The NCAA Division I Council changed an enrollment bylaw governing preenrollment activities on Thursday to allow big junior hockey players in a shift that will boost the pool of potential players for NCAA men’s hockey.
The change, which wo n’t be final until the end of Thursday’s meeting and will take effect on August 1, 2025, comes as the NCAA is facing an antitrust lawsuit over a ban on those players as well as one of its members, Arizona State University, who is alleged to have received a verbal commitment from a Western Hockey League player despite the ban. The change also applies to runners who compete properly before enrolling, provided that they are not paid more than required and real expenses.
The removal of the eligibility ban eliminates the need for a court-ordered order, but litigation over the ban was continue because money damages for economic harms currently being suffered by players are also in question.

In August, 19-year-old Ontario soccer player Rylan Masterson sued the NCAA and 10 institutions in a hypothetical group activity. The defenseman is unable to enjoy D-I soccer because he originally played in show activities for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires.
Masterson contends that the NCAA and its affiliated institutions have broken competitive laws by conspiring to “boycott” him and other people who are similarly situated. His situation challenges a scheme that forces talented youth sports players to make a potentially fatal choice between joining the Canadian Hockey League, which has 60 teams spread across the OHL, QMJHL, and WHL, and to forfeit the opportunity to play NCAA D-I sports. CHL people are denied the academic and athletic opportunities provided by D-I universities by the restrictions.
Masterson’s petition panels the restrictions as a remnant from a bygone age. The NCAA has lately abandoned the amateur model, despite the presumption that CHL athletes are professional athletes and no amateurs behind the restrictions.
College athletes can then make an unlimited amount of money through NIL offers, some of which are negotiated by collectives affiliated to universities and used to hire players to play and stay at specific institutions. The NCAA also grants D-I schools the opportunity to enjoy former professional hockey players from German team despite their professional athletic status. More recently, the NCAA’s tentatively approved negotiation to resolve the House, Carter and Hubbard competitive litigations directly envisions colleges as being able to pay athletes, issue to an quarterly salary-cap-style limit, for media rights, ticket sales sponsorships and NIL. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to argue that CHL people are prohibited from playing on the grounds that they no longer qualify because they play for the league.
The validity of the restrictions was even threatened in September when Braxton Whitehead, a 20-year-old on the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats, verbally determined to Arizona State University, an NCAA D-I class. Whitehead was ineligible to play for ASU, but NCAA rules did n’t stop his recruitment.

The removal of the ban should progressively improve the standard of sing for D-I sports. CHL people, some of whom will go on to NHL jobs, will now have the chance to play at D-I institutions. Players who are forced out by more accomplished players may suffer, but under competitive legislation, that’s a preferable choice because the marketplace for hockey players is more aggressive when better players make up that market.
The CHL stated in a statement that it believes” this is a good development that will give our people more opportunities to pursue their sports and academic careers after their time in the CHL.” The NCAA’s decision, according to the leagued, will “give younger players and their people more options in choosing their growth path.”
But Masterson’s situation is not just about the sport earth going-forward. Additionally, he seeks financial damages for the CHL people who participated at any time between August 12, 2020 and the current.
As an competitive complaint, Masterson can, and has, demanded trebled problems, meaning whatever amount of economic damage his situation proves—including lost NIL options that D-I sports athletes tend to attract—would be multiplied by three. Masterson specifies some of the harm by noting that D-I hockey players “receive full-ride scholarships, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as the right to earn royalties on their name, image, and likeness used by commercial entities like video game developers”. While Masterson’s complaint acknowledges, “damages suffered by some of the individual class members may be relatively small”, for some players who lost a shot, the potential economic recovery might prove higher.
In the interim, the NCAA will continue to defend itself in the lawsuit even though it may reach a settlement with Masterson to address the alleged economic harm. The parties stated in a joint status report filed on November 1 that they “are still in the process of trying to resolve the issues” in the dispute and that they intend to do so by November 15.
( This story has been updated to reflect the CHL’s statement. )