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Court ruling clears way for 2 Indiana football players, others to play (for now). What we know
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- Court ruling clears way for 2 Indiana football players, others to play (for now). What we know
BLOOMINGTON — Eight athletes, including IU football players Kellan Wyatt and Stephen Daley , were granted a temporary restraining order in an Indiana circuit court Friday, restoring for the moment their eligibility to play college sports.
Filed and granted in Monroe County Circuit Court, the TRO asserts that the plaintiffs "have shown by verified pleading and supporting evidence that immediate and irreparable injury will occur before notice can be served and a hearing held."
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"The Court further finds that the plaintiffs have demonstrated a probable right to relief," the order states, "and that the threatened injury outweighs any temporary burden imposed by this Order pending an expedited hearing."
Importantly, the order is not lasting. That hearing will be held at 9 a.m., Friday, Sept. 11, in Monroe Circuit Court, where the court will hear the plaintiffs' motion for a temporary injunction, a firmer legal decision.
In the meantime, the TRO orders that the NCAA may not declare those eight athletes — Daley, Wyatt, Owen McDonald, Avry Tatum, Malik Reneau, Zalan Sarkany, Jordan Johnson and Yohan Traore — ineligible as a function of its decision not to extend the five-years-to-play-five eligibility reform to athletes from the high school class of 2022.
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The order further states that the NCAA may not enforce its "ghost transfer" rule prohibiting transfers outside the sanctioned annual window. And it must open the transfer portal for seven days for the aforementioned athletes to enter, should they wish.
Elsewhere: NCAA claims ex-Purdue basketball player's eligibility challenge would 'transform college sports'
Next week's hearing will likely provide more long-term clarity. In the intervening time, the athletes' eligibility is restored. Daley and Wyatt can play this weekend for Indiana against North Texas.
Daley and Wyatt did not have any interaction with the NFL in the offseason, meaning they are not affected by recent conference rules barring players from returning from the NFL to college football.
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Both players could prove crucial additions along an already stocked defensive line for Curt Cignetti's team this fall. Indiana counts All-Big Ten and All-American contributors at multiple positions along its front. Daley (Big Ten-best 19 tackles for loss) and Wyatt (eight tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks) reinforce that strength at multiple positions.
Tatum was an All-American for Indiana in volleyball last season. Traore played 32 games last year for Butler men's basketball . McDonald and Sarkany swam at Indiana collegiately. Reneau played basketball at Indiana for three years, and Miami last winter.
The order was granted mid-afternoon Friday in Monroe County.
"To be clear," it reads, "it is the Court's intention to place Plaintiffs in the position they were in at the end of their last college sports season. As long as they would have been eligible, academically and otherwise, to continue playing college sports in the following semester if they had a fifth year of eligibility, they are eligible today."
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Court ruling clears way for 2 Indiana football players, others to play (for now). What we know
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