Baylor University football player granted restraining order against NCAA amid eligibility battle

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A McLennan County judge put a Baylor University football player back on the field for at least two weeks Wednesday after the player sued the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility.

Judge Alan Bennett of Waco’s 474^th State District Court granted Traevon Mitchell’s request for a temporary restraining order Wednesday and set a hearing to consider his request for a temporary injunction for Sept. 15.

Mitchell, a defensive lineman who transferred to Baylor after playing at South Florida the past season, joins a growing number of collegiate athletes nationwide, including other Baylor transfers, who are suing the NCAA over what Mitchell calls its “arbitrary decision” to deny him eligibility to play.

A federal judge in Colorado granted temporary injunctions for all athletes who graduated from high school in 2002. However, an appeals court stayed the injunctions, which upheld the NCAA rule that athletes who graduated in 2022 who have played four years are not eligible for another year.

Mitchell’s lawsuit claims the NCAA recently adopted a “sweeping new eligibility framework,” the so-called Age-Based Rule, which extends up to five years of eligibility to student athletes.

“Under the rule, the NCAA has allowed student athletes who redshirted or received an extra year during the COVID-19 pandemic, and even former paid professionals, an extra year of play. But the NCAA deliberately excluded student athletes of the high school class of 2022 who completed four seasons of competition from the Rule. Traevon is one such student athlete,” the lawsuit states.

Mitchell graduated from high school in Waldorf, Maryland, and played defensive end two seasons for Chowan University, a Division II school in North Carolina. He made 84 tackles, 25 for losses, with three sacks and was named first team All-Gulf South Conference for the 2023-2024 season.

He transferred to the University of West Florida, another Division II school, for the 2024-2025 season and was named the Gulf South Conference co-defensive player of the year.

Mitchell played the 2025-2026 season at the University of South Florida, a Division I school, before entering the transfer portal and moving to Waco “in hopes that the NCAA’s forthcoming age-based eligibility rule would include him.”