Indiana basketball forward Sam Alexis is back in limbo.
On Wednesday, the Tennessee Court of Appeals put a hold on a lower-court ruling that had given Alexis and other athletes an extra year of eligibility, leaving his status for the upcoming college basketball season uncertain for now. The stay does not erase the earlier decision. It simply pauses the injunction while the NCAA’s appeal works its way through the higher court.
Alexis is among several athletes born into the class of 2022 - players who graduated high school that year and completed four years of college sports within that span - who are challenging the NCAA’s new five-years-to-play-five rule. The association has chosen to apply that rule only to athletes beginning with the current academic year, and that decision has sparked legal fights in multiple states and at the federal level.
For Alexis, the Tennessee case mattered directly. He was one of the athletes included in the filing, and the Chancery Court of Davidson County had granted the injunction earlier this summer, giving him a fifth season. Alexis spent his first two college basketball seasons at Chattanooga before coming to Indiana.
That opened the door for Indiana to bring him back, too. Coach Darian DeVries left one scholarship spot unfilled during his roster overhaul last spring, creating room in an otherwise full rebuild. With the Tennessee stay now in place, Alexis’ eligibility for 2026-27 is back up in the air.
The legal picture is messy well beyond Bloomington. The NCAA is battling similar challenges in other states and at the federal level, and the fallout has already pushed Power Four conferences to pass new rules aimed at preventing players from entering professional leagues such as the NFL and then trying to return to college.
The most prominent federal case, out of Colorado, went the same way as the Tennessee matter, at least for the moment. That court granted relief this year that would, in theory, give every class-of-2022 athlete a fifth year if they wanted it. But the NCAA appealed, and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has also issued a stay while it reviews the case.
There’s one important wrinkle for Indiana’s roster picture. Unlike IU football players Kellan Wyatt and Stephen Daley, and unlike All-American IU volleyball player Avry Tatum, Alexis still has another path to regain eligibility.
If the Tennessee ruling is ultimately upheld, or if the federal Colorado case breaks in the athletes’ favor, Alexis could become eligible again. Daley, Tatum and Wyatt, as things stand now, would need the federal case to swing their way.
And yes, this is exactly as confusing as it sounds.
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