Four West Virginia University athletes have been granted an additional and fifth season of eligibility following a ruling from U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
Bailey’s decision comes less than a week after men’s basketball players Brenen Lorient and Javan Buchanan, football player Jason Chambers and baseball player Ben McDougal were plaintiffs in a hearing held last Thursday on the matter, as the quartet sought and has now received a preliminary injunction against the NCAA that permits a fifth season of eligibility for each of the four.
The case centered around challenging the 5-for-5 eligibility rule implemented by the NCAA in June that permits college athletes five years of eligibility to play five seasons, provided they have enrolled in college no later than the academic year following their 19th birthday.
Bailey’s ruling allows for the quartet of class of 2022 high school graduates to compete for available roster spots at WVU in the 2026-27 academic year. The judge referred to the current system as a “mess” and pleaded for Congress to develop a more uniform framework across college athletics instead of leaving eligibility matters up to federal courts.
Bailey’s ruling, prevents the NCAA from being able to enforce its Rule of Restitution against the players or West Virginia based on their participation from the injunction, meaning the athletes nor Mountaineers can be punished down the road.
On the surface, the ruling provides a big boost to the Mountaineer men’s basketball team.
ORDER FROM U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE JOHN PRESTON BAILEY GRANTING FOUR WVU ATHLETES ELIGIBILITY IN 2026-27
Lorient was perhaps West Virginia’s most consistent player last season and started all 34 games, averaging 11.9 points and 5.9 rebounds and registering double-figure scoring in 15 consecutive contests to end what had been thought to be his final collegiate campaign. The 6-foot-9 forward, who played two seasons at Florida Atlantic and one at North Texas, will now have a third year to play for head coach Ross Hodge, whom Lorient followed from UNT to Morgantown.
Buchanan has yet to play for WVU, but has been a full participant in practice. The 6-7 forward played the last two seasons at Boise State after competing for two seasons at NAIA-level Indiana Wesleyan.
Buchanan averaged 12.6 points and five rebounds last season for the Broncos.
“The blessing with [Lorient’s] situation is being able to be a full participant in practice — Javan and he both,” WVU men’s basketball coach Ross Hodge said last week. “Where you could really run into some challenges is if they weren’t able to practice at all, and then regardless of what was happening with their current situations from an eligibility standpoint, if they were on the practice floor on a Monday and then Tuesday off the practice floor. The fact that they’ve been able to be kind of full participants and have no restrictions, in that regard, it at least allows you to integrate them into what’s happening and you’re still a little bit of ways away from playing games. You’ll have to be adaptable and flexible if that time gets here and they’re still trying to figure that out.”
Chambers, a defensive back, was with the Mountaineers last season after playing at Appalachian State in 2024 and North Carolina Central the two prior years.
He started all 12 contests, played 664 defensive snaps and finished with 34 tackles and one interception.
“We were hoping to have a judge ruling on that last week and we’re still hoping to have something this week,” WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said Tuesday during his weekly media session. “He’s been practicing and he’s been in the system a year, so he could certainly help us if that gets through.”
McDougal, a native of Bridgeport, played two years at Potomac State before working his way onto the Mountaineer roster for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
A left-handed relief pitcher, McDougal has thrown 36.2 innings in his WVU career and has a 3.44 earned-run average. McDougal is 2-1 with three saves, 30 strikeouts and 16 base-on-balls. Despite battling injury during 2026, McDougal was instrumental in helping WVU advance to the College World Series for the first time as he threw five innings and allowed two runs in the Mountaineers’ 11-9 come-from-behind win over Kentucky that allowed WVU to avoid elimination one night before it again defeated the Wildcats to win the Morgantown Regional.
Bailey was the judge that ruled in favor of WVU men’s basketball player RaeQuan Battle gaining eligibility during the 2023-24 season and a group of WVU football players being eligible for the 2025 season.