All hell has broken loose with the Colorado ruling on 5th-year eligibility
- Franz Beard
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
“Chaos, when left alone, tends to multiply.” – Stephen Hawking
Even before this most recent slew of losses in court rooms across America the NCAA was taking ineptitude to unprecedented levels but in the aftermath of Friday’s ruling in Colorado by Federal Judge Charlotte Sweeney all hell has indeed broken loose. Hand it to the NCAA. They did predict this would happen. What they didn’t do, however, is take responsibility for the ensuing chaos since their many years of fallacious decisions got us to where we are today in the first place.
Here we are on Sunday morning, less than 48 hours since Judge Sweeney’s decision ruled the exclusion of last year’s fourth-year seniors from a fifth year of eligibility as cruel and unusual punishment and it is a Titanic just struck the iceberg moment. The ship that is the NCAA hasn’t sunk just yet but the captain – Charlie Baker – is about to realize there aren’t enough lifeboats as widespread panic breaks out among coaches. For athletes who just completed their fourth year of eligibility in the 2025-26 athletic year and were looking at life on a G-League salary or making the rounds at NFL training camps as undrafted free agents, this is akin to Lazarus being called to life from the grave.
Football and basketball coaches woke up today seeing players line up like it’s a cattle auction, ready to sell their skills to the highest bidder. For coaches with available scholarships and holes in their lineups that require filling, this is manna from heaven if they can summon the boosters to fork over some more cash to buy a player or two that can offer immediate help. For those with holes in the roster but no scholarships to give, this echoes you hear are the equal of the Sundance Kid leaping off the cliff into the churning river below.
Florida’s basketball coach was quite confident all along that Denzel Aberdeen would get his fifth year whether through an NCAA waiver or the courts. The waiver never happened but Denzel got his eligibility restored without having to go to court thanks to Judge Sweeney. So it’s a good day to be Todd Golden. With or without Aberdeen, who transferred back to Florida after spending his senior season in exile at Kentucky, Golden knew he had a roster capable of competing for and winning a second national championship in three years. With Aberdeen now securely a Gator for the 2026-27 season, Florida will now field the deepest, most talented and most experienced roster since Kentucky’s 1995-96 NCAA championship team that eventually sent 11 of its 13 scholarship players to the NBA.
For Xaivian Lee, whose year at Florida ended in Tampa with a bad pass rather than taking a shot that could have advanced the Gators past Iowa into the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament, the ruling is a seat on the lifeboat. His season at Florida was a mixed bag of success and disappointments. There were games such as Florida’s win at Vanderbilt in which he looked every bit the stud who dominated play in the Ivy League at Princeton. There were too many others when he threw up so many bricks he could have qualified for a union card. Undrafted by the NBA, Lee played for Cleveland in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. While he had a few encouraging games, his overall level of play made him a candidate for the G-League or overseas.
The Colorado ruling assures Lee of a fifth season of college basketball. There is no room at inn at Casa Golden as the Gators have filled all 15 scholarships but there will be ample opportunities elsewhere. According to a Saturday tweet, Lee’s name will be in the NCAA transfer portal when it opens up Monday morning.
Lee won’t be the only familiar face in the portal. Keyshawn Hall, who went into a shooter’s coma at the O-Dome while leading Auburn to a stunning upset of the Gators, put his name in the portal back on April 20. He played for Miami in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, but has not signed a pro contract. He averaged 19.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game for the Tigers last year and has more than 1,800 points for a career that has seen four schools in four years. Despite his nomadic existence, there are plenty of coaches aching to find a scorer so don’t expect Hall to be unemployed long.
Some other prominent names in the portal will be former Texas point guard Jordan Pope (13.1 per game, more than 1,800 career points), UCLA point Donovan Dent (13.3 points, 7.6 assists), Missouri second team All-SEC forward Mark Mitchell (18.3 points, 5.2 rebounds), Arizona State point guard Maurice Odum (11.1 points, 5.7 rebounds) and Ole Miss wing AJ Storr (15.5 points, 3.1 rebounds). Florida women’s coach Tammi Reiss could be in the market where Mia Nicastro (24.1 points, 9.8 rebounds) at Western Illinois and Sisi Eleko (17.6 points, 9.9 rebounds) at Eastern Michigan are expected to be available for a fifth year.
There is a rather interesting situation brewing for Florida State football, where embattled head coach Mike Norvell faces the prospects of yet another losing season. With practice about to begin, his quarterback situation is murky with Ashton Daniels, whose years at Stanford and Auburn have been underwhelming. Last year’s QB, Tommy Castellano, who passed for 15 touchdowns and ran for nine more, said Saturday he is thinking seriously about returning to college football. He already knows the offense at FSU and he should be a far more attractive option for Norvell.
Three other names in the portal who got the fifth year and who will be drawing plenty of interest are former Georgia safety JaCorey Thomas, former Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year Trent Hendrick and former Kentucky linebacker Alex Afari. Thomas, who prepped at Orlando Boone, was in on 45 tackles last season. Hendrick had 106 tackles for JMU in 2025. Afari could go back to Kentucky where he was in on 61 tackles and has 203 in his career, but his former defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at UK is Brad White, now the defensive coordinator at Florida.