{"id":378185,"date":"2026-08-22T07:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378185\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T07:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:46:17","slug":"cole-kozlowskis-return-to-ucf-murky-with-latest-court-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378185\/","title":{"rendered":"Cole Kozlowski\u2019s return to UCF murky with latest court ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cole Kozlowski\u2019<\/a>s return to the UCF<\/a> football roster took an unexpected turn when a U.S. Court of Appeals issued a stay of an injunction that had previously granted the middle linebacker and other athletes from the Class of 2022 an extra year of eligibility.<\/p>\n

The ruling, announced Friday, temporarily halts a decision by a U.S. District Court judge three weeks earlier in the Wisne v. NCAA case.<\/p>\n

An expedited appeal has been filed.<\/p>\n

This development means athletes who used up their eligibility last season are once again barred from competing unless they are shielded by individual state-court-mandated injunctions or temporary restraining orders.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Kozlowski has been with the Knights since Aug. 12, when he was officially on the team roster following the temporary injunction by Judge Charlotte Sweeney of the U.S. District Court of Colorado.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been practicing with the team even though his status has been up in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rules are changing faster than Mario Brothers when you go through warp zones.\u201d UCF coach Scott Frost<\/a> said last week, referencing the popular video game, Super Mario Bros. \u201cIt looks different every week. He was cleared to be back and is enrolled in classes, but we\u2019re waiting on a final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kozlowski was second on the team in tackles (82) last season behind fellow linebacker Lewis Carter, who had 92. His one season with the Knights followed three seasons at Colgate, a Football Championship Subdivision school.<\/p>\n

After going undrafted in April and not signing with an NFL team, Kozlowski\u2019s hopes of playing football seemed slim. The injunction opened the door for the potential of another year of eligibility and a return to the Knights.<\/p>\n

A source said Kozlowski can still practice with the team until his future is figured out.<\/p>\n

The next step depends on the New Jersey native, who could either join an already existing class-action lawsuit or file one on his own. Or if Friday\u2019s ruling is appealed, then Kozlowski could have another shot at his fifth year.<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram at @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cole Kozlowski\u2019s return to the UCF football roster took an unexpected turn when a U.S. Court of Appeals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,114,1335,139,141,140,76046,110,3865],"class_list":["post-378185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}