RJ Godfrey is with Arizona on its trip to Lithuania, but through two of three scheduled games he has not played as his eligibility still gets sorted out with the NCAA. And while a Georgia court has ruled him eligible for the 2026-27 season, it may not be for every game.
A post from Scarlet and Black Insider notes that Godfrey, who signed with the Wildcats earlier this month, has been suspended by the NCAA for four games because he had signed with an agent and played in an all-star exhibition game.
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The 6-foot-7 Godfrey, who is expected to start for Arizona after transferring from Clemson, would miss the following games on the Wildcats’ 2026-27 slate:
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Nov. 2 vs. UCLA (in Las Vegas)
Godfrey was one of several men’s basketball players who were part of a lawsuit in Georgia to get a fifth year of eligibility. When the NCAA instituted its new ‘5-for-5’ policy, which allows all student-athletes five years to compete beginning after they graduate high school or turn 19, 2022 HS graduates were not grandfathered in. Other states have had similar suits, and a federal judge in Colorado recently ruled all 2022 grads would get that fifth year but the NCAA has appealed that decision.
Lawyers for Godfrey have filed a motion in Georgia to have the NCAA show cause for his suspension, per Scarlet and Black Insider.
Arizona has had other men’s basketball players sit out at the start of recent seasons because of the NCAA. Courtney Ramey missed the first three games in 2022-23 for participating in the Portsmouth Invitational draft showcase before returning to college, and Kerr Kriisa was suspended the first 19 games in 2020-21 because he’d signed a pro contract in Europe prior to college.
