Roddy Gayle Jr. is determined to play for Michigan basketball in the 2026-27 season.
The reigning national champion, who spent the past two seasons in Ann Arbor before he'd seemingly run out of eligibility after last season, has become the latest player from the high school class of 2022 to take the NCAA to court in hopes of receiving a fifth year of eligibility — something that will be extended to all future players via the five-in-five ruling that was agreed to by the NCAA earlier this summer.
That happened in June, when the NCAA issued a ruling permitting Division I student-athletes up to five years of eligibility if they enroll in college no later than the academic year after their 19th birthday. That happened on June 23, the day of the NBA
Draft and less than 48 hours before Gayle signed with the Detroit Pistons to play in the NBA Summer League.
Gayle's suit, which was filed in in the Niagara County Supreme Court on Monday, Aug. 31 (Gayle’s home town in New York State), seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to make him eligible to play in the upcoming season for the Wolverines.
“The new model reaches athletes who delayed enrollment,” the summons reads in part. “It reaches athletes who spent a year in preparatory school. By the NCAA’s own Bylaws, it reaches athletes who spent years playing basketball for money outside the NCAA, and it charges them nothing for it. It does not reach the athletes who graduated high school in 2022, enrolled immediately, and played.
"It does not reach Roddy. He is excluded solely because he complied with the old rule.”
Gayle played a career-high 39 games last season, averaging 7.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 21.1 minutes per game. He played in 146 games across his career (which began with two years at Ohio State), starting 72 games, including 25 for U-M this past season.
In a statement, Gayle said in a statement he is still enrolled in the University of Michigan, that he's been practicing with the team for more than a month and he was part of the trip to Europe in late August. According to his summons, he received less than a $2,000 stipend for the four games he played for the Pistons' NBA Summer League team.
“I did not leave college for professional basketball. I completed four seasons, I graduated, and the NCAA’s new carve-out told me I could not play a fifth. Only then did I turn to professional basketball,” Gayle said in a statement to the court. "I went unselected in the June 2026 NBA Draft. On or about June 25, 2026, I signed paperwork for the 2026 NBA Summer League.
"I am not asking the Court to order any school to put me on its roster. I am not asking the NCAA for money, and I seek no damages. I am asking only that the NCAA be restrained from declaring me ineligible, from interfering with Michigan’s decision to let me play, and from punishing Michigan, its coaches, or my teammates for following this Court’s order, so that I may compete for a spot on the same terms as every other player."
Earlier this summer, coach Mike Boynton Jr. said the team would welcome Gayle Jr. back as long as it was possible.
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Roddy Gayle seeks to return to Michigan basketball, files lawsuit
