The NCAA sued Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday over an executive order he signed this week that allowed Ohio schools to ignore new guidelines that would have prohibited athletes who entered school in 2022 from competing.

DeWine signed the executive order Monday that gives Ohio’s public and private colleges and universities the option to allow all otherwise eligible student-athletes from the high school class of 2022 to compete, despite the new guidelines.

NCAA President Charlie Baker hailed the lawsuit as an "extraordinary step" in stopping DeWine from making it “impossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field.”

"The NCAA respects and honors the accomplishments of athletes whose eligibility expired in the 2025–26 academic year, and wishes them all the best in the future," Baker said in a statement. "But allowing them to return for an unexpected fifth season of competition would give them a benefit they never reasonably could have expected, to the detriment of thousands of eligible student-athletes who have been waiting for their opportunity to compete."

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

The lawsuit comes after old NCAA rules allowed athletes, who entered school from 2018 through 2021, to have five years of eligibility, though they could only play four seasons within that window. Students who were injured for a season also had the chance to make up that lost season within the five-year eligibility window.

The new years-based framework, adopted this summer, allows athletes who entered college in 2023 and after to also receive a five-year opportunity, but they can no longer request waivers to extend that eligibility.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.