Michigan basketball got terrible news earlier this week when it was revealed that freshman guard Brandon McCoy Jr., the centerpiece of the 2026 recruiting class, has been ruled out for the season after suffering an ACL tear in Lithuania last week. But the Wolverines may be getting some good news in the wake of that news.
Roddy Gayle Jr. had appeared to be out of eligibility after having played for four years -- two with Ohio State and two with Michigan basketball. But with the NCAA changing to a five-for-five eligibility model, several players in the class of 2022 that hadn't been obvious pro players had started looking back into returning to school. So Gayle had hoped to come back to Ann Arbor for another year, but since he signed with the Detroit
Pistons as an undrafted free agent, the NCAA had been barring him from returning to school -- despite him having not participated with the Pistons in a professional capacity.
Gayle is suing the NCAA, and he was just granted a temporary restraining order that will allow him to practice with the Wolverines until his hearing on September 17.
NEWS: Roddy Gayle Jr. has been GRANTED a TRO, per @samcehrlich
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) September 2, 2026
This allows him to practice and compete ahead of his injunction hearing, scheduled for September 17th 👀 pic.twitter.com/2PKnePh91f
Gayle had a pretty strong rebuttal against the NCAA in attempt to return to Ann Arbor:
"I have never played in a professional regular-season game. I am not currently in the NCAA Transfer Portal; the entry window closed in April 2026, before the NCAA adopted its new eligibility rule.
"… 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. I went unselected in the June 2026 NBA Draft. On or about June 25, 2026, I signed paperwork for the 2026 NBA Summer League.
"On July 6, 2026, I took the complete physical, orthopedic, and cardiac examinations, and the team physicians cleared me with no restriction for participation. The health authorization I signed that day covers, in its own words, my employment or potential employment as an NBA or G League player and my participation in Summer League. The potential never became actual. In July 2026, I played in the NBA Summer League. Every game was an exhibition. I have never played in a professional regular-season game, and I have never been paid a salary to play basketball, in any league or any country.
"If the NCAA had applied its new rule to me the way its text reads, I would never have signed anything. 8. I shave no encumbrances of any kind in order to play my fifth season. I am enrolled at the University of Michigan for the Fall 2026 term. I am practicing with the Michigan men's basketball team, and I traveled with the team on its foreign exhibition tour to Lithuania in August 2026.
"… 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. Other than the federal class case described above, which briefly protected athletes in my class, no prior application for this relief has been made by me or on my behalf."
Gayle will then be eligible until the hearing. Per reports, he had been practicing with the team for the past month, but his fate won't likely be decided until down the road. And even if he is deemed eligible by the courts, the NCAA could also appeal, as it often has in similar cases, even though Gayle has not officially participated professionally, and is a victim of timing, if anything.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Roddy Gayle Jr. gets temporary win in NCAA eligibility lawsuit
