Both the IU football and basketball programs got good news from a Monroe County court Wednesday morning.
Football players Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt, and basketball player Sam Alexis all received a preliminary injunction against the NCAA and are now fully eligible.
The full court order from Judge Kara E. Krothe is below.
Key players on the 2025 team before suffering injuries, Daley and Wyatt are now expected to play on Friday when the Hoosiers begin Big Ten play against Northwestern.
The developments make an already high-level Indiana defense even better.
“You know, sure will help if we have Wyatt and Daley,” IU coach Curt Cignetti said after his team’s win over Western Kentucky — a game both players were forced to miss as the judge considered their case.
Meanwhile, the addition of Alexis gives IU basketball a veteran in Darian DeVries system who adds much-needed frontcourt depth. Alexis played with the IU team in Peru this summer, and he has continued practicing with them since classes resumed in August.
The injunction prohibits the NCAA from excluding Daley, Wyatt and Alexis from its new five-year eligibility rule passed this summer. Each athlete, all members of the class of 2022, would be eligible for a fifth year if the new rule were to apply to them.
The injunction is in effect until the trial can be heard.
Former IU football player Louis Moore obtained a preliminary injunction around this time last year, and the trial was not set to begin until after the football season.
But this may not be the end of legal maneuvering that could overlap the current and upcoming football and basketball seasons. The NCAA can and will likely appeal the preliminary injunction, and the organization has successfully stayed similar injunctions until an appeal can be heard.
The attorneys for the plaintiffs did rely on new arguments, however, including that the NCAA rules manual does not specifically exclude members of the class of 2022 from the five-year rule.
IU volleyball player Avry Tatum and swimmers Owen McDonald and Zalán Sárkány are also among the group who became eligible via this ruling.
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