Thomas Castellanos is eligible again for Texas Tech

After 2 weeks of court filings, the news came from Pete Nakos in a single line.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Thomas Castellanos is back to being eligible for Texas Tech

On3@On3

NEW: Texas Tech QB Thomas Castellanos and Louisville guard Seth Trimble have been granted a temporary injunction in their fifth-year eligibility lawsuit, @PeteNakos reports. They are both immediately eligible. t.co/mQMxaNyHcz

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Brian Edwards granted the temporary injunction on Thursday. It bars the NCAA from stopping a group of Class of 2022 athletes from competing in the 2026-27 season. Louisville guard Seth Trimble is in the same suit, along with several other Louisville and Kentucky athletes. The ruling covers more than 30 players.

The ruling ends a strange stretch. Edwards first sided with the athletes on August 21 with a temporary restraining order. A Kentucky Court of Appeals panel then ruled it should have been a temporary injunction, because the 2 kinds of order work differently: a restraining order keeps things as they are, while an injunction can change them. That technicality wiped out the order, and the case went back to circuit court for a real evidentiary hearing, held October 14.

The appeals ruling came down late on a Friday, right before Texas Tech played at Colorado on October 4. Castellanos was suddenly ineligible. Kirk Francis moved up to run the offense, and Lloyd Jones III had to catch a last-minute flight to be the emergency 3rd-stringer. Tech still won 29-7. Joey McGuire said losing Castellanos wiped out 4 of the 5 short-yardage trick plays they had planned. That tells you how much of the offense runs through the Florida State transfer.

The fight is about the NCAA's newer eligibility setup, which is supposed to give athletes 5 years to play 5 seasons. The Class of 2022 is left out because those players already used their 4th year in 2025-26. Castellanos was 1 of 38 players nationwide in the Kentucky suit arguing that line makes no sense, and it's hard to argue with them.

Don't call it settled. The NCAA is expected to appeal again, and a separate federal appeals case, Wisne v. NCAA, is expected to rule within weeks on eligibility claims for the whole class. For now, Texas Tech has its quarterback back for the rest of the season. Whether he keeps that status depends on what the courts do next.