Guess who’s back, back again. Stephen Daley’s back. And Kellan Wyatt.
According to a report by Pete Thamel, Indiana’s star edge rushers are both cleared to play against North Texas on Saturday.
“An Indiana circuit court has issued a temporary restraining order for NCAA eligibility that includes Indiana defensive stars Stephen Daley and Kellen Wyatt, per me and Mark Schlabach,” Thamel wrote on X Friday afternoon.
Daley and Wyatt were initially cleared to play by a federal injunction that broadly covered all class of 2022 athletes, but the NCAA obtained a stay on that injunction until its appeal could be heard. That procedure caused them to lose their eligibility — until Friday.
The Indiana temporary restraining order clears Daley and Wyatt, at least at the moment. But like safety Louis Moore’s case a year ago, the pair will have to contend with legal matters during the season.
A hearing for a temporary injunction for the plaintiffs is set for Sept. 11. While they’re eligible for the moment, the temporary injunction would put Daley and Wyatt on more solid footing.
The legal wranglings come after the NCAA did not extend its new five-year eligibility rule passed this summer to members of the class of 2022 who had just exhausted their eligibility in four years in the 2025-26 academic year.
The NCAA’s primary reason for not allowing class of 2022 members like Daley and Wyatt to play fifth years was a concern about taking away opportunities from younger players.
IU coach Curt Cignetti took that concept head on a couple weeks ago.
“I think in their case, you’re creating opportunities,” Cignetti said.
“You look at Wyatt, started less than half the games last year and got hurt. Then Daley stepped in, started six out of 16 games and got hurt. Both had pro potential but because of injury didn’t end up in NFL camps.
“We’d have to make no roster cuts if they’re eligible to play.”
IU swimmers Owen McDonald and Zalán Sárkány, Indiana volleyball player Avry Tatum, Miami (and former IU) men’s basketball player Malik Reneau, and Butler men’s basketball player Yohan Traoré were also included in the TRO.
“To be clear, it is the Court’s intention to place Plaintiffs in the position they were in at the end of their last college sports season,” the filing reads. “As long as they would have been eligible, academically and otherwise, to continue playing college sports in the following semester if they had a fifth year of eligibility, they are eligible today.”
Daley and Wyatt can take IU’s 2026 defense from great to elite.
Through the end of the 2025 regular season, Daley led the Big Ten and was tied for the national lead in tackles for loss from his defensive end position. He had 19 tackles for loss to go with 41 quarterback pressures, 5.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. He had 10 tackles for loss over the last three games of the regular season.
Daley suffered a knee injury during the postgame celebration following Indiana’s Big Ten Championship game win over Ohio State. He missed the entire College Football Playoff.
Wyatt was one of Indiana’s most impactful players on the defensive side of the ball before his injury. In seven games defensive end he had 27 tackles, including 8.5 for a loss and 2.5 sacks.
Wyatt was injured in the fourth quarter of the Michigan State game last October and missed the remainder of the season.
Unlike the fifth-year case that has enveloped LSU and the SEC this week, neither Daley or Wyatt were on NFL rosters during training camps nor are they looking to change schools.
Both Daley and Wyatt have been practicing throughout the month of August and this week with IU. It is not clear whether either player has been fully cleared from a medical standpoint to play on Saturday, but both should be very close if they’re not there yet.
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