This is the kind of Friday-night news that has nothing to do with a depth chart and everything to do with a courtroom. An Indiana circuit court issued a temporary restraining order covering 8 athletes, and two of them happen to be defensive stars for the defending champs: Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt. Both are now cleared to suit up as soon as tomorrow.
NEWS: A Indiana circuit court has issued a temporary restraining order for NCAA eligibility that includes Indiana defensive stars Stephen Dailey and Kellen Wyatt, per me and Mark Schlabach. "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 order, per Pete Thamel and Mark Schlabach, spells out exactly what the judge is trying to do: put these players back where they stood at the end of last season. That's not a small technicality. Daley and Wyatt are part of the high school class of 2022, the group the NCAA left out when it rolled out its new age-based eligibility model this summer. That model gives athletes 5 years to play 5 seasons based on age rather than a straight redshirt clock -- but the NCAA drew the line so the 2022 class, who'd already burned 4 seasons, got nothing. Athletes around the country have been suing over that exact gap since a federal class action landed in July.
The full group named in the TRO -- Daley, Wyatt, Owen McDonald, Zalan Sarkany, Jordan Johnson, Avry Tatum, Malik Reneau and Yohan Traore -- isn't just football. Reneau is a name Indiana fans know well: the former IU basketball player who transferred to Miami last year and led that team at 18.9 points per game. That he's swept into the same order as two Hoosiers football defenders tells you how wide this eligibility fight has spread across sports, not just one program's roster.
Stephen Daley led the Big Ten in TFLs last year with 19.0. Kellan Wyatt had 8.0 TFLs in seven games before getting injured last year. Neither signed NFL deals because of injury issues. Big adds for the defending champs.
For Indiana specifically, this is a massive get. Daley led the Big Ten in tackles for loss last season, and Wyatt was putting up 8.0 TFLs in 7 games before an injury ended his year early. Per Pete Nakos, neither ever signed with an NFL team -- their injury history is exactly why they were still fighting for college snaps instead of pro paychecks, and exactly why this fifth-season fight mattered enough to end up in front of a judge.
None of this is settled law yet. Per reporting on the case, Monroe Circuit Court Judge Kara Krothe's order is a temporary restraining order, not a final ruling -- a temporary injunction hearing is reportedly set for next Friday, which means the NCAA gets another shot to argue this the other way. The NCAA has already said publicly it won't hand out a blanket waiver for the 2022 class and plans to keep fighting these rulings in court.
For now, though, none of that matters for kickoff. Daley and Wyatt are eligible, Indiana gets its two best defensive difference-makers back for North Texas, and as Chris Low put it, restraining orders are apparently as load-bearing to a college football season as quarterback play.