Denzel Aberdeen’s bid to keep playing at Florida has moved from the NCAA fight to a Florida courtroom.
The Gators guard has hired attorney Jesse Panuccio, who has offices in Fort Lauderdale and Washington, D.C., to pursue a temporary restraining order that would let him play in 2026-27. Jeff Goodman of the Field of 68 reported Friday night that Panuccio issued a statement saying Aberdeen should be eligible under the NCAA’s new “5-in-5 rule.”
Aberdeen, 22, is from Orlando and is in his fifth year of college after enrolling at UF in 2022. He left for Kentucky after Florida’s 2025 national championship season, then returned to the Gators last spring.
The NCAA changed its eligibility structure earlier this year, allowing athletes who entered college straight from high school or before age 20 to play five seasons in a five-year window while removing redshirting from the equation. But when outgoing seniors pushed for the rule to cover them too, the NCAA’s Division I board of directors ruled in June that it would not apply retroactively to the 2022 class.
“The NCAA has announced an unwritten exception to its rule that strips Class of 2022 students from this policy, even though they competed for years against fifth-, sixth-, and sometimes seventh-year seniors who received Covid-era eligibility waivers,” Panuccio wrote. “The NCAA’s decision violates its contractual commitment to fairness to all student-athletes, and we have sued to vindicate Aberdeen’s rights and get him back on the court as he finishes his degree at UF.”
Aberdeen became ineligible Aug. 21 after the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA a temporary stay, undoing a July 31 ruling from a Colorado judge that would have given him a fifth season in 2026-27. That Aug. 21 decision also stopped a preliminary injunction issued last month by U.S. District Court judge Charlotte Sweeney, who had granted a fifth season to athletes who entered college in the 2022-23 academic year and played four straight seasons.
The NCAA’s chief legal officer, Scott Bearby, later sent a memo to schools saying the organization would keep fighting the lawsuits.
For now, Aberdeen’s case is headed into state court, where dozens of athletes around the country have already won restraining orders allowing them to play a fifth season.
Florida coach Todd Golden said Friday night that he still expects the 6-foot-5, 195-pound guard to be available for one of the nation’s top title contenders.
“Denzel has hired great representation, and everyone agrees he has unique facts to himself that puts him in great position,” Golden told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday night.
Golden has also pointed to Aberdeen’s academic path, noting that he will earn his degree within five years of starting college. And Florida did not open a roster spot for his return, Golden said.
Aberdeen was a key reserve on Florida’s title team before averaging 13.5 points, 3.4 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 30.6 minutes last season at Kentucky.
Under the NCAA’s old rules, he had already used up his redshirt chance when he played as a true freshman. But as Golden has noted, the former Dr. Phillips standout appeared in only 12 of Florida’s 36 games that season and played 41 total minutes in his first year in Gainesville.
Golden has argued that football’s previous redshirt rule let players appear in up to four of a team’s 12 regular-season games and still preserve eligibility, a comparable share to the games Aberdeen played as a freshman.
Still, other athletes seeking that extra season have logged far more games and minutes than Aberdeen.
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