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Mark Schlabach
A federal judge granted Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean a preliminary injunction to play another season for the Badgers on Thursday, after the player argued in a federal lawsuit that the NCAA was depriving him of opportunities to profit from his name, image and likeness because his five-year eligibility clock started while he was playing two seasons at a Division II school.
In the lawsuit, Fourqurean’s attorneys asked the court to grant a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would prevent the NCAA from enforcing its bylaws pertaining to its five-year rule for eligibility, three-year eligibility limits for transfers, and to rule that Fourqurean’s first season at Division II Grand Valley State be considered a missed opportunity under NCAA rules because of the death of his father in 2021.
Fourqurean’s attorneys asked a judge for injunctive relief from the court because he had until Friday to declare for the NFL draft.
The NCAA had denied his request for a waiver for additional eligibility on Jan. 30.
Fourqurean testified in a hearing Tuesday that he would make “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in NIL deals if we were permitted to play for the Badgers this coming season.
In the ruling, U.S. District Court Judge William Conley ordered the NCAA not to enforce its five-year rule in Fourqurean’s case “absent a more meaningful demonstration that exceptions to that rule should not apply” to the plaintiff “given the unique circumstances surrounding his 2021-2022 season at Division II Grand Valley State University.”
“Moreover, defendant’s eligibility rules likely depress competition for roster spots, and thus, player NIL earnings, by categorically excluding athletes after four seasons of competition when their marketability for NIL income is more likely than not to be at its apex,” Conley said in his ruling. “Accordingly, plaintiff has shown that the Five-Year Rule has an anticompetitive effect.”
Fourqurean, a senior from Mentor, Ohio, signed with Grand Valley State out of high school. The 2020 season at the Division II school in Michigan was canceled because of COVID-19 restrictions. Fourqurean’s father died during the summer of 2021, causing him to miss weeks of offseason training, according to the complaint.
Fourqurean played in 155 snaps in 11 games at Grand Valley State in the 2021 season, the lawsuit said.
Conley noted there were several factors that would suggest “it would be appropriate to exempt his 2021 season from counting as a season of competition” under the NCAA’s five-year ruling, including his father’s death, then-Grand Valley State coach’s Matt Mitchell’s declaration that Fourqurean was forced into action in games when he wasn’t ready, and his “relatively low total snap count.”
“Finally, the NCAA’s summary denial of the UW’s waiver application for plaintiff, albeit after allowing the UW and plaintiff to submit additional evidence, underscores that there needs to be more meaningful exceptions to the Five-Year Rule to avoid unnecessary antitrust injury without an arguable procompetitive justification,” Conley wrote.
Fourqurean started five games for the Badgers in 2023 and all 12 this past season, totaling 51 tackles with one interception.