In a rare and telling confrontation, the NCAA has filed a federal lawsuit against Ohio Governor Mike DeWine over an executive order granting a fifth year of eligibility to a class of athletes the organization had explicitly excluded — a move the governing body calls an unprecedented distortion of competitive fairness. The dispute, unfolding simultaneously in federal court and before the Ohio Supreme Court, reflects a deeper fracture in American collegiate sports: the slow erosion of a single governing authority by a patchwork of state-level interventions. At stake is not merely the eligibility
NCAA sues Ohio governor over executive order expanding athlete eligibility
Ohio institutions a hall pass to break the rules
Mark
So the NCAA is suing a governor. That's not something you see every day. What exactly is DeWine trying to do?
Mimi
He signed an executive order saying Ohio universities can let athletes who graduated high school in 2022 play a fifth season. The NCAA's new rule, passed in June, says those athletes are done—they've had their four years.
Mark
And the NCAA sees this as Ohio getting an unfair advantage?
Mimi
Exactly. If Ohio schools can field players other states can't, that's a competitive imbalance. The NCAA is arguing DeWine is giving Ohio a "hall pass" to break the rules.
Luke
But here's the thing—is it actually breaking NCAA rules, or is it a state government overriding NCAA authority? Those are different legal questions.
Mimi
That's what the Ohio Supreme Court is going to sort out. They've already said they'll review whether the order is constitutional.
Mark
Who's actually affected by this right now?
Mimi
Athletes like Filip Borovićanin, a basketball player who played in an exhibition game Thursday after the order put him back on the eligible list. There are football players too, and their status for the season is still uncertain.
Luke
So we have the NCAA lawsuit in federal court, the Ohio Supreme Court reviewing constitutionality, and individual athletes whose eligibility is in limbo. That's a lot of moving pieces.
Mark
Has this happened before?
Mimi
The NCAA sued Nevada's governor in the early 1990s and won. But that was about due-process protections, not eligibility rules. This is different territory.
Luke
And Congress is supposedly working on federal legislation to protect NCAA authority?
Mimi
The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act and sent it to the House, but it's an election year and the outcome is uncertain.
El Pulso
- Governor DeWine's executive order, signed just three days before the lawsuit, immediately restored eligibility for a class of athletes the NCAA had formally excluded in June — triggering a legal collision with national implications.
- A Serbian basketball player who competed in an exhibition game the night after the order was signed now sits at the center of overlapping court proceedings, his status unresolved and his season hanging in the balance.
- The NCAA, invoking language of fairness and institutional integrity, called the lawsuit an 'extraordinary step' — one it has taken only once before in its history, against a Nevada governor in the early 1990s.
- The Ohio Supreme Court has paused lower court rulings and demanded briefs within days, while the NCAA insists that pause does not automatically restore the athletes' right to compete.
- With Congress stalled on federal legislation that could settle these disputes once and for all, college sports is fracturing into a state-by-state legal battlefield — a reality one athletic director publicly called 'comical.'
In a rare and telling confrontation, the NCAA has filed a federal lawsuit against Ohio Governor Mike DeWine over an executive order granting a fifth year of eligibility to a class of athletes the organization had explicitly excluded — a move the governing body calls an unprecedented distortion of competitive fairness. The dispute, unfolding simultaneously in federal court and before the Ohio Supreme Court, reflects a deeper fracture in American collegiate sports: the slow erosion of a single governing authority by a patchwork of state-level interventions. At stake is not merely the eligibility of a handful of basketball and football players, but the question of who ultimately holds the power to define the rules of amateur competition.
On a Friday in October, the NCAA took the rare step of suing an American governor — Ohio's Mike DeWine — over an executive order he had signed just three days prior. The order would allow Ohio universities to grant a fifth season of eligibility to athletes from the high school graduating class of 2022, a group the NCAA had explicitly barred under rules adopted the previous June.
