Brace for impact as Class of '26 granted fifth-year

By Daniel Susann | @dsus_sus

This is not a drill.

A Colorado District court judge just issued a class-wide preliminary injunction granting high school Class of 2022 athletes a fifth-year of eligibility, matching the eligibility standards set for HS Class of 2023 onward.

The new NCAA 5-in-5 framework implemented this summer included a clause stating that the seniors who graduated in 2026 would not receive a fifth year, but that is set to change after the ruling from Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney

The blanket waiver means a massive pool of athletes are now eligible to rejoin the fold of an already chaotic college tennis world. Players that were staring into a daunting pro-landscape now have the opportunity to return to college for another year and earn NIL money and get a graduate degree.

Eligible players could include many of the nation's best. Here are just those in the final ITA top 25 from May 20:

Women's:

• No. 2 Reese Brantmeier — UNC
• No. 16 DJ Bennett — Auburn
• No. 14 Bridget Stammel — Vanderbilt
• No. 15 Anastasiia Lopata — Georgia
• No. 17 Maria Sholokhova — Wisconsin
• No. 18 Savannah Dada-Mascoll — App State
• No. 19 Lily Jones — Michigan
• No. 21 Ekaterina Khayrutdinova — Auburn
• No. 23 Annabelle Xu — Virginia
• No. 24 Berta Passola Folch — Cal

Men's:

• No. 2 Sebastian Gorzny — Texas
• No. 3 Jay Friend — Arizona
• No. 6 Michael Zheng — Columbia
• No. 8 Benito Sanchez Martinez — Mississippi State
• No. 11 Petar Jovanovic — Mississippi State
• No. 13 Lucas Andrade da Silva — South Carolina
• No. 15 Oliver Tarvet — San Diego
• No. 17 Kenta Miyoshi — Illinois
• No. 21 Will Jansen — Georgia
• No. 23 Sebastian Dominko — Notre Dame
• No. 25 Vignesh Gogineni — Yale
  

The list goes on of seniors who finished in the ITA top 125, in addition to others outside of the top 125 that are still top-caliber and would easily earn a roster spot.

Two questions remain:

Which athletes are willing to make a relatively last-minute decision to return after already committing to post-grad/professional life?

Are there spots for them on rosters that are mostly filled out, with scholarships already called for?

Coaches will have to make very tough decisions in the coming weeks/months as the fall season approaches and the team season sits on the horizon, a semester away.

The injunction comes after a class action lawsuit from a number of former collegiate athletes seeking a fifth year, being the one class that did not get one in the past decade after the blanket waiver from the pandemic.

“All persons in the United States who began to play in collegiate sports in the 2022-2023 season, competed in NCAA Division I sports, and completed four years of eligibility as defined by the NCAA’s prior rules by the conclusion of the 2025-2026 season, and are therefore barred from playing a fifth season due to the NCAA’s adoption and immediate implementation of the Five-Year Eligibility Rule,” the class certification reads, per On3.