A judge has granted numerous former college football players a temporary restraining order allowing them a fifth year of eligibility, despite many attending NFL training camps and some even playing in preseason games. The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by 33 athletes from multiple sports against the NCAA in Louisiana state court on Wednesday.
Among the plaintiffs are 16 football players, including DQ Smith, Jack Pyburn, Trent Hedrick, Junior Tuihalamaka, Dae’Quan Wright, Zxavian Harris, Wydett Williams, and Anthony Hankerson. Several of the players signed with NFL teams and participated in training camps earlier this month. Pyburn, Wright, Williams, and Hankerson are currently listed on NFL rosters.
ESPN reports that, according to attorney Ryan Downton, if their NFL teams release them by Sept. 1, they can join a college roster under the restraining order.
Specifically, the judge’s ruling states that athletes who had “signed a professional contract, or agent contract, or played in a professional sporting event” could not be barred from playing college football by the NCAA. The athletes may do so as long as they terminate those contracts before participating in college games and return any earnings from those contracts.
The NCAA has been fighting lawsuits ever since changing its eligibility rules
“Courts across the country granting relief to ineligible athletes who already had every opportunity to compete in college – sometimes without even having a hearing – are failing to appreciate the destabilizing effect their rulings are having on college sports,” NCAA senior vice president of external affairs Tim Buckley said in a statement. “The lawyers bringing these cases seemingly won’t be satisfied until every professional athlete can treat college sports as a fallback option, regardless of the opportunities it strips from those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience.”
The NCAA’s new “age-based” eligibility model has been the subject of several lawsuits.
In July, 11 DI athletes filed a federal class action complaint in Colorado, claiming that the NCAA’s new eligibility regulations have negatively impacted their ability to continue their education and the NIL benefits that come with it.
That same month, an Ohio judge granted a preliminary injunction to 24 men’s and women’s collegiate basketball players, allowing them to continue their college careers and enter the transfer portal after the NCAA found them ineligible.