Temple's Khalil Poteat wins NCAA injunction to play in 2026-27

Khalil Poteat entered the transfer portal back in January still unsigned, and now he's walking out of a courtroom with something more valuable than a roster spot: an extra year of eligibility the NCAA didn't want to give him.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Temple transfer DL Khalil Poteat has been granted an injunction against the NCAA to play the 2026-27 college football season, his attorney @JoshFrieser tells @On3. Poteat remains available in the transfer portal; he entered back in January. t.co/XymZ2CM8QP

Per Pete Nakos, Poteat's attorney Josh Frieser confirmed the Temple transfer has been granted an injunction against the NCAA, clearing him to play the 2026-27 season while he's still sitting available in the portal. That's a real win in a fight that's been playing out in courtrooms across college football all year — players who spent time at junior college programs suing to argue those seasons shouldn't count against their NCAA clock.

The template here is Diego Pavia. The Vanderbilt quarterback sued the NCAA arguing its rule limiting players to four seasons of competition within five years — JUCO snaps included — unfairly shortchanged guys who took the community college route to Division I. Pavia won his injunction, and more than two dozen other former JUCO players have followed him into court chasing the same outcome. Poteat is now part of that wave, and it worked.

Poteat is represented by agent @ed_waz, who's also the rep Nakos cited when Poteat first hit the portal in January still unattached.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Khalil Poteat is repped by @ed_waz

What this actually means for Poteat: he's a legitimate portal target for any program that wants a defensive lineman with a guaranteed extra year already locked in by a federal court, not a pending appeal. Programs that were wary of an eligibility case blowing up mid-season no longer have to worry about that with him specifically — the injunction is already in hand.

The bigger picture is messier. The NCAA has argued publicly that rulings like this could open the door to players stacking five, six, even more years of college eligibility if JUCO time keeps getting carved out case by case. Poteat's injunction doesn't settle that fight — it just adds another name to the list of players who won theirs before the NCAA could close the loophole, and it's another reason expect the portal to keep filling with older, grayer rosters next season.