Eligibility chaos forces Texas Tech reserve QB to catch a late flight to Colo after court ruling

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Texas Tech reserve quarterback Lloyd Jones III had to catch a late flight to Colorado after the school received last-minute word of a decision in an eligibility lawsuit that made backup Thomas Castellanos ineligible for Saturday night’s game against the Buffaloes.

Jones arrived Friday night — a few hours after the rest of the 12th-ranked Red Raiders. He was listed as the new third-string quarterback, behind Kirk Francis, who took Castellanos’ spot as the backup.

The last-minute lineup change and rush to the airport is the latest bit of chaos to come out of a raft of lawsuits players have filed challenging a new NCAA eligibility rule that gives most athletes five years to play five seasons. The rule did not include those who graduated high school in 2022 and exhausted their fourth year of eligibility in the 2025-26 school year.

Castellanos, who threw for 2,760 yards at Florida State last season and was playing his fifth year in Lubbock, was part of a lawsuit filed in Kentucky, in which an appeals court overturned a lower court’s temporary injunction that had allowed him to play for the Red Raiders.

He had played briefly in three games this season, but was in street clothes Saturday for the game against the Buffs. A hearing in the case is set for Oct. 9.

“The fact that something like that would happen on a Friday, and then he may eligible again next week, it’s just insanity,” Texas Tech regent chair Cody Campbell told The Associated Press before the game. “It’s why I feel so strongly” about a bill recently passed in the Senate that would, in the future, prevent many of the sorts of lawsuits against the NCAA currently teeming through the courts.

Castellanos was one of 38 players across the country involved in his lawsuit, including basketball players Seth Trimble, who last played for North Carolina, and Mark Mitchell, who last played for Missouri.

The NCAA also received a favorable ruling Friday from an appeals court in Ohio in a case involving Filip Borovicanin and two dozen other basketball players that marked the NCAA’s first high-profile loss over the rule.

In reversing the lower court’s preliminary injunction, Ohio appeals court Judge Candace C. Crouse wrote that the court understood the players’ frustration but was “mindful that at the time the plaintiffs began their collegiate athletic careers, they understood that they were entitled to four years of athletic eligibility within a five-year period.”

The NCAA sent a memo to its members notifying them of the decisions.

“In reversing the injunction, the court recognized the importance of consistent application of NCAA eligibility rules and the harms caused by conflicting judicial decisions,” the memo said.

The next big hearing for the NCAA comes Oct. 13 in a federal case in Denver filed by basketball player Brock Wisne against the NCAA. A judge in that case issued a preliminary injunction that covered athletes across the country. That was overturned on appeal, which left cases to be decided in numerous state courts.

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