In the aftermath of the latest chaos for the Class of 2022 on Friday, a general manager of a college football team sent CBS Sports a message with a meme of Ed Helms' character in "The Hangover." It shows Helms, upon waking up from his group's wild night in Las Vegas, attempting to put his glasses back on while walking around groggy and confused as he began to process the carnage he was seeing around him. "Me every day (right now)," the GM joked. He's far from alone in feeling like that among people in his space.
In the latest twist in this college eligibility craziness that's been an ongoing saga ever since the initial Colorado district court ruling on July 31 that gave Class of 2022 players another year of eligibility, the NCAA got a win Friday and was granted a stay in that Colorado case. That shifts players from the Class of 2022 players who exhausted their eligibility last season back to being ineligible unless they've filed their own individual lawsuits and been granted their own separate temporary restraining orders against the NCAA. The chaos is far from over.
After talking to sources, he's what you need to know: While the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals' stay removes the sweeping fifth year of eligibility provided to Class of 2022 athletes in the Colorado case, many other athletes remain eligible because of TROs and injunctions they were granted in court cases on the state level. That includes all the players who gained eligibility earlier this week in Louisiana, a case that allowed players who've signed NFL contracts to return to school. Shortly after the Colorado ruling Friday, 10 athletes were granted TROs by a court in Kentucky.
Former Florida State quarterback Thomas Castellanos was also granted a TRO on Friday, which now allows him to come back to college for a fifth season and also enter the transfer portal. Lawyers referred to these TROs as layers of protection against NCAA rules to CBS Sports. The Colorado case granted every 2022 athlete a shield against NCAA rules.
Winning a TRO in a state court provides another. So even with the 10th Circuit staying the lawsuit led by Northern Colorado basketball player Brock Wisne, players who gained eligibility in other cases are unaffected by that decision. An example is New Mexico kicker Luke Drzewiecki.
He gained his year back in the Louisiana case Thursday and by Friday he'd already signed with Minnesota for his final season of eligibility. Being part of the lawsuit in Louisiana allowed him to both enter the portal -- something those who gained years back in Colorado could not do -- and prevents the NCAA, at least for now, from enforcing its eligibility rules against him. As a result, Drzewiecki could play for the Gophers if the season started today, but players who were granted an extra year solely for Colorado can not.
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