Mississippi State gets Malick Sylla, Jahron Manning back for 2026

Mississippi State's defense just got two reinforcements it thought were gone for good. Edge rusher Malick Sylla and safety Jahron Manning are back on campus and working their way back into the program, according to reports from ESPN's Pete Thamel and On3's Pete Nakos, after a Colorado court ruling reopened the door on their eligibility.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

NEWS: Mississippi State has initiated the process of two key defenders returning to the roster for a fifth season, per ESPN sources, as both edge rusher Malick Sylla and safety Jahron Manning are back on campus and set to return. Their availability has arisen from the district court ruling in Colorado.

This isn't a Mississippi State-specific loophole. It's the fallout from a much bigger legal fight over how the NCAA counts eligibility. Sylla led the Bulldogs in tackles for loss last year with 7, adding up to 13 for his career and 6 sacks across 46 games between three seasons at Texas A&M and last year in Starkville. Manning, meanwhile, started 21 career games and logged 10 starts in his lone MSU season in 2025. Both were presumed done.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Sylla led MSU in TFLs last year with 7. He brings 13 career TFLs and 6 career sacks after spending his first three years at Texas A&M, as he’s appeared in 46 games. Manning started 21 career games, including 10 in his lone season at Mississippi State in 2025.

The mechanism behind their return is a class-wide preliminary injunction out of Denver from U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, which grants a 5th year of eligibility to athletes from the high school class of 2022 who used up their 4 seasons this past spring. It's a direct hit on the NCAA's planned "5-for-5" eligibility model, and the NCAA wanted it paused while the case played out on appeal. Sweeney said no.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Judge Charlotte Sweeney denied the NCAA's emergency motions Monday night to stay the class-wide injunction granting a 5th year of eligibility to HS class of 2022 athletes who used up their eligibility this spring, per court docs. More: t.co/63FPsBmH7u

That denial matters because it means the ruling stays in effect right now, not after some future appellate timeline. Nakos noted the NCAA's appeal is technically still alive, but with no stay in place, players around the country are already exploring whether they qualify for a bonus season while the case continues to unfold.

The NCAA isn't rolling over, though. A day after the Sylla and Manning news broke, the organization put out a statement making clear it has no intention of treating this as settled policy — no blanket waiver, no retroactive age-based eligibility, and a formal ask to the Tenth Circuit to kill the injunction for good.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

NCAA says in a statement the D-I Cabinet decided not to apply age-based eligibility retroactively. "The Division I Cabinet, including its student-athlete members, carefully considered whether to make the age-based eligibility rule apply retroactively, and decided that doing so would not be in the best interest of all current and future college athletes. We stand behind and will continue to fully defend the membership's decision.  The injunction should never have been granted, and we have asked the Tenth Circuit to permanently reverse it."

So Mississippi State gets its pass rusher and its safety back for a defense that badly needed both, but the legal fight underneath it is far from over. If the Tenth Circuit sides with the NCAA down the line, programs across the country that raced to reintegrate class-of-2022 players could be scrambling to explain roster math all over again. For now, though, Sylla and Manning are Bulldogs again.