- A federal appeals court froze the injunction that had handed college athletes a fifth year of eligibility
- The NCAA’s age-based rule is back in force immediately, and college hockey fought the original version of it for months
- Read below for what the ruling means for NHL clubs holding rights on players still in school
The fifth-year window college athletes pried open in July lasted about three weeks.
A three-judge panel at the 10th Circuit granted the NCAA’s stay request Friday in Wisne v. NCAA, freezing the nationwide injunction that had cleared athletes who started college in 2022-23 to come back for another season. The vote was 2-1.
U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney certified the class and blocked the rule on July 31. That protection is gone while the appeal plays out.
The NCAA put out a statement within hours, and it did not hedge on the timing:
What snaps back into place is the five-in-five model the Division I Cabinet approved in June. Athletes get five seasons across five years, redshirts are dead, and the clock starts at college enrollment or the academic year after a player turns 19, whichever comes first.
Hockey hated that clock more than any other sport did. Players routinely spend a year or two in junior or the USHL before they ever set foot on campus, and The Hockey News laid out how deep that runs: more than 80 percent of last season’s freshman class was already past its 20th birthday.
All 63 Division I men’s coaches voted against the original proposal. The NHL, NHLPA, CHL and USHL signed a joint letter pushing an alternative, and deputy commissioner Bill Daly took the case straight to NCAA president Charlie Baker.
They got a softer version out of it. The rule that passed measures the clock from college enrollment instead of expected high school graduation, which spares the kids who take the junior route a full year of eligibility.
NHL front offices track all of this because a drafted player’s rights sit with his club for as long as he stays in school, a wrinkle that has already burned teams this summer. Devils forward Samu Salminen is the current example. The 23-year-old never filed the paperwork to reach free agency in August, so New Jersey still holds him while he sorts through an entry-level deal, an AHL contract in Utica or a move home to Finland.
Dozens of athletes who won temporary restraining orders in state courts are untouched by Friday’s order and can keep playing. Everybody else is waiting on the 10th Circuit.
