Federal appeals court hands NCAA a victory in struggle for five-year eligibility rule

Federal appeals court judges handed the NCAA a significant victory in its struggle to implement a new five-year eligibility ruling Friday, though the win does nothing to tamp down dozens of similar lawsuits playing out in state courts across the country.Ruling in the case Wisne vs. NCAA, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver reversed a lower-court decision that had granted players across the country who graduated high school in 2022 a fifth year of eligibility.The lower-court ruling in July went against the NCAA's new rule that granted five years of eligibility, but only starting with athletes from the next year's class. It essentially made all those Class of '22 players eligible, leading to nationwide chaos, with teams looking to sign players who had been relegated to the sideline.But in August, when this same appeals court first put the ruling on hold, many of those players still found their way onto rosters thanks to favorable rulings in state courts.The decision Friday doesn'