New court ruling puts Denzel Aberdeen’s 2026-27 Florida eligibility back in doubt

Denezel Aberdeen’s status for 2026/27 was seemingly cleared up a few weeks ago when a court ruling from Colorado cleared the way for him to play for the Gators this season. Aberdeen has been fighting for a 5th season of college basketball after transferring back to Florida from Kentucky after a year there. 

Well, pump the brakes because a new court ruling has sided with the NCAA, and as of now, Aberdeen is not eligible to play in 2026/27.

Denzel Aberdeen’s status is up in the air once again

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the NCAA’s stay request in the case of Wisne v. NCAA. Essentially, the ruling that Judge Sweeney, out of Colorado, made is “stayed” and will need an appeal. 

At the heart of the legal fight is the NCAA’s new rule that allows athletes five years of elegibility and eliminates the redshirt. The catch is that it doesn’t apply to athletes from the class of 2022 who graduated after playing the past four seasons and exhausting their eligibility under the old rule.

As has been chronicled in Aberdeen’s case, one of those four seasons he “played” was his first year, when he took the court for a total of 41 minutes for the entire season. There are fair arguments that it should count as a full season since college football players could appear in four games and still redshirt. The counter is that Aberdeen and Todd Golden knew full well the moment Aberdeen stepped on the court on November 7, 2022, against Stony Brook that it would count as a full season.

Denzel Abderdeen headlines the insanity and mess of modern college sports

It does seem a bit silly that the NCAA wouldn’t extend its rule to the class of 2022, but what is sillier is how ununified any of these rulings seem to be. For example, this ruling doesn't appear to affect the 16 former college football players who were granted a temporary restraining order out of Louisiana this week, including Jack Pyburn. 

And we know by now how this song and dance goes with the court system. Everyone seeking to play one more year in college is just going to jump around from judge to judge until they can find one who will rule in their favor.

If we were the NCAA, we would give up this fight, let the 2022 guys have one more year, and be done with it. We would be done with all these back-and-forth court challenges that have no consistency, and we could move on to just the games on the field.

But until then, Aberdeen and others will need to continue pursuing their legal options to play this upcoming season.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow