BYU big man Jaxon Kohler and 70+ other plaintiffs received great news Tuesday from a Santa Clara, CA court room. Judge Beth McGowen granted the plaintiffs (players, in this case) an injunction in the Glancey vs NCAA that gives class of 2022 a fifth year of eligibility.
Jaxon Kohler is eligible to play, and while not permanent, today is great news for his chances to play the entire season.
What’s special about this injunction?
If you’ve been following the dozens of other cases the past few months in different
states, you might’ve seen some preliminary injunctions granted and then overturned/stayed; this injunction is different than others. This is not a temporary injunction. This case had a higher bar to receive an injunction from the judge since it heard evidence from dozens of witnesses and arguments from the plaintiffs and NCAA lawyers. Another piece of good news is that this judge gave a prohibitory injunction as opposed to a mandatory injunction. A prohibitory injunction maintains the status quo while a mandatory injunction changes the status quo. Since the NCAA bylaws state clearly that these fifth-year athletes are eligible, the layers in these cases have been able to argue that the status quo is, in fact, that these players are eligible because that’s what the bylaws say. Since a prohibitory injunction keeps the status quo, that will make it more difficult for the NCAA to win the appeal and stay the injunction.
Will Jaxon be eligible the entire season?
Today was the biggest hurdle to clear for Jaxon to be eligible this season. Today was massive news. There are still two hurdles to clear in order for Jaxon to remain eligible — 1) The likely NCAA Appeal in order to stay the injunction and 2) The actual trial.
On point #1 — the players have a strong chance to win the appeal and keep the injunction intact since this is a prohibitory and not a temporary injunction, as noted above. Other recent state rulings are encouraging for players. In the Indiana case that gave players an injunction back on September 23, the Indiana court of appeals on October 16 denied the NCAA’s motion to stay the injunction.
The exact same law group representing the Indiana case and several others is the same group representing the California one. They have sharpened their arguments to not only win the injunction, but to also win the appeal. Based on a bunch of smart people I’ve talked to familiar with the case, the NCAA doesn’t have a good chance to win their appeal.
The next and final step is the trial date. If the injunction remains intact, then players would remain eligible until the trial date. When the trial actual happens is the big question, and has yet to be set. The trial could be mid-season or after the season is over. The latter is obviously optimal — if the trial is in April and the NCAA’s motion to stay the injunction is denied, then Jaxon is eligible the whole season and the trial is moot. I’ll update this story with the trial date once that is set.
Bottom line — Jaxon remains eligible. And while there are still a couple hurdles ahead, he crossed a huge one today and his chances to be eligible the entire season are looking good.
