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BREAKING: DIII Basketball Player Sues NCAA For Extra Year of Eligibility

Suit says Association "wrongly applied its own rules in bad faith"

SEPTEMBER 26, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH
No publication covers NCAA Division III better. #whyD3

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1. DIII Basketball Player Sues NCAA For Extra Year of Eligibility

Mike Iuzzolino, Saint Vincent

Saint Vincent men’s basketball player Mike Iuzzolino is suing the NCAA to gain an extra year of eligibility.

The 2025 graduate was named second-team All-Presidents Athletic Conference last season after averaging 14.0 points per game.

Iuzzolino started his collegiate career at Bryant University in 2021-22 and transferred to SVC in 2022-23 as a midyear transfer. His father, Mike, is a former NBA player and coached at Robert Morris University before taking the head position at Sewickley (Pa.) Academy.

» Background. The suit states that in 2020-21, the NCAA granted athletes a blanket waiver that allowed every basketball player in the NCAA to compete without losing a year of eligibility. By fall 2021, the NCAA purported to reinstate its previous eligibility rules, but failed to communicate this change clearly to athletes or coaches. Iuzzolino claims that he relied on his coach at Bryant’s assurances that his limited participation - totaling 23 minutes across 12 games - would not deprive him of a season of eligibility in the future.

The suit continues by saying that the NCAA has improperly ruled Iuzzolino inelgible, as it wrongly applied its own rules in bad faith to count his brief and limited participation during the COVID-impacted 2021-22 season as a full “season of competition.”

» Worth Noting. One of Iuzzolino’s attorneys is noted NCAA foe Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer who helped craft the House vs. NCAA settlement. The lead lawyer in the suit - Henry M. Sneath - is a 1980 graduate of Hamilton College who captained the varsity squash team for the Continentals.

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