Clemson wide receiver Tristan Smith was granted a temporary injunction against the NCAA in Pickens County Court in South Carolina on Friday, making him eligible for the 2026 college football season. Smith sued the NCAA in January for a fifth year of eligibility after the NCAA denied his waiver.
Smith transferred to Clemson from Southeast Missouri State ahead of the 2025 season and posted 24 catches for 239 yards and a touchdown last fall.
“The NCAA is restrained and enjoined from enforcing, applying, or attempting to enforce the November 14, 2025, denial of Mr. Smith’s waiver declaring him ineligible to compete in the 2026-2027 football season of competition at Clemson University,” Judge Jessica Salvini wrote in her ruling on Friday. “… The NCAA shall declare Mr. Smith immediately eligible for competition during the 2026 – 2027 season.”
Smith spent two years in junior college at Hutchinson Community College, which is the crux of his argument. If he was not granted the injunction for a fifth season of eligibility, the wide receiver was expected to enter the NFL supplemental draft.
“The NCAA gave everyone in Diego Pavia’s class an extra year, not counting 1 year of JUCO,” his attorney, Darren Heitner, previously said on X. “To not give all former JUCO players an extra year of eligibility would be arbitrary and capricious.”
In Salvini’s ruling on Friday, she referenced the Lubbock County Court’s ruling earlier this week to grant Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby a similar injunction against the NCAA.
“As the district court found in the most recent decision issued on June 8, 2026, in the matter of Sorsby vs. NCAA, the irreparable harm includes, but is not limited to, benefits from the coaching staff, trainers and being a member of a Division I college; and being able to make an informed decision as to whether to enter the 2026 NFL Supplemental Draft,” Salvini wrote in her ruling.