A Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling on Friday has thrown the fifth-year eligibility fight into a new round of uncertainty for Missouri star Mark Mitchell and several other college athletes trying to play again.
The court dissolved a temporary injunction that had been the legal foundation for eligibility in the Kentucky case, leaving Mitchell and other plaintiffs without that protection for now. Also affected are Louisville’s Seth Trimble and LSU’s Skyy Clark, along with Kentucky linebacker Alex Afari and Texas Tech backup quarterback Thomas Castellanos, both of whom have already been on the field during the first month of the season.
That doesn’t end the case, but it does force the athletes to find another route if they want eligibility while the matter continues through the courts. With college basketball season only about a month away, Mitchell and many of the other basketball players involved are expected to file individual lawsuits in their home states.
The stakes are obvious on the Missouri side. Mitchell, if he gets back on the court, is viewed as a possible all-SEC player. Missouri is projected as the No. 39 team in Evanmiya.com’s preseason rankings with him, but slides to No. 54 without him.
The ruling lands as another setback in a legal battle that has been building since the NCAA adopted an age-based eligibility model in June. That change gives players five years of eligibility going forward and triggered a wave of lawsuits from athletes hoping to be covered by the new rule and return for a fifth season in 2026-27.
Under NCAA rules as they stood when the 2025-26 season ended, Mitchell and the other plaintiffs were out of eligibility. The NCAA has stuck to its position that players who already used four seasons are done, but that hasn’t stopped athletes in both basketball and football from winning temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions in different cases.
For now, though, the picture is split. Some fifth-year players are moving toward eligibility, while others - including the group tied up in Kentucky - are still waiting on a legal path back onto the court.
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