Mark Mitchell, Seth Trimble and Thomas Castellanos among athletes who remain eligible after Kentucky judge denies NCAA emergency stay

Missouri forward Mark Mitchell, Louisville guard Seth Trimble and Texas Tech quarterback Thomas Castellanos are among the athletes who remained eligible after a Kentucky judge denied the NCAA a stay on Friday, according tomultiple reports.

The NCAA requested emergency relief in its appeal of a lower-court ruling that paved the way for 38 athletes to compete during the 2026-27 season, per ESPN.

Friday marks the latest development in one of several eligibility lawsuits throughout the country, as athletes from the 2022 high school class attempt to take advantage of the NCAA’s new five-for-five eligibility model. That age-based system — which was originally designed to streamline eligibility by eliminating redshirts and waivers, thereby reducing the number of college athletes in their mid-20s — excludes athletes who used their final year of eligibility during the 2025-26 academic year, many of whom graduated high school in 2022.

Feeling as though they, too, should benefit from an extra year of eligibility, a horde of those athletes from the 2022 high school class have taken their fight for fifth years to the courts in recent months.

That’s created more chaos in a college sports landscape already full of it.

A Kentucky judge has denied the NCAA’s request for emergency relief, meaning Seth Trimble and Mark Mitchell remain eligible for the start of the college basketball season. https://t.co/WSU47QC3KUpic.twitter.com/77mAGT9DeK

— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos) October 30, 2026

As for this case in particular, back in August, it cleared the way for the plaintiffs to participate in a fifth year of competition.

Then, however, on Oct. 2, the Kentucky Court of Appeals dissolved the temporary injunction that initially afforded those athletes a fifth year of eligibility, as reported by On3. Doing so notably made Castellanos ineligible for the Red Raiders’ Oct. 3 road game against Colorado.

Texas Tech won regardless, and Castellanos regained eligibility ahead of his team’s next game — an Oct. 17 victory over Arizona State — when a Jefferson Circuit Court judge in Louisville granted the athletes in the case, including Castellanos, another temporary injunction to compete.

The latest ruling, made by Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Sara Walter Combs, reportedly enjoins the NCAA from denying eligibility to Castellanos, Mitchell, Trimble and the rest of the plaintiffs, a group that also features Louisville forward LJ Wells and LSU guard Skyy Clark.

Combs wrote in her ruling, according to ESPN’s Friday report, that the NCAA failed to prove an “imminent, ruinous, and incalculable injury that will befall it if this Court does not grant a stay of the injunction.”

Combs reportedly added that “it behooves no one for Respondents’ eligibility status to flip-flop repeatedly as our courts work through the underlying issues.”

Now a trio of Kentucky Court of Appeals judges will evaluate the NCAA’s request for relief, per ESPN.

In the meantime, Castellanos not only remains eligible, but he’s also in line for an increase in workload against No. 22 Arizona this weekend, according to multiplereports Friday. No. 13 Texas Tech is coming off its first loss of the season, a 37-24 road defeat to unranked Cincinnati. Castellanos, who previously played at Florida State, Boston College and UCF, didn’t see the field in the loss to the Bearcats, a decision Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire said this week that he regretted.

On the hardwood, Mitchell and Trimble could be difference-makers this season. Mitchell averaged 18.3 points while shooting 38.8% from 3 for Missouri last season. He’s expected to be a pillar of a Dennis Gates squad that ended up just on the outside of the preseason AP Top 25.

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p style=”text-align:left”>After four seasons at North Carolina, Trimble will be a key piece for Pat Kelsey’s Louisville, which is currently ranked No. 11. Last season, Trimble put up 14 points per game and famously hit a game-winning 3 that capped UNC’s largest comeback win over rival Duke in the past 25 years.