Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in search of a seventh year of eligibility, his agent tells CBS Sports’ Chris Hummer. Morris filed the suit in a Virginia state court after the NCAA denied in January his request for an eligibility waiver.
The basis of Morris’ waiver request was that he sustained injuries at TCU in 2022 and 2023, and he argued that he should have qualified for medical redshirts in both campaigns. Morris played four games in 2022 and seven games in 2023 after utilizing a redshirt in 2021. His 2020 season at Oklahoma did not count toward his eligibility clock due to the one-time waiver granted to all athletes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Morris stayed healthy each of the last two seasons and played full campaigns at North Texas and Virginia. He led the American conference in passing yards (3,774) and touchdowns (31) in 2024 and transitioned nicely to the ACC, where he guided Virginia to the first 11-win season in program history and a berth in the conference championship game.
If the court grants Morris relief against the NCAA’s eligibility rules, he could return to Virginia in search of College Football Playoff contention. The Cavaliers climbed as high as No. 14 in last season’s CFP Top 25 rankings and would have secured an automatic berth into the bracket had they defeated Duke in the ACC title game.
Morris’ suit against the NCAA is the latest example of an athlete attempting to use the court system to gain additional eligibility. These cases have largely defined the early portion of the college football offseason, and athletes found mixed results.
A Missississippi judge granted Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss a temporary injunction that will allow him to spend another season with the Rebels on the heels of a stellar debut campaign as one of the SEC’s top signal-callers. Chambliss made a similar petition to Morris, stating that he was physically unable to compete in 2022 due to a respiratory condition.
Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar, meanwhile, was denied injunctive relief in a ruling that served as a major victory for the NCAA. Aguilar’s case was different from the others, as he argued that his years spent in junior college should not count against his NCAA eligibility clock. That was the argument former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia used to gain an additional year in a landmark case last offseason.
