Who makes the rules in college athletics in 2026? Is it the NCAA, the longtime governing body of intercollegiate sports, or is it the judicial branch of the U.S. government?
Coaches are asking the same question. For Louisville women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz, who has led the Cardinals to four Final Fours, the answer is clear.
“If a court says they can play, how can a league say they can’t?” Walz asked rhetorically. “When all of a sudden did a league get more power than a court?”
Back in June, the NCAA changed its longstanding eligibility structures to an age-based model, commonly referred to as the “five-in-five” rule. Beginning with the day a student-athlete enrolls or their 19th birthday, whichever comes first, current and future college athletes will have five years to play five seasons of their sport. It was designed to simplify the eligibility process - no more redshirts, no more waivers and no more debates about seasons played at non-NCAA institutions like junior colleges. The hope was that this would quell the countless eligibility lawsuits the NCAA faced, like the one brought by Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss in February.
What happened instead was a new wave of lawsuits, this time brought forth mostly by players who were freshmen in 2022 and believe they were excluded from this new eligibility structure.
Courts across the country - federal, state, district and circuit - have weighed in on these lawsuits. They have largely ruled against the NCAA, granting the plaintiffs - the players - more eligibility. Through these rulings, several former college football players have returned to campuses from NFL training camps.
The various lawsuits have also paved the way for a handful of women’s basketball players to return to college. Two of them this week signed with programs expected to make deep runs in the NCAA tournament this upcoming season.
Louisville added forward Amiya Joyner and Oklahoma State brought on guard Callin Hake. The head coaches of both programs - Walz of the Cardinals and Jacie Hoyt of the Cowgirls - spoke with USA TODAY Sports recently about the process in signing both of those players, the uncertainty surrounding the lawsuits and the risks ahead.
“The best way I can compare it to anything I've ever experienced is coaching through COVID,” Hoyt said. “When everything was just changing every day, and you thought you knew an answer and then you had to pivot because something changed. That's what it feels like right now. It’s wild times, for sure.”
Added Walz: “We’re playing with today’s rules. Tomorrow, it could all change. I’m just playing by the rules that are out there today.”
Who is Amiya Joyner?
A 6-foot-2 forward from Farmville, North Carolina, Joyner began her collegiate career at East Carolina in 2022. As a freshman, she was named American Conference Rookie of the Year and was a two-time all-conference selection. Last season, her senior year, she transferred to LSU and had a key role for Kim Mulkey’s Tigers, averaging 9.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while shooting a stellar 59.7% from the floor.
LSU made the Sweet 16, where it was upset by Duke on a buzzer-beater, and Joyner thought her college career was over. She declared for the WNBA Draft but wasn’t selected, never signed with a team and didn’t appear in training camp. She instead joined the Upshot League, a new professional women’s basketball organization spearheaded by former WNBA president Donna Orender aiming to develop players for the WNBA. Joyner played in 22 games for the Greensboro Groove this summer, most recently appearing in a game on July 19.
Days later, Joyner was made eligible for college basketball again when Judge Charlotte Sweeney of the U.S. District Court of Colorado granted a class-wide preliminary injunction that required the NCAA to declare all players from the high school class of 2022 eligible. Last week, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA a stay which reversed that decision.
While seen as a victory for the NCAA, that ruling did not impact state-level cases, perhaps most notably the decision by a Louisiana court to grant fifth-year eligibility to more than a dozen plaintiffs - including Joyner.
“Do I think it's wild and crazy? Yeah, I sure do. Did we have any intentions of looking at a fifth-year player like this? No, not really,” Walz said. “But then we had a situation where a scholarship came open, I said, ‘Alright, let's see what happens.’ If the courts have said you can do it, well, I'm not going to say no.”
Joyner entered the transfer portal and signed with Louisville. Walz said she started classes this week and is already practicing with the team.
“We had a need at that spot,” Walz said. “We needed some more back-to-the-basket strength, rebounding, interior post play. So, she definitely is going to help us. We’re filling a need - that’s what we use the portal for.”
Who is Callin Hake?
Hake, a 5-foot-8 guard from Victoria, Minnesota, spent all previous four years of her college basketball career at Nebraska, where she helped the Cornhuskers make three consecutive NCAA Tournaments and was a full-time starter in each of the last two seasons. As a senior last year, Hake averaged 7.2 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 35% from 3-point land. She led the Huskers in assists and steals while setting a program record for offensive fouls drawn in a single season with 33.
On Aug. 18, a Superior Court in Santa Clara County, California granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to make 73 athletes - including Hake - eligible again. That lawsuit also included Gonzaga’s Ines Bettencourt, Michigan’s Brooke Quarles Daniels, Texas Tech’s Adlee Blacklock and Arizona State’s Marley Washenitz among the women’s basketball players who were plaintiffs. Washenitz has since signed with UNLV.
Hake entered the transfer portal and arrived at Oklahoma State this week. One of the factors that went into Hoyt’s decision to bring in Hake was some of the Cowgirls’ international recruits dealing with visa issues, sprouting a bit of uncertainty across the roster.
“That has affected our decision to take Callin because we have several international players that have been some question marks where I would like there to be periods, but I just haven't had that luxury,” Hoyt said. “So we felt, just from an insurance standpoint in terms of just roster spots and having bodies here, that was something that we needed to look a little deeper into.
“The biggest thing for me is, how does this affect our culture? How does this affect the chemistry that we spent all summer building? It's better to pass on that extra spot if it's going to be disruptive to your culture. But Callin really just fit like a glove for us. She's an amazing human, first and foremost.”
SEC, Big 12 make new conference eligibility rules
This week, three of the Power 4 conferences have issued new rules related to eligibility. The SEC led the way by saying on Tuesday, Aug. 25 that players who had declared for the NFL, NBA or WNBA drafts and did appropriately withdraw are not permitted to play in the conference. Players are also not allowed if they signed a contract with one of those leagues or were listed on a roster. The Big Ten issued a similar statement, but its rules apply only to football for now.
Meanwhile, the Big 12 has also adopted conference rules that forbid member schools from adding a player who has declared for a pro draft, been listed on the roster of a professional team or has signed a contract with a professional team in any sport.
In the case of Hake and Oklahoma State, those rules seemingly wouldn’t apply to her since she never declared for the WNBA Draft or played professionally in any capacity since leaving Nebraska.
“You don't want to do something that's not going to hold up. That's the last thing I want to do, is put my team in a situation where we thought that we had a player, and then we don't,” Hoyt said. “In Callin's case specifically, we feel like we hit all of the checkpoints. Our compliance team feels like Callin's situation is one that has the best chance of holding up if something were to come back.”
With Joyner, the case is a bit more unclear considering she did declare for the WNBA Draft and played in the Upshot League. The ACC issued guidance that is similar to the SEC's on Thursday afternoon.
Several women’s basketball coaches who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on background expressed interest in adding one of these fifth-year players made eligible by lawsuits, but were concerned about the risks that could come with it. What if all these court rulings are reversed and made moot midway through the season? What if a conference or the NCAA retroactively cracks down on a program who played games with a player that becomes ineligible in the future?
“I think that that fear probably won't ever go away,” Hoyt said. “I've just really leaned on my compliance team here. Our head of compliance is phenomenal.”
Walz isn’t worried.
“Right now, they're eligible to play. I can't see how they can come back and punish you for playing a player that was eligible,” Walz said. “It's like going the speed limit - I'm going 55 on Monday, and then on Wednesday they change the speed limit to 45. They can't come back and give me a ticket, can they?”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Jeff Walz, Jacie Hoyt added players made eligible by NCAA lawsuits
