Chandler Morris takes NCAA to court in Virginia for seventh season of collegiate eligibility

Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in Charlottesville Circuit Court in an attempt to play in 2026 — his seventh college football season — according to On3’s Pete Nakos. The 25-year-old Morris took this legal step after the NCAA formally denied his medical redshirt request to recoup an additional season of eligibility in early January.

With this action, Morris joins a growing list of veteran QBs — including Ole Miss‘ Trinidad Chambliss and Tennessee‘s Joey Aguilar — that have taken the NCAA to court to challenge unfavorable eligibility rulings. Chambliss is expected to return for the 2026 season after a Mississippi judge granted him a preliminary injunction against the NCAA earlier this month, while Aguilar had his injunction request denied by a Knoxville judge last week. Morris retained Quinn Emanuel law partners JP Kernisan and Ben O’Neil as his attorneys, per Nakos.

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Cavaliers head coach Tony Elliott told reporters in early December the school had petitioned the NCAA on Morris’ behalf for a seventh season of collegiate eligibility. He was hoping to facilitate a return to Virginia in 2026.

“There have been some talks with Chandler of possibly (pursuing an extra year)” Elliott said on Dec. 4, according to the Daily News-Record. “That’s still to be determined. So, not going to say if that’s going to happen or not.”

Morris started 14 games for the Cavs as a sixth-year graduate senior in 2025, throwing for exactly 3,000 yards and 16 touchdowns on 64.7% (282-of-436) this past season in Charlottesville. The 25-year-old Morris landed at Virginia following an offseason transfer from North Texas, where he started 13 games while throwing for a career-high 3,774 yards and 31 touchdowns on 62.9% (322-of-512) passing in 2024.

That followed a three-year stint at TCU, where Morris played just 15 games during his injury-plagued tenure in Fort Worth between 2021-23. That said, Morris’ 2021 and 2022 seasons with the Horned Frogs were cut short due to injuries, limiting him to just four games in each season.

Morris’ attorneys argue his 2022 season, in which he missed seven games after suffering a knee injury in the season opener, only to lose his starting job to backup Max Duggan, should qualify for a medial redshirt. Morris previously used a regular redshirt for the 2021 season. That came after he appeared in five games at Oklahoma as a true freshman in 2020, thus not qualifying for a redshirt.

In total, Morris has thrown for 9,207 yards and 63 touchdowns to 26 interceptions on 808-of-1,258 passing (64.2%). He appeared in 47 career games with 36 starts across six college seasons between 2020-25.

While the expectation is Morris would return to Charlottesville should he earn another season, there was some speculation Morris could also follow his father, Chad Morris, to Clemson, according to the Charlotte Observer’s Chapel Fowler. The elder Morris, 57, is in his second stint as the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator, a position he previously held between 2011-14 before being hired as head coach at SMU in 2015. The Morris family has a long relationship with longtime Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, including even living next to one another a decade ago when Morris was previously on staff.