COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – As many as 77 Texas A&M athletes could receive an extra year of eligibility thanks to a pair of court injunctions issued Friday in Colorado and Tennessee.
Among those who could have the option for another season are football players Amari Niblack, Jered Kerr and Le’Veon Moss.
Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado issued a class-action injunction that granted athletes who entered college in the 2022-23 season and have used four years of eligibility an additional year in the 2026-27 academic year, should they choose to use it.
The injunction comes from a lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility rules, which give athletes five years to complete five seasons of eligibility, eliminating redshirts and the waiver process for added eligibility. Athletes who just completed their fourth season of eligibility in four years were not grandfathered into the new system.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, all athletes who began their college careers in the 2022-23 academic year, successfully argued that the NCAA violated antitrust law by excluding them from the new eligibility rules, Sweeney said.
The class for the injunction was defined as “All persons in the United States who began to play in collegiate sports in the 2022–2023 season, competed in NCAA Division I sports, and completed four years of eligibility as defined by the NCAA’s prior rules by the conclusion of the 2025–2026 season, and are therefore barred from playing a fifth season due to the NCAA’s adoption and immediate implementation of the Five-Year Eligibility Rule,” according to court documents.
Davidson County Chancery Court Chancellor I’Ashea Myles issued a separate injunction Friday that granted 30 basketball players a fifth season of eligibility and ruled that a transfer portal window for these fifth-year athletes should open from Aug. 3 to Aug. 10.
KBTX reached out to several former A&M athletes who met the criteria of the injunction and expressed initial interest in pursuing another year of competition.
However, several challenges remain for those athletes.
The House v. NCAA settlement, which serves as guardrails for college athletics at the moment, requires teams to stay under sports-specific roster limits. For fall and even some winter sports, those roster spots could already be filled with transfer portal additions and incoming freshmen. These newly-eligible athletes would have to use the transfer portal to find a program that still has space.
For football athletes, including Niblack and Moss for A&M, it is unclear if there is a path to return to college sports after entering their names in the NFL draft. Niblack went undrafted in the 2026 draft. Moss also went undrafted, but was signed as a free agent by the Miami Dolphins. He retired four days after he signed with the franchise. Moss was arrested by Baton Rouge police on July 20 on a charge of felony cruelty to juveniles after his 2-year-old son accidentally shot himself with a gun that was unsecured under Moss’s pillow, according to police records.
Finally, the passage of the Protect College Sports Act could nullify both injunctions. On Friday, after the injunctions were issued, both the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference voted to approve the act after weeks of negotiating certain aspects of the bill. The approval by both key conferences was confirmed on social media by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who co-authored the bill.
It’s official. The @thebigten and the @SEC have endorsed the Protect College Sports Act. Glad to have their support.
Now it’s time to get the bill through Congress and on to President Trump’s desk. Let’s save college sports.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) August 1, 2026
The bill aims to codify portions of the House settlement while giving college athletics limited antitrust protections to enforce the rules it puts into place without fear of getting sued.
The bill still needs to pass both the Senate and the House before going to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
A&M men’s basketball had two athletes who fit the criteria from last season’s roster: guards Jacari Lane and Rylan Griffen. Baseball had five: infielder Ben Royo, pitcher Grant Cunningham, pitcher Ethan Dardan, catcher Blake LaBuda and outfielder Jake Duer. However, Duer was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2026 MLB draft and signed his professional contract.
The program that could have had the most to gain from the rulings was the defending national champion Aggie volleyball team. Players from last season’s title squad who fit the injunction class are Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, Tatum Thomas, Emily Hellmuth, Logan Lednicky, Taylor Humphrey, Ava Underwood, Maddie Waak and Morgan Perkins. Cos-Okpalla, Lednicky, Waak and Perkins have all played a season of professional volleyball. Hellmuth transferred out of A&M after the fall semester to play a season of beach volleyball at LSU last spring.
TEXAS A&M ATHLETES WHO COULD GET EXTRA YEAR
Football
TE Amari Niblack (Entered NFL draft)S Jared KerrRB Le’Veon Moss (Signed with Miami Dophins, retired).
Men’s Basketball
G Jacari LaneG Rylan Griffin
Baseball
INF Ben RoyoP Grant CunninghamP Ethan DardenC Blake LaBudaOF Jake Duer (Signed with Arizona Diamondbacks)
Volleyball
MB Ifenna Cos-Okpalla (Played pro season)L/DS Tatum ThomasOH Emily Hellmuth (Transferred to LSU for beach volleyball)OPP Logan Lednicky (Played pro season)OH Taylor HumphreyL/DS Ava UnderwoodS Maddie Waak (Played pro season)MB Morgan Perkins (Played pro season)
Softball
INF Micaela WarkINF Kennedy PowellP Taylor Pannell
Soccer
D Bella YakelF Eloise Descheneaux
Women’s Basketball
G Ny’Ceara PryorG Lemyah Hylton
Cross Country
Kennady FontenotEmma Little
Men’s Golf
Women’s Golf
Swimming and Diving
Kaylee CoffeyClaire GassGiulia GoerigkHayden MillerJoslyn OakleyLydia PalmerCorbyn ReyesVictoria TaylorMatthew AignerBatuhan FilizMaximiliano Vega CuevasLane White
Men’s Tennis
Women’s Tennis
Avery EsquivelVioleta MartinezNicole KhirinMia KupresDaria Smetanikov
Track and Field
Leeah BurrLacarthea CooperJaiya CovingtonAna De La GarzaCamryn DicksonKennady Fontenot (Also cross country)Jayla HooperAriane LintonMachaeda LintonEmma Little (Also cross country)Emery PrenticeAva RicheKhybah DawsonAiden Gonzalez-RodilesBlake HarrisEric Hemphill IIIVictor KibiegoJack Mann IIIEthan Sanders
Equestrian
Kendall AustinKaitlyn BloomMeagan BraunGracie CaseboltKyla JacksonAlexa LeongElla McCulloughKacey MurphyClara NemethReagan RoyaltyDevan Thomas
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