CINCINNATI — Seven states, including Ohio, have filed a federal antitrust lawsuit challenging the NCAA's transfer eligibility rule.
While the NCAA has made it easier for first-time transfers to move from one Division I school to another, second-time transfers must meet specific guidelines to be immediately eligible for their new team. If they don't meet those guidelines, they are required to sit out for one year.
In their lawsuit, the attorneys general of Ohio, Colorado, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia claim the transfer rule is an illegal restraint on a college athlete's ability to market their labor and control their education.
"Despite what the NCAA may claim, the Transfer Eligibility Rule restrains college athletes from freely moving among member institutions to improve their economic opportunity, personal growth, and well-being, a freedom afforded to other students at NCAA member institutions but not to college athletes," the lawsuit says.
The rule has impacted players in each of the seven states — including University of Cincinnati basketball transfers Aziz Bandaogo and Jamille Reynolds. Bandaogo and Reynolds' waivers were rejected by the NCAA in October, just weeks before the 2023-24 basketball season started.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost wrote a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker challenging the decision to declare Bandaogo ineligible, noting the 7-footer transferring from Utah Valley "submitted compelling evidence" as to why he needed to transfer.
Bandaogo appealed the NCAA's decision and was once again denied. Then, in November, the NCAA granted Bandaogo immediate eligibility.
Reynolds' case remains up in the air — as does West Virginia guard RaeQuan Battle's and former UC forward Jarrett Hensley's, who transferred to Southern Illinois.
"The 'AA' in NCAA might as well stand for ‘arbitrary and atrocious,'" Yost said in a press conference Thursday afternoon. "The transfer eligibility rule needlessly curtails the fundamental rights of college athletes."
The attorneys general are seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to keep the NCAA from enforcing the transfer eligibility rule.
