Roddy Gayle Jr. granted TRO, hearing date set in NCAA eligibility case
· Yahoo Sports
Roddy Gayle Jr. has been granted a temporary restraining order by a New York judge in his lawsuit against the NCAA in which he’s seeking a fifth year of eligibility.
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The decision makes Gayle, a 6-foot-5 guard who spent the past two seasons at Michigan, eligible to practice with the Wolverines ahead of his preliminary injunction hearing, which is set for Sept. 17 at 2 p.m.
The TRO was issued by Judge Frank A. Sedita III on Wednesday, Sept. 2, two days after Gayle filed the lawsuit against the NCAA in Niagara County Supreme Court seeking a preliminary injunction that would make him eligible for the 2026-27 season.
Gayle is among a number of high school class of 2022 athletes who are suing the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility, on the basis they are barred from the association’s new age-based eligibility model.
According to the suit filed on Aug. 31, Michigan has offered Gayle a roster spot for this season, though it’s “an opportunity conditioned solely on his NCAA eligibility,” and he’s been practicing with the team “while that eligibility remains clouded,” including during the Wolverines’ recent foreign exhibition tour to Lithuania and Croatia.
The court filing states that Gayle, a native of Niagara Falls, New York, is enrolled at Michigan for the fall term, which began on Aug. 31, and has been continuously enrolled at the university since June 2024.
The dispute stems from the NCAA’s June move to an age-based eligibility model that allows existing and future college athletes to play five seasons within a five-year eligibility window. High school graduates in the 2022 class like Gayle — who spent the first two seasons of his college career at Ohio State — were excluded from receiving a fifth year under the new rules.
A federal court order in late July that granted Gayle and 2022 high school athletes a fifth year of eligibility was paused last month while the NCAA appeals the ruling, meaning players relying on the federal class-wide order became ineligible to compete.
That’s led to eligibility lawsuits around the country like Gayle’s case, which is separate from the federal ruling. The federal appeals court stay doesn’t impact athletes who have been cleared to play in state courts.
The TRO restricts the NCAA from enforcing its five-for-five rule until the preliminary injunction hearing. If Gayle’s preliminary injunction is approved on Sept. 17, he would regain his eligibility, but that may not completely be the end of the fight.
The NCAA has vowed to fight all federal and state cases filed by athletes seeking a fifth season. There’s also the fact that conferences like the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC have announced bans to prevent professional athletes from returning to college. While the Big Ten’s rule only pertains to football, the league said in a statement that it "continues to evaluate potential rules restricting professional athletes in other sports from conference competition."
Gayle competed in the NBA Summer League with the Detroit Pistons after going undrafted, but he only received a $1,700 stipend, according to the suit.
“I did not leave college for professional basketball. I completed four seasons, I graduated, and the NCAA’s new carve-out told me I could not play a fifth,” Gayle said in the court filing. “I have never played in a professional regular-season game, and I have never been paid a salary to play basketball, in any league or any country. If the NCAA had applied its new rule to me the way its text reads, I would never have signed anything.
“I am not asking the Court to order any school to put me on its roster. I am not asking the NCAA for money, and I seek no damages. I am asking only that the NCAA be restrained from declaring me ineligible, from interfering with Michigan’s decision to let me play, and from punishing Michigan, its coaches, or my teammates for following this Court’s order, so that I may compete for a spot on the same terms as every other player.”
Michigan coach Mike Boynton Jr. said earlier this summer he’d welcome a reunion with Gayle, who averaged 7.3 points. 3.3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists off the bench and helped the Wolverines win the national title last season.
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Roddy Gayle Jr. granted TRO, hearing date set in NCAA eligibility case