Thomas Castellanos can't seem to stay in one state for long, and now his lawsuit against the NCAA is following the same pattern. The former Florida State quarterback's case has been moved to Kentucky, with a hearing expected as soon as the next day, according to On3's Pete Nakos.
Former FSU QB Thomas Castellanos’ suit has been moved to Kentucky with a hearing expected tomorrow, his attorney @heitner tells @On3. https://t.co/Z8A6kFbvmD
It's the latest twist in a legal saga that's been building since the offseason. Castellanos went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft after a college career that took him from UCF to Boston College to Florida State, where he threw for 2,760 yards and 15 touchdowns in his lone season with the Seminoles in 2025. Across 4 college seasons, he completed 58.5% of his passes for 6,449 yards, 48 touchdowns and 28 interceptions.
The eligibility fight itself traces back to a Colorado federal judge's ruling that granted a fifth year to Division I athletes from the high school class of 2022 who'd already used up 4 seasons, after the NCAA's new age-based "5-in-5" rule shut that class out. Castellanos, part of that 2022 class, got his fifth year restored by that injunction. The problem is the ruling didn't reopen the transfer portal for him, which is why his attorneys, Darren Heitner and Ryan Downton, went to court again seeking the injunction to let him actually go find a new team.
That second fight was originally set up to play out in Texas. Now it's landed in Kentucky instead, and fast — a hearing has reportedly been teed up for as early as the next day. It's part of a bigger pattern nationally: Heitner's firm has said this is their second such lawsuit for athletes who just exhausted eligibility under the NCAA's new rule, with more expected and a similar case already pending in Ohio. Kentucky has become its own hotbed too, with a separate group of 10 class-of-2022 athletes filing their own eligibility suit in Louisville this week.
The NCAA has signaled it plans to fight these cases one by one rather than fold across the board, which means Castellanos' path back to a college roster still runs through a judge before it runs through a depth chart. If Kentucky grants the injunction, expect other 2022-class players stuck in the same limbo to point straight at this ruling.