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Former Duke football players Ryan Smith and Tre’Shon Devones filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, with both seeking an additional year of college football eligibility.
The source of the players’ lawsuit appears to be money, with the suit saying that both players made $50,000 in NIL money last season and have been offered $150,000 for the 2025 season.
Smith, a defensive end, and Devones, a cornerback, are claiming in the lawsuit that the NCAA’s eligibility rules are an unreasonable restraint on competition, and those rules would force both players to enter the upcoming NFL Draft with a slim likelihood of being picked where they would like to be.
The players’ lawsuit also says that as a result of injuries and unfortunate circumstances, both players had several of their college football seasons cut short. The lawsuit specifically mentions the NCAA’s 5-year rule, which allows for 4 years of competition over 5 calendar years.
“And were otherwise not afforded the opportunity to reach their full potential in their college football careers up to this point,” the lawsuit states.
Smith played 56 games across 5 seasons for the Blue Devils, including 39 games in the past 3 seasons. He had 22 tackles, including 7.5 tackles for loss and 4 sacks in 2024.
Devones played at Rice from 2019 to 2023, playing in 35 games, including 20 starts. He transferred to Duke for the 2024 season and played in 10 games.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
