Jun. 25—Former Dayton Flyers guard Javon Bennett and former Belmont High School center Shawn Phillips Jr. were two of 15 college athletes to file a lawsuit in Hamilton County seeking an injunction against the NCAA’s age-based eligibility model, according to multiple reports on Wednesday, June 24.
All the athletes named played four seasons without redshirting and would be eligible for a fifth season under the new rule.
News of the lawsuit came one day after the NCAA overhauled its eligibility rules.
According to a press release, student-athletes will now receive “up to five years of eligibility if they enroll in college no later than the academic year after their 19th birthday. The new rule streamlines a significant portion of the Division I rule book by eliminating season-of-competition limits, sport-specific eligibility and redshirt rules, and eligibility extension waivers.”
With these changes, the Cabinet has taken decisive action for the benefit of student-athletes and the system of NCAA Division I athletics,” said Josh Whitman, athletics director at Illinois and chair of the Cabinet, in a press release. “For many student-athletes who enroll in college immediately after high school, these changes will result in the opportunity to potentially compete for an additional season in their chosen sport. For campus officials and coaches, this change provides rules that are simpler to administer and easier to predict for roster management decisions.”
In May, Neil Sullivan, the University of Dayton’s director of athletics, said the eligibility rule is a needed change.
“I think we’ve had inconsistent application of waivers for six-year, seven-year, eight-year players in some cases,” Sullivan said, “and it’s tough to figure out who gets a waiver and who doesn’t. You find yourself not knowing which way to go. So I think anything that could bring clarity and consistency to rosters I’m in favor of, because our business right now is based on rulings of federal judges across different federal court districts, depending on what state you’re in, and that’s just not a good way to do business.
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The rule means many current Flyers such as Amaël L’Etang, who is entering his junior season, will have five years of eligibility. That means L’Etang’s final season, should he choose to stay in college for five years, would be the 2028-29 season.
The rule does not apply to athletes like Bennett and Phillips, who exhausted their eligibility in the 2025-26 season. Bennett, a Dayton native who spent two years at Belmont, played at LSU and Arizona State before finishing his career at Missouri.
The other players involved in the lawsuit are: Filip Borovicanin (Xavier), Malik Messina-Moore (Xavier), MJ Collins (Utah State), Kolby King (Utah State), Chevalier Emery Jr. (Cleveland State), Jalen Quinn (Drake), Savannah White (Xavier), Donovan Brown (Massachusetts), Christian Henry (Fordham), Ziare Wells (Oakland), Cris Carroll (Youngstown State), Caden Powell (Baylor) and Josh Reed (Drexel).
Attorneys Ryan Downton and Darren Heitner told reporters they plan to file lawsuits on behalf of more than 50 players in five states. All the athletes named played four seasons without redshirting and would qualify for a fifth season based on the new rule.
The lawsuit states, “The NCAA’s application of this bylaw to Plaintiffs unfairly limits the number of games they can participate in during their ‘five-year eligibility window and unjustifiably restrains their ability to earn money through use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) connected to their work as Division I athletes.”
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