The NCAA earned another small victory in court on Wednesday, as the Tennessee Court of Appeals granted the league’s motion to stay an injunction in an eligibility case.
The case involves 19 college basketball players who were seeking an additional season of eligibility as members of the high school class of 2022.
Now, those players, headlined by named plaintiff Jalen Washington, are no longer eligible to compete this season. However, a few of the players, including Washington, are also part of lawsuits in other states, meaning they could end up being eligible elsewhere.
Washington committed to Tennessee in August after previous stints at UNC and Vanderbilt. He was initially granted a fifth season of eligibility from a judge in Davidson County, Tennessee.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals has issued an order staying the injunction granted to the plaintiff athletes pending appeal.
As with Ohio, those players are now ineligible unless and until the Court of Appeals rules in their favor. pic.twitter.com/l6LdAGCYj2
— Sam C. Ehrlich (@samcehrlich) August 26, 2026
The NCAA has now won three straight eligibility appeals in court, as reported by ESPN‘s Pete Thamel, including a similar state case in Ohio and the federal suit involving the entirety of the class of 2022.
“We are encouraged that each of the three appellate courts to consider these injunctions has recognized the strength of the NCAA’s legal arguments and the significant harm caused when ineligible student-athletes are permitted to compete,” NCAA Chief Legal Officer Scott Bearby said in a memo sent to colleagues.
Late last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit stayed a sweeping federal injunction that had granted thousands of athletes from the 2022 recruiting class another season of NCAA eligibility. The stay paused Judge Charlotte Sweeney‘s ruling in the Wisne v. NCAA case while the NCAA appeals.
The NCAA’s new age-based eligibility, which implements a five-in-five model, came into effect on August 1, but the rules don’t apply to the class of 2022.
