After months of waiting and legal back-and-forth, Denzel Aberdeen is officially cleared for a fifth year of college basketball.
On Tuesday, Judge George M. Wright of Florida’s Eighth Judicial Circuit ruled in favor of Aberdeen, granting the fifth-year a temporary injunction in his lawsuit against the NCAA.
"We're pleased with today's ruling, and we're especially happy for Denzel," Florida head coach Todd Golden said.
This decision comes after Aberdeen filed for a temporary injunction against the NCAA on Sept. 11. Aberdeen’s attorney Jesse Panuccio provided a statement to The Field of 68 regarding Aberdeen’s case.
“Denzel Aberdeen, a senior at Florida, should be allowed to compete as a student-athlete under the NCAA’s 5-in-5 rule,” Panuccio said in his statement. “But the NCAA has announced an unwritten exception to its rule that strips Class of 2022 students from this policy, even though they competed for years against fifth-, sixth- and sometimes seventh-year seniors who received COVID-era eligibility waivers. The NCAA’s decision violates its contractual commitment to fairness to all student-athletes, and we have sued to vindicate Aberdeen’s rights and get him back on the court as he finishes his degree at UF.”
Abedeen’s eligibility saga started when he announced his decision to return to Florida for a fifth year on April 10, pending the approval of a waiver from the NCAA.
Then, on July 31, he was set to be cleared for a fifth season following a class-wide ruling by Judge Charlotte Sweeney of the U.S. District Court of Colorado, which demanded that the NCAA grant all Class of 2022 athletes who finished their fourth season this past spring an extra year of eligibility. However, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals soon overturned the decision, voting 2-1 to halt Judge Sweeney’s ruling.
Aberdeen’s case for a fifth year stemmed from his freshman season at Florida, where he played in just 40 minutes across 12 games.
“It’s just a common-sense situation,” Golden said April 22. “This isn't a 27-year-old trying to play his eighth year in college at his sixth different school; this is a 22-year-old within his fifth year clock coming back to get his degree. It would be a really weird stance to try to fight him from playing.”
Now, with a temporary injunction, Aberdeen is set to be the starting shooting guard for a Gators team expected to be No. 1 in the nation heading into the 2026-27 season.
Aberdeen is projected to start alongside Boogie Fland in the backcourt. On Thursday, Fland said he and Aberdeen can be a deadly combination.
“I feel like it goes on the court the way it goes off the court, you know what I mean?” Fland said. “The brotherhood you have off the court, it trickles into the court.”
The fifth-year guard spent his first three seasons at Florida, where, in his junior season, he played a crucial role off the bench en route to the Gators’ 2025 national championship. During that season, Aberdeen averaged 7.7 points and 19.7 minutes per contest.
Following the 2024-25 campaign, Aberdeen transferred to Kentucky, where he averaged 13.6 points and 3.4 assists per game. He started 35 of 26 contests for the Wildcats. Aberdeen averaged 17 points per game across his three contests against Florida last season.
Now Aberdeen is ready to play a significant role for the Gators in their quest for another national championship, which starts Nov. 2 against Miami in Tampa.
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
Jeffrey is the Fall 2026 men's basketball reporter and a third-year journalism sports & media major with a media, management and production minor. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family and rooting for the Miami sports teams.
