While Chandler Morris finished 2024 ranked fourth nationally with 31 touchdown passes, he has watched his peers from that leaderboard, like Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward, move on to the NFL. Now, Morris is taking a different path: suing the NCAA for a chance to play a seventh season. 

“NEW: Virginia QB Chandler Morris is suing the NCAA for a 7th season of eligibility,” as reported by On3’s Pete Nakos.

According to the latest reports, Morris and his legal squad took their fight to the Charlottesville Circuit Court. He is seeking a preliminary injunction to secure one more season of eligibility. This came after the NCAA shut down his medical redshirt appeal in January. Battling a knee injury in 2022 that also hit his mental well-being, he sought a medical redshirt to extend his TCU run.

The 25-year-old took the hit during the season opener against Colorado. Moreover, the injury had cost him the starting job to Max Duggan, and he watched as Duggan led the Horned Frogs to the College Football Playoff National Championship. The experience left Morris determined to earn back a starting role and lead a team himself.

Morris then shook off the injury and logged three more appearances as a backup in 2022. He even saw the field in the national title game. But with a redshirt already burned in 2021, the NCAA still stamped the shortened season as a full year of eligibility.

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His attorneys argue that the 26 snaps the quarterback played in three games followed a medical prescription to take the field as part of a mental-health treatment plan. But the NCAA ignored the medical documentation and rejected the Virginia quarterback’s eligibility appeal. 

“There have been some talks with Chandler of possibly (pursuing an extra year),” Cavaliers head coach Tony Elliott said back on December 4, according to the Daily News-Record. “That’s still to be determined. So, not going to say if that’s going to happen or not.”

However, Virginia could no longer wait for Morris to receive NCAA approval. Instead, they signed two experienced transfer quarterbacks. Missouri’s Beau Pribula and Pitt’s Eli Holstein joined the team after the Virginia quarterback was denied a waiver request in January. 

Recent eligibility fights have gone both ways in court, offering hope in some cases and heartbreak in others. If we take Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, he caught a break with an extra year approved. However, Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar didn’t have it in his favor this time, as his request for a preliminary injunction was simply denied. 

According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the NCAA is now burdened with more than 50 lawsuits with no real legal muscle. That’s when ex-Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer dropped a warning. 

The case of Virginia’s quarterback adds pressure on the NCAA after Urban Meyer’s warning

According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, over the last 14 months, 57 lawsuits have been filed against the NCAA. The number is concerning for Morris, as only 12 players in the batch have won preliminary injunctions. At the same time, Meyer’s analysis puts the NCAA on high alert.

“The NCAA, to give them credit, every time they’ve set a penalty, they’ve tried to enforce something,” Meyer stated. “They litigate, they go to court, and they lose. There is some empathy to understand they don’t have subpoena power. They’re a powerless organization right now. The federal government, to me, can’t get out of its own way.”

Meyer, along with Nick Saban, President Donald Trump, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, discussed the loopholes in college sports while playing golf. One of them is players pushing their eligibility. Players like Virginia’s quarterback are now fighting for a seventh year of eligibility, which creates a bottleneck.

Does the NCAA’s fading authority tilt the scales in Virginia’s Chandler Morris’s favor, or does he end up sharing Joey Aguilar’s courtroom fate?