West Virginia forwards Brenen Lorient and Javan Buchanan have taken their fight for another season to court, filing a lawsuit against the NCAA in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of West Virginia, as they pursue a fifth year of eligibility.
The complaint says the players are asking for “temporary, preliminary, permanent, and declaratory relief prohibiting Defendant National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) from enforcing arbitrary and capricious decisions, breaching its contracts with its member institutions, and preventing them from participating in college sports.”
Their case comes at a time when eligibility rules are already in motion elsewhere. Last Friday, U.S.
District Judge Charlotte Sweeney issued a class-wide preliminary injunction for members of the 2022 class, which gave those athletes a fifth year of eligibility. The NCAA also changed its eligibility rules earlier this summer, creating a five-year window to play five seasons, with the exception of players who graduated in 2026.
That exception, as the source noted, is a curious one.
Even with Sweeney’s ruling in place, Lorient and Buchanan are not completely in the clear. The NCAA is appealing the decision, and the matter will go to the Tenth Circuit. If that ruling gets overturned, the two Mountaineer forwards could still be protected through their own lawsuit.
West Virginia coach Ross Hodge addressed the issue last week when he met with reporters, and he sounded cautiously upbeat about where things stand.
“Obviously, you’re paying attention to other cases that are similar in nature to his; you’re following trends, and like you’re reading the tea leaves a little bit. There has been a precedent set, and it’s been fairly consistent on certain cases if you’re looking at them.
It feels like they have been more lenient if you’re in that true fifth year window where you’re not trying to get the sixth or seventh. You feel like you like your chances in that situation if you’re trying to just get what was given to either previous classes or future classes.
I think where it gets a little dicey is if you start trying to get a sixth year, a seventh year, regardless of the scenario. If you’re looking at the case in Ohio, if you’re looking at some of the other cases with some football players, if it’s just been trying to recoup a junior college year or a NAIA year…or in the Ohio player cases, if it’s just flat out trying to get that fifth year back, those have been more successful.”
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