College sports has yet another eligibility crisis, and the West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball team will be seriously affected by the outcome.
After the NCAA changed their eligibility rules to a five seasons in five years model this summer, but excluded Class of 2022 players who exhausted their previous four seasons in four years, lawsuits were filed by some of those aforementioned players seeking a fifth year as well. Then, one court ruling in Colorado granted an injunction allowing any player in such a situation an additional year.
This has precipitated potential return for Brenen Lorient, and cleared a path for transfer Javan Buchanan, who signed with West Virginia this past spring but had an eligibility waiver denied by the NCAA. However, a federal appeals courtgranted a stay to the NCAAin the case, halting a return for the two Mountaineers. But that isn't affecting how head coach Ross Hodge is planning for the season.
West Virginia Mountaineers still planning for Brenen Lorient, Javan Buchanan to 2026-27 season
During an interview with Couz's Corner this week, Hodge was asked abouthow the team is handlinga case of "Schrodinger's eligibility" with what is essentially projected as their two-deep lineup at power forward. The answer? Not much has changed, despite the recent update in the Colorado case.
“They can be full participants in practice. It’s not like they’re getting yanked off the practice floor. And until we’re told that they can’t be part of what we’re doing, we’re gonna plan as if they can,” Hodge said.
And the Mountaineers do have a little bit more leeway to do so, because there is still a decent chance that both players will be granted eligibility. They havealso filed their own lawsuitin West Virginia court, and it will be heard in the same district that previously ruled in West Virginia's favor in both the Rae'Quan Battle and Jimmori Robinson cases.
That court also suspended the rule of restitution in those cases, meaning that the NCAA could not punish the Mountaineers if the players played and the case was later overturned. So now, both players are relying upon another ruling to get them on court.
“There’s some things in there that make their situations unique,” Hodge said. “That painted for them that, hey, this is probably something that you guys should pursue.”
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