OU baseball first baseman Dayton Tockey, OU football defensive tackle Danny Saili and former Tulsa running back Braylin Presley are now cleared to keep playing.
The three are among eight plaintiffs who were granted a temporary restraining order against the NCAA on Wednesday, a ruling that makes them immediately eligible for another season of college competition.
The decision came from District Judge Theodore Balkman during a preliminary hearing in downtown Cleveland County courthouse in downtown Norman. Balkman also granted OU linebacker Owen Heinecke a preliminary injunction against the NCAA in April, which allowed Heinecke to play for the Sooners in 2024.
The plaintiffs are currently eligible to continue playing at their most recent institution or transfer to another school within one week. Ultimately, they will need to obtain a preliminary injunction against the NCAA.
A hearing for that injunctive relief will come at a later date.
The NCAA’s July new “5-for-5” eligibility rule allows five seasons of college sports for athletes who have given at least five years to the high school class of 2022 - who just finished college but were not grandfathered into that rule.
The plaintiffs in the Cleveland County suit are represented by Jacob D. Diesselhoff, partner at Nix | Patterson in Edmond.
Geography apparently has no bearing on an athlete’s eligibility to sue in a particular court and many players have been looking for lawsuits to join.
The athletes in the Cleveland County suit were represented by Jacob Diesselhoff, partner at Nix | Patterson in Edmond.
Tockey, an Oklahoma first baseman, was in the lineup during the College World Series championship series against North Carolina on Monday in Omaha, Neb.
Saili was previously committed to the Sooners in June 2023 after playing for two seasons at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas. He had eight sacks and 15 tackles for loss in his junior college career.
Presley starred at Bixby High School and began his college career at Oklahoma State before transferring to TU. He played receiver his first two years with the Golden Hurricane, then moved to running back as a senior.
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Nickson has long been the kind of athlete who could fit in several places, with a prep rsum built on playing both sides of the ball. Now Oklahoma is giving him a clearer offensive home, and the switch at tight end suggests the program sees a path to using his size and skill set in a different way. The real question is how quickly that transition can turn into a meaningful role once the games start. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma May Need Omarion Robinson Sooner Than Fans Expected
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Brent Venables has pointed to Robinsons growth this offseason, especially the confidence and consistency that have made him more noticeable in camp. For Oklahoma, that matters because the safety rotation can change quickly once the season starts, and Robinson may be asked to do more than fans expected before the schedule even settles in. [Read more 🡒]