College football's eligibility mess just got a courtroom plot twist. A judge in Dallas issued a temporary restraining order barring the SEC — and Commissioner Greg Sankey personally — from denying eligibility returns to a group of former players, even as every Power Four conference has scrambled to ban NFL-experienced guys from coming back for a bonus season.
Notable here that SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is a named defendant.
This isn't some abstract legal footnote. Ohio State's former kicker, Jayden Fielding, is one of the names directly cleared by the order. Fielding started for the Buckeyes from 2023 through 2025 and made 16 of 20 field goals last season, but he ran out of eligibility without ever redshirting. He'd already filed his own lawsuit against the NCAA in Illinois seeking a fifth season — now this Texas ruling opens the door for him to actually hit the transfer portal.
With this ruling, former Ohio State kicker Jayden Fielding can return for a 5th season and enter the transfer portal. t.co/k2LeFdZbQI
Fielding reportedly signed with the CFL's Ottawa Redblacks, which makes this whole situation even messier — a guy who already moved on to pro football in Canada could theoretically pivot back to college ball. It's the kind of detail that captures just how chaotic the current eligibility landscape has become.
UTEP safety Solo Barnes is the other headline name here, and his case shows why conferences are panicking. Barnes racked up 66 tackles and 2 interceptions last season and was reportedly given NFL tryout looks this offseason — exactly the kind of resume that's now triggering conference bans. He was granted his own TRO in Dallas and says he plans to suit up for UTEP in 2026, which lines up awkwardly with the Mountain West's brand-new rule prohibiting NFL players from returning to the league.
UTEP safety Solo Barnes, who was granted a TRO in Dallas earlier tonight, currently plans to return to the program for the 2026 season, he tells @On3. Posted 66 tackles and 2 INTs last season. Big win for the Miners with the move to the Mountain West. t.co/l8FMiMm5lP
Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and Chiefs receiver Omari Evans are also named in the suit, according to reporting — both currently under NFL contracts, which would flatly violate the new Power Four rules if they tried to walk back into a college locker room. The tension is obvious: courts are handing out individual TROs while conferences are simultaneously writing rules to slam the door shut on exactly these guys.
Legal minds are already warning this could be a repeat of the Bediako-Alabama situation, where a TRO got issued and then simply failed to convert into a permanent injunction once actual hearings happened. And this particular order may only cover players named in the Texas suit — not the separate group suing in Louisiana, where a TRO amendment is reportedly already in the works. Translate that: this saga is nowhere close to over, and a guy like Fielding or Barnes celebrating a win in court today could still get that eligibility yanked back in a few weeks.