Cade Tyson spent Thursday night in street clothes on the Minnesota bench, watching the Gophers roll past Omaha 72-52 in their exhibition opener at Williams Arena. Two days earlier, his eligibility fight had already been argued in front of a three-judge panel at the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the early read from several legal experts, according to Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press, was that the hearing did not go well for Tyson or the rest of the 2022 class.
That uncertainty is hanging over everything Minnesota is doing right now. As of Sunday, the court still had not issued a ruling, which means Tyson’s status remains unresolved while he continues to practice with the team every day. The Gophers also still have a lot riding on the outcome, both on the floor and financially.
After the win over Omaha, coach Niko Medved turned the postgame conversation toward Tyson’s case and delivered a pointed rant about the NCAA’s handling of the five-for-five eligibility rule that is keeping most of the 2022 class out of action. “And I just don’t understand, if the NCAA, if they made this decision to throw this five-for-five on us whenever they did, and they decided not to include the class of 2022, and they didn’t understand what was going to happen, boy, they better question who they have on their legal team. And maybe even worse, if they did know this was gonna happen, they should be ashamed of themselves to put players and coaches, you know, and just create the chaos… It’s awful for the sport.”
Tyson’s importance to Minnesota is obvious from what he already did in Minneapolis. In his only season with the Gophers, he started all 32 games and led the team in scoring at 19.6 points per game while also averaging 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 36.7 minutes.
He shot 50.0% from the field, 41.3% from three and 82.2% at the line. That came after a quiet season at North Carolina, where he posted 2.6 points in 7.9 minutes per game in 2024-25.
Before that, Tyson spent two years at Belmont, where he averaged 15.0 points.
The roster Medved built this offseason assumed Tyson might not be available, and Minnesota still added some useful pieces through the portal, including Kyan Evans from UNC and Nolan Groves from Texas Tech. But the difference between having Tyson and not having him is massive.
With him in the lineup, Minnesota looks like a top 25 team. Without him, the Gophers are much harder to place - talented, but still sorting through a bunch of new faces and untested combinations.
The financial piece makes the delay even more glaring. According to Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press, Medved has $1 million of NIL money and revenue-sharing budget through Dinkytown Athletes set aside for Tyson if he is eventually cleared.
Another longtime local insider, David Shama of Sports Headliners, “guesstimated” that Minnesota’s total men’s basketball roster budget is $7 million. If that number is right, roughly 14% of the program’s talent budget is sitting unused while the regular season is only two weeks away.
Tyson is a named plaintiff in Wisne v. NCAA, the antitrust case challenging the five-for-five rule.
U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney issued a nationwide preliminary injunction on July 31 that temporarily opened the door for the affected players, but the 10th Circuit stayed that order on Aug. 21, which made them ineligible again while the appeal plays out.
During Tuesday’s oral arguments, Judge Nancy Moritz called the plaintiffs’ market definition “over-broad,” a key issue in antitrust cases, according to Boise State professor Sam Ehrlich.
Sportico legal analyst Michael McCann was even more direct, predicting on X that the NCAA would win 3-0. “Having just listened to the oral argument in Wisne v.
NCAA at the 10th Circuit, I think the NCAA will win 3-0 and it won’t be close. With attorney Rakesh Kilaru arguing for the NCAA, the NCAA had a great day in court.
The nationwide injunction is highly likely to be reversed IMO.”
For Minnesota, the waiting continues. The Gophers play their second and final exhibition at Creighton on Oct. 23, then open the regular season against North Dakota on Nov.
- After the Omaha game, Medved said he doesn’t know “if a young man could handle the situation any better than [Cade Tyson] is.”
But until the 10th Circuit rules, Tyson’s $1 million remains on the table.
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