The NCAA’s appeal in the Trinidad Chambliss case has been denied, as Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported Friday. As a consequence, the Ole Miss quarterback remains eligible for the 2026 season.
The NCAA was interesting the preliminary injunction a Mississippi state judge granted Chambliss final month.
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The injunction prevents the NCAA from prohibiting the 23-year-old Chambliss from enjoying till his eligibility case is totally litigated, successfully affording him a sixth yr of eligibility for the 2026 season.
Chambliss argued that he ought to have acquired a medical redshirt in 2022, when he misplaced a yr of eligibility regardless of not showing in a sport at Division II Ferris State in Michigan. At the time, he was coping with well being points that in the end resulted in him getting his tonsils eliminated in 2024.
In a 658-page submitting to the Mississippi State Supreme Court on March 5, the NCAA requested that the injunction be overruled and petitioned the courtroom for interlocutory overview of the trial courtroom’s order, as reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel at the time.
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“If courts can intervene in NCAA eligibility decisions to provide special treatment to favored athletes, then the NCAA’s ability to ensure fair athletic competition in which all participants play by the same rules will depend upon the whims of trial courts throughout the country,” the submitting learn, via Thamel.
On3’s Pete Nakos posted a screenshot of the filing’s introduction.
It acknowledged that Chambliss has “exhausted his eligibility to compete in NCAA Division I football because his five-year period to complete up to four seasons of competition under the NCAA’s ‘Five-Year Rule’ has terminated.”
Thamel also posted a screenshot of the filing on X again then, revealing that the appeal states that “NCAA members and student-athletes will be irreparably harmed in the absence of interlocutory review.”
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The NCAA postulated that Ole Miss may have the posh of rostering a star quarterback “who is no longer eligible to compete.”
The NCAA primarily claimed that the Rebels’ unfair benefit locations a burden on Ole Miss’ opponents throughout the 2026 season and probably may have an effect on different faculties’ postseason fates.
The injunction Chambliss was granted on Feb. 12 got here after the NCAA denied his request for a sixth yr of eligibility, not as soon as however twice.
Last month in Mississippi state courtroom, Judge Robert Whitwell famous that the NCAA had operated “in bad faith” and disregarded Chambliss’ medical points when it refused to grant him an eligibility waiver.
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Ole Miss is coming off its finest season in latest program historical past, and Chambliss is a giant motive why.
The Rebels completed with a program-best 13 wins, reaching their first-ever College Football Playoff after which the doorstep of the nationwide title sport, although Lane Kiffin left to take the head-coaching job at LSU earlier than the CFP.
Long earlier than that, Chambliss established himself as a breakout star.
After a four-year profession at Ferris State that began with him redshirting the 2021 season, he transferred to Ole Miss. Chambliss relieved an injured Austin Simmons in Ole Miss’ second sport of the season and went on to earn the QB1 job with head-turning dual-threat skill.
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He wound up totaling 30 touchdowns — 22 via the air and eight on the bottom — whereas tossing simply three interceptions. By season’s finish, he ranked second in the FBS in complete yards with 4,464 to his identify.
Chambliss helped clean the transition from Kiffin to new head coach Pete Golding. Together, they notably knocked off SEC titan Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to advance to the CFP semifinals, the place the Rebels ran right into a nationwide championship-bound Miami squad in the Fiesta Bowl.
Chambliss, who will flip 24 in August, is anticipated to contend for the Heisman Trophy subsequent season.
