Former Kansas Guard Jayden Dawson Joins NCAA Eligibility Lawsuit
Former Kansas guard Jayden Dawson is seeking another opportunity to play college basketball.
Dawson is among 52 men’s basketball players named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Guilford County, North Carolina, challenging the NCAA’s eligibility rules. The lawsuit argues that the NCAA’s recently adopted five-year eligibility rule should also apply to athletes from the high school class of 2022 who have already exhausted their eligibility under previous regulations.
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The plaintiffs are requesting an injunction that would allow them to compete during the 2026-27 season before final roster spots across college basketball are filled.
The filing argues that without immediate legal relief, players in the class would be unfairly excluded from the rule change while other athletes have already secured additional eligibility through recent court rulings.
Dawson spent one season at Kansas after transferring from Loyola Chicago. He arrived in Lawrence ahead of the 2025-26 season following a breakout junior campaign with the Ramblers, where he averaged 13.9 points per game while starting all 32 contests.
His lone season with the Jayhawks, however, was interrupted by a wrist injury suffered early in the year, and Dawson never established a consistent role in Kansas’ rotation.
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Following the season, Dawson entered the transfer portal despite having exhausted his NCAA eligibility, hoping to receive a waiver for his injury-shortened freshman season.
The North Carolina lawsuit follows a series of successful legal challenges to NCAA eligibility rules in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Ohio granted an injunction allowing 24 athletes an additional season of eligibility.
That ruling also helped inspire former Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr.’s separate lawsuit against the NCAA, filed last week in Douglas County, Kansas. Council is pursuing a sixth season of college basketball under a different legal argument after previously receiving an NCAA waiver that allowed him to play for the Jayhawks during the 2025-26 season.
The North Carolina case, filed as Chisom Okpara et al. v. NCAA, also includes several other notable Division I players, including Donovan Atwell, Dallin Hall, Malik Reneau and NC State transfers Tre Holloman, Ven-Allen Lubin and Darrion Williams.
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If the plaintiffs receive an injunction, Dawson and the other players would become immediately eligible to compete during the 2026-27 season while the broader case proceeds through the courts.
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