The order touches eight Division I programs, including No. 4 Ohio State and the University of Cincinnati, and has already produced real-world complications. A basketball player named Filip Borovićanin competed in an exhibition game against Tennessee the night after DeWine signed the order — and now finds himself at the center of unresolved legal proceedings, along with football and basketball players whose entire seasons may depend on how courts rule.
NCAA President Charlie Baker described the lawsuit as an 'extraordinary step,' arguing that without it, Ohio schools would gain an unfair and unprecedented competitive advantage. The organization has sued a governor before — it won against Nevada's Bob Miller in the 1990s — but such actions are vanishingly rare. DeWine's office declined to comment, though Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, a celebrated former coach at Ohio State, has publicly supported the order.
The legal battle is now running on two tracks at once. The Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to review the order's constitutionality and paused a lower court ruling that had declared the Class of 2022 athletes ineligible, requesting briefs from both sides within days. The NCAA, for its part, maintains that this pause does not make those athletes immediately eligible to play.
The confrontation is part of a widening national pattern. State legislatures and governors have increasingly moved to carve out local exceptions to NCAA governance, leaving the organization to fight jurisdiction by jurisdiction. The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act and sent it to the House, but its fate in an election year is uncertain — leaving college athletics to navigate an ever more fragmented legal landscape, one that at least one athletic director has simply called 'comical.'
On Friday, the NCAA filed a federal lawsuit against Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, setting up a direct confrontation between the nation's largest collegiate sports governing body and a state executive. The suit challenges an executive order DeWine signed just three days earlier that would allow Ohio universities to grant a fifth season of eligibility to athletes who graduated high school in 2022—a group explicitly excluded under new NCAA rules adopted in June.
The order affects eight Division I programs in Ohio, including No. 4 Ohio State in the Big Ten, the University of Cincinnati in the Big 12, and six members of the Mid-American Conference. It also creates immediate practical complications: basketball player Filip Borovićanin, who played in an exhibition game against Tennessee on Thursday night after DeWine's order restored his eligibility, is now at the center of overlapping legal proceedings. So are football players and a handful of basketball players whose status for the upcoming season hinges on how courts resolve the conflict.
In its filing in federal court in Ohio, the NCAA accused DeWine, a two-term Republican governor, of attempting to hand Ohio athletes "a hall pass" from NCAA rules and to give Ohio institutions "an unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted competitive advantage." NCAA President Charlie Baker characterized the lawsuit as an "extraordinary step" necessary to prevent the state from making it "impossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field." The organization has sued a governor before—it prevailed against Nevada's Bob Miller in the early 1990s over a dispute about due-process protections in enforcement proceedings—but such actions remain rare.
DeWine's office declined to comment on the lawsuit. However, the order has found support from Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, a former championship-winning coach at Ohio State and Youngstown State, suggesting the governor's office views the measure as defensible policy. Ohio's eight Division I athletic programs have not yet publicly stated positions on the executive order, leaving the state's universities in an awkward middle ground between state authority and NCAA governance.
The legal conflict is unfolding on multiple fronts simultaneously. The Ohio Supreme Court has already announced it will determine the constitutionality of DeWine's order and has paused an appeals court ruling that had declared the Class of 2022 athletes ineligible. The court has asked both sides to file briefs by the following Monday. Baker stated that the NCAA does not believe the Supreme Court's action has rendered those players immediately eligible to compete, a position that may not survive the briefing process.
This clash represents the latest escalation in what has become a nationwide pattern of state-by-state legal maneuvering over college sports rules. The University of Tennessee's athletic director, Danny White, responded to the NCAA's lawsuit announcement with a social media post calling the situation "comical," capturing the frustration many in college athletics feel as the regulatory landscape fragments. For years, the NCAA has pushed Congress to pass federal legislation that would shield its rules from legal challenges. The Senate has approved the Protect College Sports Act and sent it to the House, but its passage remains uncertain in an election year, leaving the organization to fight these battles in courtrooms across the country.
Citas Notables
This whole thing has become comical— Danny White, University of Tennessee athletic director, on social media
An extraordinary step intended to prevent DeWine from making it impossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field— NCAA President Charlie Baker, describing the lawsuit
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