Melvin Council Jr.’s bid for another year of college eligibility is heading toward a Sept. 4 hearing, but first his legal team will get one more shot to answer the NCAA’s latest arguments.
At a status conference Friday afternoon in Douglas County court, Council lawyer Mark Oberstaedt said the NCAA’s Aug. 14 response raised “a number of issues … that we did not address” in earlier filings. Chief Judge Mark Simpson and Oberstaedt agreed Council’s side will submit another reply by Aug. 28.
That filing will come before Simpson hears arguments on Sept. 4 at 9 a.m. on Council’s request for a temporary injunction that would make him eligible for the 2026-27 basketball season.
Council has already played five years of college basketball - the standard four, plus a one-time waiver for former junior-college athletes. His argument is that neither of his JUCO seasons should count against NCAA eligibility, which would give him a fourth season at a four-year school and a sixth college season overall. He filed suit against the NCAA and sought the temporary injunction on July 23.
The NCAA and NCAA Division I cabinet chair Josh Whitman pushed back in their Aug. 14 response, asking that the injunction be denied. Their filing also brought up issues not addressed in Council’s original papers, including his stint with the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA Summer League and an element of Kansas law the NCAA says prevents it from being sued as an individual defendant.
The hearing itself could stretch for hours. NCAA attorney David Zeitlin of Holland & Knight said “the shortest eligibility hearing we’ve had recently has been in the three-to-four-hour range” and that many have gone longer.
Friday’s conference was short and mostly about logistics. It took place on Zoom with Simpson, Zeitlin, Christina Hansen and Lynn Preheim of Stinson LLP for the NCAA, and Council’s attorneys Oberstaedt, Trevor Prince Jr. of Archer & Greiner, and Matt Rogers of Lawrence’s Barber Emerson.
Zeitlin said the Sept. 4 hearing could potentially fit into a morning session rather than a full day, since Council’s case turns more on the NCAA’s rules than on disputed facts.
Oberstaedt expects to call two to three witnesses. The NCAA, Zeitlin said, expects one.
Simpson said he wants the hearing to happen in person, and both sides agreed to appear that way. The NCAA’s witness was granted permission to appear by Zoom because, as Zeitlin explained, the travel demands from multiple eligibility cases have affected his ability to be with his six-month-old.
Aug. 28 is also the deadline for witness and exhibit lists. Simpson gave the lawyers until Sept. 1 to work out stipulations before the hearing.
Neither side expects to file a post-hearing memorandum after Sept. 4.
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