Notre Dame may have a late summer roster call to make, and Junior Tuihalamaka is right at the center of it.
A Louisiana court granted a Temporary Restraining Order on Wednesday in the case he joined, giving him the chance to come back for a fifth year. The order also lets the players involved enter the Transfer Portal, which raises the possibility that the former Notre Dame defender could wind up elsewhere instead.
The signed order in Louisiana puts Tuihalamaka in the best position of the 16 players involved, since he has not signed with an NFL team. That detail matters because the ruling has blown past what has long been treated as one of the basic lines in college football: once a player declares for the NFL and then signs a contract, his college career is over.
Several of the players in this TRO are now arguing they do not accept that interpretation. For Notre Dame, though, the practical question is simpler. If Marcus Freeman chooses to bring Tuihalamaka back just weeks before the season, the program would at least be able to say it is not tearing up one of the few rules that everyone has generally agreed on.
The Louisiana filing came after a separate preliminary class-wide injunction in the U.S. District Court of Colorado last month.
That ruling applied to Class of 2022 recruits who used up their fourth season of eligibility this spring, giving them a path to a fifth season in 2026-27. Unlike the Louisiana TRO, the Colorado order did not allow players to enter the portal.
Tuihalamaka’s decision to join the Louisiana case could be a sign that Notre Dame no longer has room for him. It could also mean something more straightforward: if the point is to maximize NIL money, the defender may simply believe another school offers better pay and a better shot at playing time.
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