NCAA Weighs Five-Year Eligibility Rules as Player Suits Pile Up

As the NCAA moves to simplify its rules on who can play college sports, an examination of the legal battles over athletic eligibility shows courts struggling to referee a system that has quickly become big business.

In the past two years, federal and state courts denied nearly half of more than 80 requests from students seeking to enjoin the NCAA from enforcing its eligibility rules, according to data analyzed by Bloomberg Law.

In some instances, the same judges made differing rulings based on specific circumstances. And in others, the pace of justice didn’t coincide with the limited time in an ...