• 🏀 Melvin Council’s possible path to one more year

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EVERYTHING IN THIS NEWSLETTER IS BASED UPON WHAT I AM HEARING FROM PEOPLE I TRUST. PLEASE DO NOT MISTAKE THIS FOR FACT OR FOR ACTUAL JOURNALISM, WHICH HAS VERIFICATION STANDARDS THAT I HAVE NOT ADHERED TO. I DO NOT GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT.

The Big Melvin Council Eligibility Question

You've been asking, so I went digging.

Could we get one more year of The Dawg in The Phog?

The answer isn’t straightforward, and we’ll know more soon, but yes, Melvin Council has a real shot at another year of eligibility. I just wouldn’t call it likely. At least not yet.

The quick answer: Council doesn't automatically have another year, but he does have a path. A February 10 court ruling could pressure the NCAA into issuing a waiver — or open the door for Council to challenge the rule himself.

This is what I’m Hearing after speaking with multiple eligibility and amateurism experts:

Why Council is eligible this season:

By the numbers, Council had already exhausted his four years of eligibility before his season at Kansas with two JUCO seasons and two D1 seasons.

He’s playing this year because the NCAA issued a one-time blanket waiver after Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia, a former JUCO player, won a federal court ruling challenging whether JUCO years should count toward eligibility.

Essentially, the NCAA lost in court and avoided a flurry of copycat cases by going broad: granting a one-time extra year for seniors who played JUCO and exhausted their eligibility after the 2024-25 season.

Without that one-time waiver, we wouldn’t have 15,300 fans barking in Allen Fieldhouse.

This season was expected to be the last of Council’s college career. February 10 could change that.

📌 Circle this date: February 10

That’s when the same federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments involving a group of players who joined Pavia’s case in challenging the JUCO eligibility rule again.

With the same judge and same core argument, there’s a decent chance he rules the same way.

Here’s the thing KU fans should understand: Even if the judge extends relief, the ruling would only apply to the named plaintiffs. Council isn’t one of them.

So a favorable decision wouldn't automatically give every JUCO player an extra year. But it would put pressure back on the NCAA.

🌳 The real decision tree

There are three paths forward for Council after February 10.

1) NCAA goes blanket again
The players win their case and the NCAA decides it's easier to go broad with a blanket waiver again rather than fight the courts. It’s the cleanest route to Council getting another season, if he wants it.

2) Council challenges the NCAA
The players win their case, but the NCAA doesn’t offer a blanket waiver. Council would need to file his own challenge, or his college career ends here.

3) No extension granted, no new waivers
The players aren’t granted an extra year and the traditional eligibility rules are applied. This season stands alone as a one-off. Council could theoretically still file his own lawsuit, but he’d be starting from scratch with murky timelines and outcomes.

That's it. No secret fourth option, but there are other cases to keep an eye on. UNLV linebacker Tatuo Martinson, who played two years in JUCO, recently won an injunction in Nevada federal court. The NCAA has appealed, with a hearing scheduled for mid-March (we can deal with that one when it comes).

🤓 My best read

Council has a legitimate shot at getting another year, but nothing is decided and nothing is guaranteed. His best shot depends almost entirely on whether the NCAA decides avoiding chaos and copycat lawsuits is worth issuing a blanket waiver again.

That’s a heavier lift than last time. The first waiver was damage control. A second one starts to look like a policy direction, and the NCAA historically hates being forced into that.

I’m Hearing the NCAA has signaled internally that there’s no appetite for extending another blanket waiver. But that was the expectation last time, too — until the court’s ruling forced their hand.

Council got one more year because the NCAA blinked. Whether he gets another depends on if they blink again, or if The Dawg decides to fight for it himself.

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