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UCLA has 13 players on its 2026-27 roster. The House settlement raised the men's basketball roster limit from 13 to 15, so Mick Cronin can fill two roster spots if he wants to.
In June the NCAA approved a new eligibility model giving athletes five seasons inside a five-year window, and applied it going forward. Players who had already used four seasons were left out, and that group sued.
Friday night in Denver, U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney granted a preliminary injunction and certified a nationwide class, so her order applies to everyone who fits a description rather than only the players who filed. That description is anyone who began Division I competition in 2022-23 and used up four seasons by the end of last season.
Her order reaches the fifth season and nothing else. It doesn't touch the transfer rules, the roster limits or the revenue-sharing cap. She also left the age-based part of the rule alone, so schools can still rule out athletes who were 20 or older when they enrolled in 2022-23.
Sam Ehrlich, an associate professor at Boise State, was first to report the ruling. On the Locked On Cougs podcast Sunday he spelled out what it means. These players get a fifth season. But if a player wasn't already in the transfer portal, the only school he can play for is the one he just left, and only if that school has room.
Ehrlich laid out three ways a player can still sign somewhere new. The first is being in the transfer portal already, before the rulings. The second is being a plaintiff in Ohio or Tennessee, where state court rulings did reach the transfer rules and opened the portal. The third is a case nobody has filed yet, which Ehrlich expects this week.
If Cronin is looking to add a center, the rulings produced one who can currently move. Shawn Phillips Jr. is 7 feet and 245 pounds. He started 31 of Missouri's 33 games last season, averaged 7.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 20.5 minutes and shot 68.3% from the floor. He's an Ohio plaintiff, so he can enter the portal, and Missouri filled its roster to 15 without him.
Phillips went undrafted in June and signed a summer league deal with New Orleans, which is the deal you sign for a chance to compete for a two-way or a roster spot in camp. He never made the Pelicans' Summer League roster. Baker's rule applies to players who signed an NBA contract, and a summer league deal isn't an NBA contract.
Duke Brennan can also move. The 6'10" forward averaged 12.4 points and 10.3 rebounds at Villanova last season, and his lawyer told him to enter the transfer portal in April to protect his rights while the eligibility rule was being written. On Monday he released a top eight that included UCLA, but I'm not sure how much of that interest is mutual.
Skyy Clark is in the same position. The former Bruin entered the portal months before any of this, so he can sign anywhere. He's been linked to LSU.
Donovan Dent can't sign anywhere new as of now, not Gonzaga, not Texas Tech. He began at New Mexico in 2022-23 and used four seasons, so Sweeney's order gives him a fifth. Right now the only school he can play for is UCLA, and the Bruins are not expected to pursue him. The staff made promises to the guards already in that room, and the money isn't there for Dent. Trent Perry, Eric Freeny, Jaylen Petty and Azavier Robinson are the four guards on the roster.
Now, about Tyler Bilodeau. In April I reported, sourced, that he would consider a fifth year in Westwood if Five-For-Five passed with current seniors carried over. It passed without them, Brooklyn took him 43rd overall in June, and he signed a two-way contract. A source with direct knowledge says he remains locked in with the Nets.
Sweeney's clarification Sunday said her order has no impact on the NCAA's other rules, including its prohibition on players who sign pro contracts coming back to college. NCAA president Charlie Baker said in December that the NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to anyone who has signed an NBA contract, and he named two-way deals specifically.
Bilodeau signed an NBA contract, ending his college eligibility. Charles Bediako went undrafted in 2023 and signed a two-way contract with San Antonio. He never played an NBA game and got released. He sued the NCAA to get back to Alabama. A judge gave him a restraining order that let him play five games, then a second judge denied his injunction and his season was over.
None of this is settled. The portal window Myles ordered for her 19 plaintiffs runs through 8 a.m. on August 10. The NCAA appealed to the Tenth Circuit and asked Sweeney to put her own order on hold while that appeal proceeds, and asked her to rule by Wednesday.