Stephen Daley, Kellan Wyatt stay eligible for Indiana

The NCAA asked the court to sideline the 2 linemen again while it appeals. On Monday the court said no.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

The NCAA's motion to stay the preliminary injunction allowing Indiana's Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt to play this season has been denied, per court docs. t.co/BCGFTTT12B

On3@On3

NEW: Indiana's Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt have been granted a preliminary injunction against the NCAA, @PeteNakos reports. Both 5th year players are now eligible for the Hoosiers. t.co/9ZjhXJRC8Z

Judge Kara Krothe, who granted the preliminary injunction on September 23, ruled the NCAA isn't likely to win on appeal. She also found it hasn't shown it would suffer irreparable harm if the injunction stands. Those are the 2 boxes the NCAA had to check to get a stay, and it checked neither. For now, Daley and Wyatt are Hoosiers on Saturdays.

If you haven't been tracking it, this case has been a mess all season. Daley, Wyatt and a group of other athletes sued after the NCAA's new 5-year eligibility rule left out athletes from the high school class of 2022. A temporary restraining order in early September let both linemen play Indiana's first 2 games. Then it lapsed while everyone waited on the injunction ruling, and they sat out the 38-0 win over Western Kentucky. When Krothe granted the injunction, she wrote that under the plain terms of the 2026-27 NCAA Manual the players are eligible, and that the NCAA is breaching its contractual obligations by keeping them off the field. The NCAA filed an emergency motion for a stay the next morning. That's the motion she just denied.

For Indiana this is about football, not just paperwork. Daley had 35 tackles, 19 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks last season before he hurt his knee in the Big Ten Championship game. Wyatt had 28 tackles, 8 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in 2025 and started 7 games before his own knee injury against Michigan State. Losing both of them in the middle of a conference run would be a real problem for the defensive front.

The timing matters too. Indiana is 5-0 and 2-0 in the Big Ten, it heads to Lincoln to play Nebraska next, and No. 5 Ohio State comes in on October 17 at noon on FOX. Losing 2 starting-caliber linemen to a court filing in front of that stretch would have hurt badly.

It isn't over, though. The NCAA has appealed the injunction and filed a separate emergency stay motion with the appellate court, and the players have until October 8 to respond. The trial court has now ruled against the NCAA twice. The next decision comes from the appeals court, and until it rules, both of them keep playing.