Stephen Daley, Kellan Wyatt get injunction to play for Hoosiers

Indiana defensive linemen Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt are eligible to play again after a judge granted them a preliminary injunction in their case against the NCAA.

Monroe Circuit Court Judge Kara Krothe ruled Wednesday that Daley and Wyatt, along with a list of dozens of other athletes that includes Miami men's basketball player Malik Reneau, could play a fifth season of college sports following the NCAA's implementation of the five-for-five rule this summer.

Both Daley and Wyatt were unable to play in Indiana's 38-0 win over Western Kentucky on Saturday after their temporary restraining order expired last week. A hearing in the case was held Sept. 14 ahead of Krothe's injunction ruling.

Wednesday's ruling reinstates that the NCAA and its conferences cannot prohibit any of the case's plaintiffs from competing in Division I athletics during the 2026-27 season on the basis that they have already competed in four seasons or didn't enter the transfer portal.

"Under the plain terms of the 2026-27 NCAA Manual, they are eligible to compete, and the NCAA is breaching its contractual obligations by denying them that opportunity," Krothe wrote.

On Thursday morning, the NCAA filed an emergency motion to stay the injunction, asking for a ruling in the next 24 hours. The players objected to the motion, with their lawyers calling the NCAA's request for a 24-hour ruling "unreasonable" and asking the court to give them until Oct. 2 to respond.

No. 5 Indiana (3-0) opens its Big Ten schedule Friday against Northwestern.

Daley and Wyatt returned to the Hoosiers in early August, but their status with the defending national champions had been in limbo after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on Aug. 21 granted the NCAA's motion to overturn a lower court's ruling that permitted another season of eligibility to all class of 2022 athletes who had been excluded from the new five-for-five rule.

Daley has six tackles this season, while Wyatt did not play in the Hoosiers' first two games.

Daley, a fifth-year senior from Winchester, Virginia, was third in the FBS with 19 tackles for loss last season. He also had 5.5 sacks, 35 tackles and two forced fumbles. Daley suffered a knee injury during the celebration following the Hoosiers' 13-10 victory against Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game and missed three College Football Playoff games.

Wyatt, a senior from Glen Burnie, Maryland, had 28 tackles, eight tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in 2025, starting seven games before sustaining a knee injury in a 38-13 victory against Michigan State. He has started 35 games in his career.

Information from ESPN's Pete Thamel and Jake Trotter was used in this report.