Ohio Supreme Court Keeps Two Dozen Basketball Players Eligible with Season Openers Looming – Bleacher Report

Ohio Supreme Court Keeps Two Dozen Basketball Players Eligible with Season Openers Looming  Bleacher Report

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court filed an order Thursday that will keep the two dozen players involved in an eligibility case in that state available to play for teams across the country, with the start of college basketball season beginning next week. The order kept in place a ruling from earlier this month, when the state's high court stayed a lower-court ruling that would have declared the players ineligible. The NCAA is the defendant in a case filed by lead plaintiff Filip Borovicanin of Xavier, which opens its season on Monday. Other basketball players in the case include Gonzaga's Javon Bennett, Cincinnati's MJ Collins and Auburn's Kolby King.

The NCAA legal office sent a memo to its members late Thursday saying it was "deeply disappointed" in the latest legal outcome from a saga that upended the start of football season and is now bleeding into the start of basketball. "Every minute played by an ineligible player is an opportunity deprived to an eligible student-athlete — sometimes in the pinnacle events of a season," the letter said. "And it provides a significant competitive advantage to schools rostering experienced players who exhausted their eligibility." The court became involved in the college eligibility issue when it was asked to determine the legality of an executive order issued earlier this month