A Monroe County judge has set the next major hearing in Melvin Council Jr.’s eligibility fight, but he stopped short of giving the former Kansas guard the immediate green light to play.
Judge Daniel J. Doyle on Thursday morning signed an order to show cause that requires the NCAA to appear on Sept. 23 at 2 p.m.
Eastern time and explain why Council should not be granted an injunction that would make him eligible. But Doyle struck the language from the proposed order that would have allowed Council to remain eligible “until such time as a final determination has been made on (his) application.”
That means Council did not land a temporary restraining order on Thursday.
Council is trying to clear the way for a sixth overall season of college basketball, arguing that his two years at junior college should not count against the NCAA’s four-year eligibility limit. He refiled his lawsuit in Monroe County on Tuesday after dismissing his original case in Douglas County on Aug. 28.
In the new filing, Council is represented by Trevor A. Prince Jr. and other lawyers from Archer & Greiner.
The NCAA’s side includes Duvol M. Thompson and Noah W.S.
Parson from Holland & Knight, among others.
The NCAA had already pushed back hard against the idea of an immediate restraining order. On Wednesday evening, Thompson filed a memorandum arguing that the better path would be a prompt injunction hearing rather than granting Council temporary relief right away. He also wrote that Council “manufactured his own purported emergency” by waiting months after the NCAA denied his waiver before suing in Douglas County and then voluntarily dropping that case in favor of the Monroe County filing.
For now, Doyle’s order appears to give the NCAA what it wanted.
The bigger question is what the Sept. 23 hearing means for Council’s chances of getting back on the court in time to join the KU men’s basketball team. The academic calendar lists Sept. 21 as the last day to petition for late enrollment.
Still, Council may already be enrolled at Kansas even though he is not on the team right now. The Journal-World learned Thursday that he is listed as a student in the KU student directory, and the paper has asked KU to confirm his enrollment status.
There is also some uncertainty in Council’s Monroe County filing about whether Kansas is definitely where he intends to land. That complaint says that after the Big 12 adopted a policy barring former professional players from joining its roster, “it was unclear whether KU would continue to offer an NIL contract to Mr. Council for the 2026-2027 season,” and it adds that Council has heard from other schools that would be interested in signing him.
The calendar is tightening either way. KU men’s basketball’s annual conditioning boot camp is already underway, and Late Night in the Phog is set for Oct. 16.
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