It is truly starting to feel like no more than 25 minutes can pass without more confusion arriving for fifth-year eligibility in college hoops. Just recently, a judge denied a motion to stay for a lawsuit in Tennessee that new Tar Heel big man Cameron Fens is part of. In essence, the NCAA wanted to make sure players in that lawsuit would not be given their extra season to suit up in 2026-27.
However, Fens and others were in the clear. Fast forward to the present time, though, and fifth-year players elsewhere, including former UNC guard Seth Trimble, are facing uncertainty due to the Tenth Circuit granting a stay in the class-action lawsuit in Colorado that was originally approved by Judge Charlotte Sweeney. Confused? So are we, but since Fens' lawsuit took place in Tennessee, he's still all good... for now.
To our knowledge, this does not impact UNC transfer Cameron Fens, as his eligibility was granted via a court case in Tennessee, not the blanket eligibility provided by the Colorado case. https://t.co/WlFu652va3
— Sherrell D. McMillan (@RellDMC) August 21, 2026
UNC big man Cameron Fens is not impacted by the Tenth Circuit Court siding with the NCAA
What a complete and total mess. On one hand, Michael Malone and his staff want to breathe easy knowing that Fens is going to be relied upon once the new season gets going, but there's still concern there. Just recently, it felt like any worry was wiped away, but who knows what kind of a decision the NCAA might make next.
This all stinks, plain and simple. Time and time again, the NCAA is rolling up its sleeves in trying to prevent these fifth-year guys from suiting up, despite the door being open for them to do so. With Trimble, Louisville announced that he had officially signed with the university, and then an hour later, this breaking news from the appeals court came in, temporarily deeming him ineligible.
Talk about a complete and total joke. And with Fens, he's the lone new North Carolina playmaker in the middle of this predicament, but the hope is that he shouldn't have any issues getting on the hardwood moving forward. If he does play the way people are expecting him to, there's no question that he's going to be a total difference-maker.
It's not only him down low who will be a new face in town, as Alexandros Samodurov and Sayon Keita are on campus, going through some offseason workouts with the rest of the squad. Those three guys are helping fill the void of Henri Veesaar leaving for the NBA, with the stud big man now with the Atlanta Hawks.
In a worst-case scenario that no one wants to even think about, the NCAA finds a way to prevent Fens from being a stud in the ACC for his last college season. Let's not think about that, though, as it seems like there's optimism from multiple different directions that he'll play and be an impact stud. The NCAA may not like it, but that's the way we're hoping things turn out to be.
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