Samari Collier has been living in legal limbo since he first challenged the NCAA's eligibility clock, and now that fight finally gets a real day on the calendar. Per Pete Nakos of On3, Collier's injunction hearing against the NCAA is set for Aug. 28, according to his agent Will Scott.
Former Coastal Carolina QB Samari Collier's injunction hearing has been set for Aug. 28, his rep @WillScottAgent tells @On3. https://t.co/wGHlVbRHki
For context on how Collier got here: he's the former Hutchinson Community College QB who led the Blue Dragons to a JUCO national title in 2024, racking up around 2,000 total yards with 19 passing touchdowns and 10 rushing scores in his two seasons there. He'd originally signed with Illinois out of high school in 2021 but left before ever taking a snap for the Illini.
Collier landed at Coastal Carolina for the 2025 season and actually balled out — 8 games played, 38-of-78 passing for 489 yards, 7 TDs to 2 INTs through the air, plus 429 yards and 7 more scores on the ground. That kind of dual-threat production is exactly why he wants another year, and exactly why the NCAA's eligibility clock has become such a sticking point.
This is the latest domino in the Diego Pavia-style wave of lawsuits arguing the NCAA's rule illegally counts JUCO seasons against a player's Division I eligibility window. The NCAA already tried to patch the hole with a narrow blanket waiver for JUCO transfers finishing up in 2024-25, but that left guys like Collier — on a different timeline — still stuck fighting it out in court.
Collier was already granted a temporary restraining order allowing him to be eligible while the case plays out, which is the only reason he's currently attached to any roster hopes for 2026. The Aug. 28 hearing is where the NCAA gets a real shot at pushing back, and where Collier finds out if that TRO turns into something permanent.
College football rosters are already being reshaped by this exact fight — schools are quietly tracking every one of these eligibility rulings because the precedent set for one QB can unlock (or shut the door on) a whole wave of returning players. Collier's case is a small one on the surface, but it's another data point in a legal fight that's slowly rewriting how long a player actually gets to play college ball.