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26-year-old college basketball player DeJuan Clayton won a lawsuit last week against the NCAA, granting him an eighth year of eligibility at his fourth school.
As a result, he was able to play guard for the Manhattan College Jaspers in their game on Friday against the Marist Red Foxes.
To understand how a college basketball player could possibly have eight years of eligibility, we have to take a look at DeJuan Clayton’s recent history.
Beginning way back in 2016 (and two Presidents ago), Clayton began playing college basketball for Coppin State University.
As a freshman, he played in 32 games and averaged a very respectable 12.4 points per game for the Eagles.
During his sophomore year, Clayton only played in six games due to injury so he was granted an extra year of eligibility.
Clayton returned to the Eagles’ lineup for his junior and senior years, playing in 31 games each season and averaging 14.5 and 12.0 points per game respectively.
After graduating in 2020, DeJuan Clayton used that extra year of eligibility to return for a fifth year at Coppin State. He ended up playing in 16 games and averaging a career-high 14.9 points.
All done, right? Nope. Don’t forget, the reason for the shortened schedule in 2020-2021 was because of the pandemic. Jackson, therefore, was granted yet another year of eligibility.
In his sixth season of college basketball, Clayton attended the University of Hartford as a graduate student, but only was able to play in two games because of yet another injury, buying him a seventh year of eligibility.
For his seventh season, as a grad student at Cal, DeJuan Clayton was limited to just nine games due to a hamstring injury and bouts of vertigo.
Now, he’s done, right? All of his eligibility was used up, right?
Nope.
For the 2023-24 academic year, Clayton enrolled at Manhattan University and reached out to the NCAA for a waiver that would grant him an eighth year of eligibility to play college basketball.
It’s been done before, and recently. 26-year-old Seth Towns was granted an eighth year of eligibility by the NCAA back in November, and Bradley Rozner was given an eighth year by the NCAA to play college football this past September.
Despite those two cases, the NCAA told Clayton no.
So he sued them.
And last week, Judge Kim Adair Wilson granted him a preliminary injunction that allows him to play, citing, according to Sportico, the “detrimental residual effect” not allowing him to play would have on his potential professional opportunities.
The Jaspers of Manhattan have just four games left this season, plus the MAAC tournament. After that, Clayton’s college basketball career will finally come to an end. We think.