The 2025-26 season with the Nebraska basketball program probably didn’t go as well as Kendall Blue hoped. That might be why the former Husker has joined more than 40 other players in a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking another year of eligibility. The basis of this lawsuit is the same as several others that have been filed in recent weeks. The players believe they are owed a fifth year of eligibility because they had just finished college when the organization adopted the 5-for-5 eligibility rule.
Attorneys Darren Heitner and Ryan Downton filed the suit on behalf of dozens of players in California earlier this week. The suit seeks an injunction allowing the athletes involved, all of whom are seeking to play the 2026-27 college basketball season.
All class of 2022 recruits, athletes who recently played their fourth year of college, are not being grandfathered into the age-based model, which allows for five years of eligibility. That’s the basis for the suit involving the former Nebraska basketball player who transferred to Lincoln last season after three years at St. Thomas.
This new 5-for-5 age-based model calls for an athlete’s eligibility clock upon initial full-time enrollment in college or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever comes first. This eligibility rule begins this summer.
Kendall Blue joins lawsuit seeking fifth season of college basketball eligibility
Recruits starting in 2027 are age-based only. However, the NCAA is offering some leeway: currently enrolled athletes with eligibility remaining after the 2025-26 academic year will be allowed to apply the age-based model or continue under the previous eligibility rules, whichever is most beneficial to the player.
It’s this leeway that’s caused Blue and all the other players who have sued the NCAA about this rule, believing they should have been given the same flexibility.
So far, it seems like almost any lawsuit brought against the organization has been struck down by courts. There was even a Nebraska court that granted an Omaha Mavericks basketball player another year of eligibility; however, Isaac Ondekane’s argument wasn’t based on the 5-for-5 issue but rather on the NCAA's refusal to grant another year due to injury.
Earlier this month, the door for Blue and the other players involved in the California suit was kicked wide open in Ohio. A judge issued an injunction against the NCAA on behalf of 24 different players, allowing them to return for a fifth season. At the time, it seemed like it might be an avenue for Jamarques Lawrence; however, the former Nebraska starter so far hasn’t taken any legal action. However, Blue clearly wants to have another season on the court.
Should this lawsuit get its injunction, it seems unlikely that Kendal Blue would return to the Huskers. Last season, he appeared in 19 games but averaged just 3.5 minutes and 0.7 points per contest.
He came to Nebraska after spending most of three seasons as a starter at St. Thomas, where his profile as a scorer improved each year. In his final year before coming to Lincoln, he averaged 12.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. It’s likely that, should Blue get that extra year, he’ll look to go somewhere he has a chance to put up those kinds of numbers again.
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