Morgan State player sues NCAA, school over weird five-year clock eligibility ruling

BALTIMORE, Maryland -- A Morgan State basketball player has taken his eligibility fight with the NCAA to the courtroom after he was ruled ineligible due to the way the NCAA determines a player’s eligibility clock.

First, some background. The way that the NCAA’s five-year clock works is pretty simple: An athlete has five years to use four years of eligibility as a student-athlete, and the clock starts ticking as soon as they enroll in college. Some exceptions can be made — like, for example, Jalan West of Northwestern State, who received a waiver for a seventh-year of eligibility after a pair of torn ACLs — but it requires the NCAA to determine the athlete should receive a waiver.

Enter Andrew Hampton. He’s currently a 24-year old accounting major and a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society, according to the Baltimore Sun, but he also happens to be heading into his seventh year in college. Hampton initially enrolled at Mount St. Mary’s in 2011 — as a student, not as an athlete — and also spent time at Montgomery College, a two-year school where he also did not play sports, before finally enrolling at Morgan State in the fall of 2013. He walked onto the team in 2013-14 and averaged less than 15 minutes per game in a total of 18 games in 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Hampton did not play season, however, as the NCAA ruled that his eligibility clock started when he enrolled at Mount St. Mary’s back in 2011.

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