NCAA’s New Eligibility Rule Creates Immediate Compliance Obligations + a Legal Challenge

Takeaways  

• The NCAA Division I Cabinet approved a single age-based eligibility standard on 06.23.26 that replaces season-of-competition limits and sport-specific eligibility rules. 
• Student-athletes who enroll full-time in college no later than the academic year after their 19th birthday will receive up to five years of eligibility.  
• Schools must submit any waiver requests under the prior rules no later than 07.31.26; after that date, the waiver process is eliminated.

Related Links  

• Division I Adopts Age-Based Eligibility Model
• Suit Alleges New NCAA Rule Unfair to High School Class of 2022

Article  

The NCAA Division I Cabinet voted on June 23, 2026, to adopt a single age-based eligibility model, eliminating season-of-competition, sport-specific, redshirt and waiver rules. This change imposes immediate compliance obligations and reflects the NCAA’s effort to restore order amid NIL and transfer portal disruptions.  

NCAA President Charlie Baker explained that the change “eliminates aspects of the rules that have proven difficult to administer in the current litigious environment” and uniformly defines the limited exceptions. The prior eligibility rules faced frequent legal challenges due to inconsistent application and results.  

Under the new model, eligibility depends on age, not on sport or season count.  

• Student-athletes may now compete for five years beginning at enrollment or the academic year after they turn 19, whichever comes first.  
• Notably, injuries are no longer grounds for eligibility extensions.  
• Limited exceptions remain, including pregnancy, active-duty military service and official religious missions — as long as the student-athlete does not participate for the duration of the exception.  

The NCAA’s new rule eliminates a burdensome waiver process, and the transition to it will occur in phases:

• Student-athletes who exhausted their eligibility under the prior rules will not receive any additional eligibility.
• Current student-athletes and those entering in Fall 2026 may apply whichever eligibility rule provides the greatest benefit.
• For students-athletes enrolling in the Fall of 2027, only the new five-year rule will apply.

With the adoption of this new framework, all eligibility waiver requests under the current rules must be submitted by July 31, 2026.  

While the new rule seeks to simplify the process and avoid litigation, 15 basketball players from the high school class of 2022 filed a lawsuit mere days after its adoption. The suit involves student-athletes who exhausted their eligibility in the 2025-26 season and alleges that granting additional eligibility to those in the same high school class that still have eligibility under the old rules, but not the plaintiffs, is arbitrary and a breach of contractual duties of good faith and fair dealing.  

Given the recent litigious climate, more legal challenges to the new rule are expected to emerge as it takes effect.  

The Jackson Lewis Education and Collegiate Athletics Group will continue to monitor NCAA rule changes and enforcement and their impact on institutions and teams. Please contact a member of the Group if you have questions about compliance, planning or other strategies related to the collegiate sports landscape. 

* Summer Associate Josette Fleming contributed to this update.