The court ruling that provided a fifth season of eligibility for college athletes from the high school Class of 2022 has been placed on hold, relays Austin Massey of Scarlet and Black Insider (Twitter link). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit granted a stay request Friday morning in the Wisne v. NCAA class-action lawsuit.

The decision means that athletes who used up their four years of eligibility in the spring no longer have access to another season, at least for now, explains Justin Williams of The Athletic. It pauses a preliminary injunction issued in late July by U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Denver in response to a challenge of the NCAA’s “five for five” rule, which grants college players eligibility over five seasons once their clock begins.

Athletes who are covered by a separate state-court ruling are not impacted by today’s decision, Williams adds. The appeal process will continue in the 10th Circuit, but Williams states that a final ruling is unlikely before college football begins next weekend.

Sweeney’s ruling affected 27 undrafted free agents who reached tentative Exhibit 10 contracts with NBA teams over the past two months. It gave them the option to explore a return to college rather than continue with their professional careers, and two prominent players have reportedly committed to making that move.

Seth Trimble, who played for the Wizards in the Las Vegas Summer League and reached a tentative agreement to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the team, plans to play another season of college basketball and will transfer from North Carolina to Louisville.

Texas Tech announced last week that Donovan Atwell, who played for the Bulls during Summer League and has a tentative agreement to sign an Exhibit 10 contract, will return for another season with the Red Raiders.

Trimble and Atwell are part of a group of 16 college basketball players who are directly impacted by the 10th Circuit ruling, according to James Madden of Zagsblog.

The NCAA issued a statement in response to today’s legal victory, per Pete Thamel of ESPN (Twitter link): “The Association will separately continue to defend other similar putative class action lawsuits and the state court cases that have been filed by former student-athletes seeking additional eligibility and expeditiously appeal any cases where former student-athletes have, or will, be granted additional eligibility through separate state court rulings.  We are encouraged by the Ohio Court of Appeals’ decision to stay the first of those injunctions pending our appeal.”