The NCAA is suing Governor Mike DeWine over the Executive Order he signed this week addressing college athlete eligibility.
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NCAA President Charlie Baker called the action “necessary” after DeWine signed Executive Order 2026-04D, giving Ohio’s colleges and universities the authority to decline to uphold the NCAA’s restriction against all otherwise eligible student-athletes who graduated high school in 2022 while legal challenges proceed.
The NCAA adopted a new eligibility model in June. It gives all otherwise eligible student-athletes up to five years of competition. However, student-athletes who graduated from high school in 2022 and have already completed four seasons of competition are denied a fifth season.
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The lawsuit claims that the Executive Order violates the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, the First Amendment, and state law.
“Governors are expected to turn square corners and act within their authority. The Executive Order is unlawful because Governor DeWine lacks the authority to permit Ohio colleges and universities to disregard the rules they have agreed to follow by rostering ineligible student-athletes,” Baker wrote in a statement.
Baker also said that if state courts or governors are able to “unilaterally change the rules” to give schools competitive advantages, “it will become impossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field.”
He added that while the NCAA respects the accomplishments of athletes whose eligibility expired in the 2025-26 academic year, allowing them to return for a fifth season would “give them a benefit they never reasonably could have expected, to the detriment of thousands of eligible student-athletes who have been waiting for their opportunity to compete.”
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