The landscape of college football has taken a dramatic turn in the past few years. Name, image, and likeness has allowed athletes to profit from their own personal identity and brand. College football players, even top prospects, now have an alternative to the NFL, since they can earn up to eight-figure incomes with NIL packages. The transfer portal has also started looking like the Wild West, as players come and go as they please. The landscape could get crazier for the 2026 college football season if the courts rule as many predict they will in the coming weeks or earlier.

Back in June, the NCAA approved a new age-based eligibility plan allowing athletes to participate in their sport of choice for five seasons over five years. The plan has been dubbed the “5 for 5” rule, though it’s more complicated. According to the NCAA website, “the age-based rule actually centers on a student-athlete’s age and when the student enrolls full-time in college, and it does not guarantee five years for all student-athletes, particularly those who delay enrollment.”

Athletes who were part of the freshman class of 2022 and competed on the college field for four years were not grandfathered into this new rule when it was approved last month. As a result of not being granted a fifth year of eligibility, multiple lawsuits are proceeding around the nation, and some of the plaintiffs include football players who were not selected in last April’s draft and have already participated in minicamp tryouts for NFL teams.

The plaintiffs, whose four years of college eligibility were exhausted after the 2025-2026 season, contend they should have been included in the new rules and granted another year on the college field so as to benefit from NIL opportunities. Eleven athletes filed a federal class-action lawsuit in the state of Colorado, while others have filed individual lawsuits around the country.

If any of these lawsuits are successful, many athletes who thought their eligibility had expired at the conclusion of last season would be grandfathered into the rule and allowed onto the field of play this season.

And that’s exactly what people predict will happen.

Several sources tell me that recent court decisions have legal experts believing the athletes will win their case and be eligible for another year on the college field. I’m told that the law firm representing the players in the Colorado lawsuit, Cuneo Gilbert Flannery & LaDuca, LLP, is confident in a ruling favorable for their clients based on recent court decisions, a ruling that could come later this week.

Former Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Cole Hutson filed his own personal lawsuit in Travis County, where the university is located, and a judge recently granted him a temporary restraining order that allows him to work out with the team while the case proceeds.

Hutson played four seasons at Texas and started 23 games. He took part in rookie-minicamp tryouts for the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys after not being selected in April’s draft, but he was not offered a contract. Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has already stated that if Hutson is successful in his lawsuit, there is a spot for him on the roster.

Other football players may not be so lucky.

I’m told that even if the plaintiffs are successful in their lawsuit, the football players face two major obstacles with the season a month away: space on the roster and no NIL money left.

Most of the rosters have been filled out for schools around the nation, and all the money allocated for NIL deals at the programs, the main reason many of these players want an additional year of eligibility, has been spent.

Sources believe a ruling could come as early as Friday.