Tamin Lipsey is part of a growing legal challenge aimed at forcing the NCAA to give him and other student-athletes a fifth year of eligibility.
Lipsey has been added to a First Amended Complaint filed Sept. 14, 2026, in Monroe Circuit Court of Indiana in Stephen Daley et al. v. NCAA, Cause No.
53C06-2609-PL-002418. Dozens of plaintiffs were included in the expanded filing.
Former Iowa State guard Jackson Paveletzke is also among the new plaintiffs. He spent the 2023-24 season with the Cyclones before transferring to Ohio University for his past two seasons.
If the court grants injunctive relief restoring eligibility, Lipsey intends to return to Iowa State for the 2026-27 season. Paveletzke plans to use his fifth year at Ohio University.
Lipsey played all four seasons of his college career at Iowa State and frequently battled for minutes against older fifth-year players such as Tre King, Aljaz Kunc, Robert Jones, Jaren Holmes, Osun Osunniyi, Gabe Kalscheur, Hason Ward, Nate Heise, Brandton Chatfield and Curtis Jones.
The players are being represented by John William Richards and William Jonathan Beggs of Bunger & Robertson LLP, along with Ryan Hedley Downton of The Texas Trial Group.
The amended complaint landed on the same day Monroe Circuit Court Judge Kara Krothe spent more than five hours hearing testimony on a preliminary injunction. No ruling came immediately, and court records say both sides must submit proposed findings and conclusions of law by Sept. 17, 2026.
At the heart of the case is the NCAA’s “Five-for-Five” age-based eligibility model, adopted June 23, 2026. Under that system, Division I athletes can play five full seasons within a five-year span without needing a redshirt year. But the NCAA left out student-athletes from the high school graduating Class of 2022 who went straight to college and played four straight seasons without redshirting.
The lawsuit argues that the exclusion unfairly hurts Class of 2022 athletes, who spent four years lining up against older players who gained extra eligibility through COVID-19 pandemic waivers. It also says the NCAA has allowed up to four years of eligibility for former professional players from European leagues and the NBA G League, including James Nnaji, London Johnson and Thierry Darlan, while denying that extra season to players who entered college right out of high school.
The complaint says student-athletes are intended third-party beneficiaries of the NCAA Manual and Constitution, and that leaving out the Class of 2022 amounts to a breach of contract. It also argues that cutting off a fifth season shortchanges athletic development and costs players Name, Image, and Likeness compensation as well as institutional revenue-sharing money authorized up to $20.5 million annually per Division I school under the House v. NCAA settlement.
The plaintiffs are seeking temporary, preliminary and permanent injunctions that would make them eligible for Division I competition in the 2026-27 season. They are also asking for the NCAA Transfer Portal to open for one week for all plaintiffs and want enforcement of the NCAA’s “Rule of Restitution” (Bylaw 12.9.4.2) blocked to shield member schools and coaches from punishment.
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