Decide denies Zakai Zeigler’s request for preliminary injunction permitting fifth season

A federal decide on Thursday denied Tennessee level guard Zakai Zeigler’s request for a preliminary injunction permitting him to play a fifth season of Division I basketball in 5 years.

U.S. District Decide Katherine A. Crytzer listened to arguments in a listening to June 6 in Knoxville and entered her denial Thursday morning. She wrote that Zeigler did not display he would doubtless achieve his argument that the NCAA holding him from enjoying a fifth season of Division I basketball is a violation below the Sherman Act.

“This Court docket is a courtroom of regulation, not coverage,” Crytzer wrote in her order denying the injunction. “What the NCAA ought to do as a coverage matter to learn pupil athletes is past the attain of the Sherman Act and TTPA and by extension, this Court docket.”

The 2-time Southeastern Convention defensive participant of the yr requested for an injunction when he sued the NCAA on Might 20 over its guidelines limiting him to 4 seasons in a five-year window as an illegal restraint of commerce below each federal and Tennessee legal guidelines.

His lawsuit argues he might earn between $2 million and as a lot as $4 million with one other season. His attorneys made clear that is only a first step on this authorized combat.

“We’re disenchanted the Court docket declined to grant a preliminary injunction on the idea that the NCAA doesn’t instantly management NIL compensation, simply days after the Home settlement confirmed they’d do precisely that,” based on an announcement from Litson PLLC and the Garza Regulation Agency.

“This ruling is simply the primary chapter of what we imagine will in the end be a profitable problem. We intend to press ahead and are evaluating the very best path forward for Zakai.”

The decide wrote that the harms Zeigler argues he would endure may be addressed with a future damages award.

She additionally famous the “mounted variety of roster spots” for every Division I basketball crew and that “an injunction would run the chance of harming presently enrolled gamers dedicated to a college and present highschool seniors being recruited.”

The NCAA argued in its temporary earlier than the listening to that Zeigler’s injunction request ought to be denied as a result of he’s asking the courtroom to make him the primary athlete in historical past to play a fifth season in Division I “as a matter of proper.”

Throughout the listening to, the decide requested Zeigler’s attorneys to file a fast temporary answering whether or not or not Zeigler is an “intercollegiate athlete” as outlined below state regulation and what authorized customary applies to Zeigler’s declare below the Tennessee Commerce Practices Act.

The Related Press contributed to this story.

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