Overview
- Hours after the Third Circuit vacated Rutgers safety Jett Elad’s preliminary injunction, the district judge temporarily restrained the NCAA from enforcing eligibility rules against him.
- Elad is now cleared to play Saturday against Penn State, with a show-cause hearing set for next Tuesday that could determine any further relief.
- The appellate panel ruled the injunction could not stand because the case failed to define a relevant antitrust market, a required element for preliminary relief.
- The court rejected the NCAA’s claim that eligibility rules categorically fall outside antitrust law, noting college sports’ commercial context after Alston.
- Elad’s challenge targets rules counting a JUCO season and the five-year clock, and filings referenced an approximately $500,000 NIL arrangement connected to his Rutgers recruitment.