{"id":603646,"date":"2026-03-03T14:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/603646\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:14:16","slug":"navy-baseball-player-accuses-ncaa-of-harming-active-duty-readiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/603646\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy Baseball Player Accuses NCAA of Harming Active-Duty Readiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA federal court in Maryland is set to hear arguments Thursday on a temporary restraining order motion in a uniquely framed NCAA eligibility lawsuit filed by Navy<\/a> baseball player Brock Murtha. The college senior was denied a waiver last spring, which the Naval Academy has since said stemmed largely from errors its athletics department made in filing its petition.<\/p>\n

\n\tMurtha is seeking a fifth year of eligibility to compete in the current college baseball<\/a> season, now three weeks underway, before he is scheduled to commission as a Marine Corps officer in May. He says his decision to transfer to Navy from Notre Dame in 2022 was based largely on assurances from the academy that he would retain four full years of athletic eligibility.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnlike most of the dozens of athlete eligibility lawsuits<\/a> filed over the past year\u2014typically focused on players\u2019 financial or professional considerations\u2014Murtha frames his case as one of broader implications, including that of national security.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA lot of these cases are just about athletes extending their careers, whether for higher draft stock or maybe to get compensated more down the road,\u201d Murtha told Sportico in a telephone interview this week. \u201cFor me, I have a mandatory hard cap on my career. There is no playing later or transferring next year. So, I feel the NCAA is effectively truncating the professional development of a future military officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a status hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Julie Rebecca Rubin indicated her intention to rule on Murtha\u2019s TRO motion from the bench Thursday. If granted, and pending the Patriot League\u2019s sign-off, Murtha could join the 7-3 Midshipmen as soon as Friday for the start of their home series against Dartmouth.<\/p>\n

\n\tMurtha\u2019s ordeal highlights how athletes must rely on their universities\u2014and, specifically, their schools\u2019 athletic compliance officers\u2014to accurately interpret, communicate and facilitate the NCAA eligibility process. What remains unclear, however, is the degree to which Navy\u2019s admitted errors actually prevented Murtha from competing this season. Murtha, a native of Sayville, N.Y., says he remains largely in the dark about the association\u2019s rationale for continuing to deny his eligibility.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Feb. 10, the association sent a terse letter to Navy senior associate AD Loretta Lamar, issuing its final denial of the school\u2019s multiple requests for Murtha to be able to appeal his case, after failing to do so within the required 30-day window after it was first rejected. Ten days later, Murtha filed a federal breach-of-contract lawsuit against the NCAA, seeking damages and an injunction. In his complaint, he argues that the NCAA\u2019s refusal to reconsider harms him not only as a current athlete but, more importantly, as a future military officer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe harm I am facing is not the loss of \u2018fun\u2019 or \u2018games,\u2019\u201d Murtha wrote in a declaration attached to his civil complaint. \u201cIt is the loss of critical leadership reps that are essential to my ability to lead Marines in high-consequence environments. Once I commission in May, these opportunities are gone forever. No monetary award can replace the professional competence and compassion I am losing every single day I am held off that field.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Monday, the NCAA filed a motion opposing the TRO on procedural grounds, arguing the U.S. District Court in Maryland lacks diversity jurisdiction, as the unincorporated NCAA shares Murtha\u2019s state citizenship. An NCAA spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tMurtha is being represented by attorney Christine Brown, a prominent Title IX and NCAA eligibility lawyer who has advocated<\/a> for allowing athletes\u2014rather than schools\u2014to file eligibility waivers. \u201cThis mistake would never have happened if Brock had been able to file it himself,\u201d Brown, who is representing Murtha pro bono, said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite basing his legal challenge on Navy\u2019s oversights, Murtha insists he bears no resentment towards the academy, which he called \u201cmy biggest advocate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNavy athletics director Michael Kelly told Sportico the school continues to support Murtha and has exhausted all of its options to preserve his eligibility this season, but declined further comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tBy contrast, Murtha holds a much more jaundiced view of the NCAA, accusing the organization of deliberately undercutting his request.\u00a0\u201cThey are betting I would just give up and are using the calendar as a weapon to avoid dealing with the merits of this case,\u201d Murtha said.<\/p>\n

\n\tMurtha transferred to Navy ahead of the 2023 baseball season after competing at Notre Dame during the COVID-impacted 2020-21 campaign, where he appeared in six games. The NCAA later determined that one of those appearances occurred after the season\u2019s halfway point, thus counting the year against his total athletic eligibility.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Jan. 5, Navy sent the NCAA an \u201cinstitutional letter of responsibility\u201d seeking reconsideration of Murtha\u2019s appeal under the association\u2019s \u201cnew information\u201d standard. In the letter, Navy reiterated that it had erred in having mischaracterized Murtha, a reserve infielder, as a closing pitcher for Notre Dame and misstating the timing of his \u201clast substantive participation\u201d for the Fighting Irish.<\/p>\n

\n\tPer Murtha\u2019s lawsuit, he entered five games as a defensive replacement, never playing more than one inning, and logged a single at-bat late in a game for his sixth appearance. His final action came in the 20th contest of Notre Dame\u2019s 47-game season, which included its postseason run to the Super Regional.<\/p>\n

\n\tBuilding on that timeline, Navy wrote to the NCAA in January that Murtha\u2019s limited participation occurred early enough in the season to fall within the range the NCAA has traditionally considered appropriate for granting season-of-competition waivers.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Navy\u2019s athletics compliance office notified Murtha of the denial on March 31, 2025, the academy has said he was not given the underlying documents or presented with the appeal notice until May 20, 2025\u2014after it was too late.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his declaration, Murtha described the mental toll of pursuing a fifth year of eligibility.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile my peers are sleeping or studying, I am awake until the early morning hours researching NCAA litigation,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI have missed portions of my academic day to speak with counsel. This constant state of legal survival led to my lowest semester GPA in four years this past fall. The sleep deprivation and mental exhaustion are not merely \u2018stress\u2019\u2014they are a direct result of the NCAA\u2019s refusal to provide a fair process, and they are actively degrading my readiness for the fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat concern, he told Sportico, has become only more acute in light of the U.S. military action in Iran.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are definitely in a time of conflict, and me and my fellow midshipman will be thrown right into fight right away,\u201d Murtha said. \u201cIt is so unpredictable right now, we don\u2019t know where we are going to end up and what we are doing\u2014we just need to be as prepared as possible. This year, baseball is not just about a fifth year but about a final semester of preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal court in Maryland is set to hear arguments Thursday on a temporary restraining order motion in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,648,73561,76626],"class_list":["post-603646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-college-baseball","tag-navy","tag-ncaa-legal-issues"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116165664028683688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}