Todd Golden discusses Denzel Aberdeen returning for 5th season, takes shot at NCAA
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Todd Golden will have a massive addition to his Florida team in 2026-27, as Denzel Aberdeen received an injunction to return to college basketball for a fifth and final season.
Of course, since Aberdeen graduated from high school in 2022, he was stuck in legal limbo after the NCAA’s five-for-five rule was enacted. But it eventually worked out for the Orlando native. After spending the 2025-26 season at Kentucky, Aberdeen returns to the program where his college career began in 2022 and where he won a championship in 2025.
“I didn’t love that we had to go to court to get this guy his opportunity to play, but that’s what the situation required, and we were going to fight with him to get the result we wanted,” Golden said on Thursday.
Clearly, Golden wasn’t thrilled with the process involved in getting Aberdeen eligible, especially in the wake of the Protect College Sports Act’s passage by the U.S. Senate. That would make the five-for-five rule a federal law, rather than simply an NCAA ruling.
“It never should have gotten to this point where these young men and women that just want to play an additional year of college sports as they finish their degree are having to fight with the entity that oversees that, that also passed the rule that thinks that people should deserve five years while we’re in the midst of Congress and the NCAA pushing forward the Protect College Sports Act,” Golden said. “Which, if adopted, would in fact allow all these fifth-year players to be eligible immediately.”
Aberdeen had a career year with the Wildcats, starting 35 games while averaging 13.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
