Louisville, Kentucky athletes eligible after court grants injunction

A Jefferson County judge has once again sided with more than 30 athletes from the Class of 2022 in a legal battle with the NCAA over a fifth year of eligibility.

Judge Brian Edwards on Oct. 16 granted the group’s request for a temporary injunction enjoining the NCAA from prohibiting them from competing during the 2026-27 season. The NCAA is expected to appeal.

The group of athletes impacted by Edwards’ ruling includes two Louisville basketball players (Seth Trimble, LJ Wells), two Louisville football players (Jabari Mack, Kalib Perry) and one Kentucky football player (Alex Afari Jr.).

Edwards initially ruled in favor of the athletes Aug. 21. Judge Lisa Jones of the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld his decision Sept. 4. An appellate panel of Judges Sara Walter Combs, Christopher McNeill and Will Moynahan dissolved it Oct. 2.

The panel sent the case back to Jefferson County Circuit Court because of a procedural error. In August, Edwards granted a temporary restraining order against the NCAA to allow the athletes to play a fifth season. The panel determined the temporary restraining order should have been a temporary injunction instead.

A restraining order can tell someone not to do something so as to maintain the status quo, while a temporary injunction can tell someone to do something or not to do something, meaning it can disrupt the status quo.

Combs, McNeill and Moynahan wrote in their Oct. 2 decision that granting the Class of 2022 a fifth season of eligibility would “disrupt the status quo,” because the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility model “did not, as the circuit court surmised, ‘bar’ them from doing anything they previously had a right to do.”

To grant a temporary injunction, an evidentiary hearing must take place. None had until Oct. 14 — a four-hour affair highlighted by testimonies from Trimble, Perry, Afari and UofL basketball coach Pat Kelsey.

“To be honest with you, from a coach’s standpoint, every time the NCAA says something, we all shrug our shoulders and go, ‘Man, is that going to stand up? Is that a rule?'” Kelsey said. “We don’t think there are rules right now. We don’t. We don’t.

“We want guardrails,” the coach continued. “We want Congress to act. We want the chaos to end, because nobody knows what the crap’s going on.”

Elsewhere, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit heard oral arguments for the Wisne v. NCAA class-action lawsuit Oct. 13. Over the summer, the case produced an injunction making the entire Class of 2022 eligible for a fifth season. That injunction was later stayed, resulting in athletes such as Trimble and Afari joining lower-level lawsuits to regain eligibility.

A decision in Wisne v. NCAA isn’t expected for at least a few weeks. A ruling in favor of the athletes would only help those who filed in Jefferson County, as they’d be covered if the class-wide injunction is restored. A ruling in favor of the NCAA would have no bearing on the Jefferson County case, said attorney Hans Poppe, who is part of the athletes’ legal team here, in an Oct. 13 post to X, formerly Twitter.

The Wisne plaintiffs are making anti-trust claims against the NCAA. The Jefferson County athletes argued the NCAA unfairly prohibited the Class of 2022 from using the five-year eligibility model.

Trimble and Wells signed with Louisville after four-year careers at North Carolina and Northern Kentucky, respectively. Both spoke on their eligibility saga at the Cardinals’ preseason media day Oct. 8.

Trimble said: “It’s been unfortunate, the whole process of going back and forth, and being told one thing and the other happens the next day. It can be annoying. All these guys — coach Kelsey, the coaching staff, myself — we’ve all made sure we kept my head straight and make sure I focus on what’s right now.”

Wells said: “For me, I try to look at what I can control. That’s not something I have control of. For me, each day, all I can do is get in the gym and give 100%.”

Mack played in UofL’s first four games of the season, completing seven tackles and three pass breakups. Perry, a linebacker and late addition to the lawsuit, accounted for two tackles in two games against SMU and Wake Forest.

Afari has played in two games for Kentucky — wins over Texas A&M and South Alabama. He recorded 11 tackles, six of which were solo, then had to watch the Wildcats’ overtime victories over South Carolina and LSU from the sideline.

“I will never get (those games) back,” Afari said in court Oct. 14.

Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com and follow her on X @petitus25. Subscribe to her “Full-court Press” newsletter Louisville, Kentucky athletes eligible after court.

Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville, Kentucky athletes eligible after court grants injunction