In Reply to: Tennessee's Zakai Zeigler sues NCAA: What to know about the case posted by mh on May 25, 2025 at 19:54:48
The NCAA isn't restricting Zeigler's ability to make money off his name, image, and likenss, nor are they preventing him from playing basketball anywhere else outside of college.
If the case was purely about the arbitrariness of 4 years of eligibility, especially when the average student takes 6 years to graduate with a bachelor's degree, I'd give Zeigler a bit more of a chance; but as the article notes, extending eligibility itself is a slippery slope, and even in this era of judicial legislation, I doubt there are many judges that want to mandate the number of years a student athlete can participate in collegiate athletics, any more than many universities want student atletes to play 10 years or more.
It's also important to note the current rulings allowing junior college transfers like Diego Pavia to play are just injunctions at this point, pending the conclusion of actual cases. As far as I can tell, no judge has issued a final ruling that the NCAA's four eligibility rule is illegal.
And not noted by the article, or even by an AI search of relevant cases, a North Carolina judge denied a preliminary injunction for four college football players who had sued to gain an additional season of eligibility, stating the evidence submitted in a 3-hour hearing was "not sufficient."
As ej notes elsewhere, we're in the "wild west" right now. Another way to put it would be these are the days of "irrational exuberence" where all fans with too much money think they can buy a championship for their favorite school. Eventually, as it always does, either the money or the exuberence, or both, will fade.