This afternoon, news broke that the First Appellate District of Ohio (Hamilton Co.), has granted the stay the injunction in the Borovicanin vs. NCAA lawsuit. This lawsuit affects multiple players and was the initial 5th year lawsuit to be filed. Locally, this does effect Filip Borovicanin (Xavier) and MJ Collins (Cincinnati), both of whom figure to play a significant role on their teams next year.
What is a Stay?
Per the Legal Information Institute (Cornell) – ” (A) Stay is an action taken by a court to stop a legal proceeding or the actions of a party. A stay most commonly is issued by a court as a stay of proceedings in order to stop litigation from continuing, and they normally are only temporary. A court will do this for many reasons such as if there is another proceeding occurring that will affect the present one or if a party must do something before the proceeding can continue.”
Who does this effect?
Filip and Collins are the two most significant names, however, here’s the full list:
Malik Messina-Moore, Kolby King, Javon Bennett, Chevalier Emery Jr., Jalen Quinn, Savannah White, Donovan Brown, Christian Henry, Ziare Wells, Cristian Carroll, Shawn Phillips Jr., Caden Powell and Josh Reed.
What Are the Implications:
Right now, this is an extremely murky situation. However, there is a federal ruling in (wisne et al v. NCAA) out of Colorado that grants a blanket waiver for these guys, so from our current understanding, players are still clear. However, if the NCAA is granted a stay in the Colorado case, the players would become immediately ineligible again.
At that point, it would be a rush to get this done before the season starts in November or we would be looking at a situation with legal battles making eligibility decisions in the middle of the year and adding players mid-season is never easy.
This is also the case that has led the way thus far for these player cases, and while the others remain in effect, the trend has been this one setting the table for the remainder, so all eyes will remain on Ohio’s case as it moves through the judicial system.
In Summary:
Though today takes the “security blanket” if you will away from these players, it doesn’t actually make any players ineligible. However, it highlights just how risky it is to rely on these lawsuits and eligibility nuances this upcoming season.
Sansom Sports Media will have more on this case as information breaks, so make sure you subscribe below!
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