptions to this rule include military service, pregnancy, or religious missions.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges that in some cases, the NCAA has allowed athletes who played professionally in their sport to maintain eligibility, while college athletes would lose eligibility, despite how little playing time they may have had.<\/p>\n
The complaint framed the NCAA\u2019s Constitution and Bylaws as a contract among the association and the schools in it (which includes Marshall University). The lawsuit alleges the NCAA used its discretionary waiver authority (Bylaw 12.6.6) in a \u201cselective and inconsistent\u201d way which benefited former pro players while excluding the 2022 high school class.<\/p>\n
Marshall University Athletic Director Gerald Harrison addressed the lawsuit on Tuesday. Harrison told reporters that his department had to tell the athletes that they would not be eligible to play in the 2026-2027 season under the new rule.<\/p>\n
Harrison would go on to add that he likes the new rule due to all of the uncertainty that the appeals process can create. \u201cThe appeals process is just too much right now\u2026 it hurts the system, it hurts the recruiting, especially if it\u2019s high school student athletes because somebody can always apply for another year\u2026 then you have 18-year-olds competing against 26-year-olds, it kind of got out of hand,\u201d Harrison said.<\/p>\n
This is not the first case regarding this rule. In late June, 15 basketball players from Ohio filed a lawsuit that was similar in nature to the Marshall case. The NCAA responded to the Ohio lawsuit by stating that giving the players a fifth year would \u201ccreate chaos\u201d and also \u201cthrow the collegiate athletic landscape into turmoil.\u201d<\/p>\n
The athletes are seeking an injunction to play for the 2026-2027 season and be able to have NIL (\u201cName, Image, and Likeness\u201d) benefits for that season.<\/p>\n
The twelve athletes who filed the lawsuit are Meredith Maier, Peyton Illderton, Blessing King, Bryce Blevins, Cam Harthan, Dewain \u201cBoogie\u201d Trotter, Bailey Fisher, Johanna Strom, Paige Simpson, Ryan Holmes, Momo Diop, and Hannah Wyler.<\/p>\n
Steven New from Steven New & Associates is representing the Plaintiffs and filed the lawsuit in the Cabell Circuit Court.<\/p>\n
Thank you to Steven New & Associates and MetroNews for the information.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting that all claims in the lawsuit are alleged and have not been decided in a court of law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marshall Athletes Sue NCAA By Anthony Doria, FM88 Sports July 10, 2026 HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) \u2014 Twelve former Marshall University athletes are suing the NCAA over its new five-year eligibility rule approved last month, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. The complaint alleges that the NCAA made an exception to the new five-year eligibility<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1074,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[124,459,458,302,640,1354,765,757,115,100,891,69,1815,1812,1813,1814,28,138,463,1312,592,921,769,1471,251,236,23,212,51,96],"class_list":["post-4959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wmul-sports","tag-anthony-doria","tag-anthony-doria-marshall","tag-anthony-doria-wmul","tag-bailey-fisher","tag-blessing-king","tag-boogie-trotter","tag-bryce-blevins","tag-cam-harthan","tag-college-radio","tag-fm88-sports","tag-hannah-wyler","tag-huntington-wv","tag-johanna-strom","tag-marshall-athletes","tag-marshall-athletes-sue","tag-marshall-lawsuit","tag-marshall-university","tag-marshall-university-athletics","tag-meredith-maier","tag-momo-diop","tag-ncaa","tag-paige-simpson","tag-peyton-ilderton","tag-ryan-holmes","tag-sbc","tag-sun-belt-conference","tag-thundering-herd","tag-thundering-herd-athletics","tag-wmul","tag-wv"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4960,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4959\/revisions\/4960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}