Denzel Aberdeen’s path back to Florida has hit another legal snag.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA a temporary stay Friday, putting on hold a Colorado judge’s July 31 ruling that would have given the Gators guard a fifth season in 2026-27. For now, Aberdeen is not eligible unless the NCAA grants a waiver or a state court steps in with an injunction or temporary restraining order that allows him to play this season.
The decision wipes out, at least for the moment, a preliminary injunction issued last month by U.S. District Court judge Charlotte Sweeney. That ruling would have extended a fifth season to athletes who entered college during the 2022-23 academic year and then played four straight seasons.
Aberdeen’s case sits at the center of a broader fight over the NCAA’s updated eligibility framework. Earlier this year, the organization changed its rules so athletes who came straight from high school or turned 19 could play five seasons within a five-year window, while redshirting was eliminated.
Players from the 2022 class who had already completed four seasons pushed back, arguing the new rule should also apply to them. But in June, the NCAA’s Division I board of directors said the new model would not be applied retroactively.
Florida coach Todd Golden has been outspoken about the issue and has said he expected Aberdeen to be eligible. The Orlando native returned to Florida last spring after transferring to Kentucky following the 2025 national championship season. He had already been a major piece of the Gators’ title run, then put up 13.5 points, 3.4 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 30.6 minutes per game for the Wildcats last season.
“He’s within his five-year clock,” Golden said in April. “He came back here with the goal of graduating … which I think is a huge part of it, if we’re really focusing on the student-athlete experience and that being important.”
Sweeney’s ruling also collided with the NCAA’s longer-term plan to phase in the so-called “five-for-five” rule starting with athletes who enroll in college in the fall of 2027. Her decision came only hours after a Tennessee court granted former Vanderbilt guard Jalen Washington and 18 other basketball players a fifth season of eligibility.
Golden had believed Aberdeen had a strong argument even before the injunction because of how little he played as a freshman in 2022-23. The 6-foot-5, 195-pound guard appeared in only 12 of 36 games and played 41 total minutes during Golden’s first season in Gainesville.
Under the old NCAA redshirt rules, though, even that limited action counted against him. Players could not appear in any games and still preserve a season of eligibility.
Golden pointed out that football once used a different standard, allowing players to appear in up to four of a team’s 12 regular-season games and still redshirt - the same proportion of games Aberdeen played as a freshman.
“Why are those two sports not equitable in regards to their rules?” Golden said.
“This isn’t a 27-year-old trying to play his eighth year in college at his sixth different school. This is a 22-year-old within his fifth-year clock coming back to get his degree.
It would be a really weird stance to try to fight him from playing.”
For now, Aberdeen’s case is still alive. But after Friday’s ruling, it remains on hold.
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