Last Friday the law firm Jackson Lewis filed a complaint for injunctive relief in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against the NCAA due to its denial of waiver for an extra year of eligibility for 2 St. John’s basketball players (Christopher Ledlum/Jordan Dingle). The 2 former Ivy League players had their entire 2020-2021 seasons canceled due to the conference’s concerns around COVID. While the NCAA has granted 1 more year of eligibility for student-athletes who played in 2020-21, it did not give this opportunity to players who sat out that year. The complaint alleges that the NCAA has violated multiple state statutes in New York and restricted these players’ ability to receive NIL money and prepare to play at the next level (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D5QqGMlO9oR70p64J1zh6Oq2WJ9sv2Sq/view). Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel interviewed Paul Kelly, chairman of the Jackson Lewis Collegiate and Professional Sports Industry Group, about the lawsuit.
Why did you file this lawsuit? This lawsuit is challenging the NCAA’s decision not to extend to these two grad students, who previously attended Ivy League institutions (Ledlum at Harvard and Dingle at Penn), the same one-year restoration of eligibility due to COVID that was granted to athletes in other Division I conferences.
It sounds like the 2 players are being penalized even though they did not do anything wrong? These two student-athletes were unable, through no fault of their own, to play basketball during their sophomore season since the Ivy League cancelled all winter sports during the 2020-21 academic year. They were forced to sit and watch while other D-I conferences continued with all or part of their winter seasons, despite COVID. To add insult to injury, the student-athletes who had a chance to participate in athletics during the COVID year received and extra year of eligibility, while student-athletes from conferences that shut down their seasons were not afforded similar treatment. This decision by the NCAA is unreasonable and highly unfair to student-athletes from the Ivy League, and other similarly situated conferences that elected not to play during COVID.
What would you like the court to do? Chris Ledlum and Jordan Dingle should not be denied a fifth year of eligibility, and they have a strong desire to play for St. John’s University where each is each presently attending graduate school.