Latest news with #Fourqurean
San Francisco Chronicle
6 days ago
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
Eligibility of Wisconsin's Nyzier Fourqurean in question after appeals court reverses injunction
MADISON, Wisc. (AP) — Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean's status for this coming season is now unclear after a federal appeals court overturned a preliminary injunction that granted him another year of NCAA eligibility. Seventh Circuit judges ruled in a 2-1 decision rendered Wednesday to reverse the ruling by a lower court, after the NCAA appealed. Fourqurean, a fifth-year senior, had argued that his first two college seasons at Division II Grand Valley State should not count toward his eligibility. Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia is expected to play again after winning his court case last year on the grounds that his two seasons at a junior college do not count. The NCAA is appealing that decision but granted a blanket waiver that will allow Pavia and other athletes who played at non-NCAA Division I schools prior to enrollment an extra year of eligibility if they were going to exhaust their eligibility this year. The path forward for Fourqurean, a projected starter, is less clear with Wisconsin's season opener against Miami (Ohio) on Aug. 28 just over six weeks away. Messages sent to attorneys listed as his representatives in court documents, as well as spokespeople for Wisconsin football, were not immediately returned. Fourqurean testified during a U.S. District Court hearing in February that he would make 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' in name, image and likeness compensation if he were to play this season. After judge William Conley granted him the preliminary injunction, Fourqurean pulled out of NFL draft consideration and took part in spring practices.
Hamilton Spectator
6 days ago
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Eligibility of Wisconsin's Nyzier Fourqurean in question after appeals court reverses injunction
MADISON, Wisc. (AP) — Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean's status for this coming season is now unclear after a federal appeals court overturned a preliminary injunction that granted him another year of NCAA eligibility. Seventh Circuit judges ruled in a 2-1 decision rendered Wednesday to reverse the ruling by a lower court, after the NCAA appealed. Fourqurean, a fifth-year senior, had argued that his first two college seasons at Division II Grand Valley State should not count toward his eligibility. Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia is expected to play again after winning his court case last year on the grounds that his two seasons at a junior college do not count. The NCAA is appealing that decision but granted a blanket waiver that will allow Pavia and other athletes who played at non-NCAA Division I schools prior to enrollment an extra year of eligibility if they were going to exhaust their eligibility this year. The path forward for Fourqurean, a projected starter, is less clear with Wisconsin's season opener against Miami (Ohio) on Aug. 28 just over six weeks away. Messages sent to attorneys listed as his representatives in court documents, as well as spokespeople for Wisconsin football, were not immediately returned. Fourqurean testified during a U.S. District Court hearing in February that he would make 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' in name, image and likeness compensation if he were to play this season. After judge William Conley granted him the preliminary injunction, Fourqurean pulled out of NFL draft consideration and took part in spring practices. ___ AP sports:
Winnipeg Free Press
6 days ago
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
Eligibility of Wisconsin's Nyzier Fourqurean in question after appeals court reverses injunction
MADISON, Wisc. (AP) — Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean's status for this coming season is now unclear after a federal appeals court overturned a preliminary injunction that granted him another year of NCAA eligibility. Seventh Circuit judges ruled in a 2-1 decision rendered Wednesday to reverse the ruling by a lower court, after the NCAA appealed. Fourqurean, a fifth-year senior, had argued that his first two college seasons at Division II Grand Valley State should not count toward his eligibility. Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia is expected to play again after winning his court case last year on the grounds that his two seasons at a junior college do not count. The NCAA is appealing that decision but granted a blanket waiver that will allow Pavia and other athletes who played at non-NCAA Division I schools prior to enrollment an extra year of eligibility if they were going to exhaust their eligibility this year. The path forward for Fourqurean, a projected starter, is less clear with Wisconsin's season opener against Miami (Ohio) on Aug. 28 just over six weeks away. Messages sent to attorneys listed as his representatives in court documents, as well as spokespeople for Wisconsin football, were not immediately returned. Fourqurean testified during a U.S. District Court hearing in February that he would make 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' in name, image and likeness compensation if he were to play this season. After judge William Conley granted him the preliminary injunction, Fourqurean pulled out of NFL draft consideration and took part in spring practices. ___ AP sports:
USA Today
6 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Wisconsin cornerback loses appeal against NCAA, likely ineligible for 2025 season
Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean lost the appeal of his lawsuit case against the NCAA on Wednesday, jeopardizing his status for the upcoming 2025 season. The veteran cornerback was granted a preliminary injunction against the NCAA back in February after he filed a lawsuit for an extra year of eligibility. His suit argued that his two years at D-II Grand Valley State should not count against the NCAA's classic four-year eligibility model. It followed a recent precedent-setting case where Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia was granted a waiver for his junior college years. While Fourqurean's legal battle for eligibility appeared headed in a similar direction, Wednesday's ruling is a significant blow to his chances to suit up in 2025. Fourqurean's potential loss would be a major one for the Badgers. The program has seen significant turnover in the secondary this offseason, with a majority of the team's cornerback depth transferring out. The controversial departure of star freshman Xavier Lucas headlines that movement. The team does return All-Conference cornerback Ricardo Hallman and welcomed in experienced transfers D'Yoni Hill (Miami) and Geimere Latimer (Jacksonville State). Still, Fourqurean's absence breaks apart what could've been one of the better cornerback duos in the conference. Wednesday's ruling marks a major win for the NCAA in its continued battle to maintain governing power of college athletics. Recent legal rulings, aside from the Pavia case, have become some of the strongest pillars holding up the age-old four-year eligibility model. Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Wisconsin CB Wins Injunction Against NCAA to Play Extra Year
U.S. District Judge William M. Conley on Thursday prohibited the NCAA from enforcing its five-year rule for D-I football on Wisconsin redshirt senior Nyzier Fourqurean. Conley wrote that the NCAA using amateurism to justify its eligibility rule in 2025 'rings increasingly hollow with elite college football coaches' salaries, television ratings and now NIL money for athletes skyrocketing.' Fourqurean sought a court order by Friday, the NFL's deadline for eligible college players to opt out of the 2025 NFL Draft. Fourqurean can now opt out and, after playing another season at Wisconsin, aim to enter the draft in 2026. More from Anon House v. NCAA Objectors Warn Judge There Is Climate of Fear Meet the Ex-NBA Exec Mediating Michael Jordan's NASCAR Lawsuit Mizuhara Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison for Defrauding Ohtani As Sportico has detailed, Fourqurean's college football career included a 2020 season at D-II Grand Valley State lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a partially lost 2021 season (he played in the equivalent of three games at Grand Valley), and full 2022 (Grand Valley), 2023 (Wisconsin) and 2024 (Wisconsin) seasons. He is set to graduate this December. The NCAA reasoned that Fourqurean is ineligible for the 2025 season since the five-year rule (NCAA bylaw 12.8) limits athletes to four seasons of intercollegiate competition in any one sport. Fourqurean maintains that his 2021 season, which occurred shortly after his father passed away, shouldn't count because he played sparingly (155 snaps in 11 contests). Through Michael P. Crooks and other attorneys from von Briesen & Roper, Fourqurean insists the NCAA denying him a chance to keep playing violates antitrust law. With Fourqurean now set to play another season for the Badgers, Conley noted that 'Fourqurean could earn between $250,000 and $500,000 in NIL.' The judge further observed that, 'though more speculative, it is not unrealistic to expect his draft stock to climb over the course of another year of eligibility from undrafted free agent [in 2025 NFL Draft] to a draft choice [in 2026 NFL Draft] and a higher NFL salary.' Conley reasoned that the relevant market for antitrust analysis is elite college football, if not a narrower market of FCS teams or even just Power Four conference teams (including Big Ten member Wisconsin). The judge described the NCAA and its member institutions, which are competing businesses, as enjoying 'monopsony power'—meaning they are a dominant and unrivaled buyer of football players, because those players 'effectively have no other market to sell their labor,' especially since the NFL forbids players from entering the league until they are three years out of high school. Conley said the NCAA's five-year rule 'has an anticompetitive effect' on the market for college football players by limiting who is eligible. The NCAA disagreed, arguing the five-year rule doesn't reduce the number of roster spots, as an excluded player will be replaced by an eligible one. But Conley concluded NIL is a differentiating factor, since 'higher profile athletes like [Fourqurean can] earn a rapidly growing pie of NIL compensation.' The judge also underscored how one additional season to earn NIL 'may be life changing for at least some' D-I athletes, especially those whose marketability is at its 'apex' toward the end of their collegiate careers. Fourqurean, the judge notes, is a good example of why the denial of NIL opportunities could be especially harmful. Fourqurean is not a top NFL prospect at this point; he might never play a down in the league. But Fourqurean could earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in NIL as a seasoned college athlete at a major football program in 2025. Conley cautioned that while college athletes can earn NIL money, that doesn't mean they are pro athletes. He stressed that linking a football player's 'athletic career to ordinary degree progression' meaningfully distinguishes D-I football from the NFL. The judge also concurred with testimony offered by an NCAA expert witness, Cal Berkeley economics professor Matthew Backus, who wrote, 'a less differentiated athletic product where athletes are older and less aligned with standard collegiate progression may reduce fan interest and ultimately resources invested in student-athletes.' To those points, Conley rejected Fourqurean's proposal that NCAA D-I eligibility clock begin when an athlete registers for a class at D-I school. That proposal, Conley wrote, 'would arguably all but end any distinction between college and professional football.' The judge went on to hypothesize about a 30-year-old 'college veteran' who played four seasons in D-III, four seasons in D-II and then four seasons in D-I. Conley said some players could seek that path to maximize their NIL payoff, 'despite the chance of catching on at the professional level diminishing in likelihood as the athlete grows older.' Conley warned such a scenario would diminish the NCAA's differentiated product to 'the point that college football programs would likely become nothing more than a minor league feeder system for the NFL where players develop for years (or even a decade) until they have optimized their chances of being drafted and sticking on an NFL roster.' A related concern, the judge noted, is 'the prospect that Division II and Division III football programs would become nothing more than minor league teams for the most powerful Division I football programs.' Conley thus did not order the NCAA to scrap its five-year rule, but said the NCAA 'must have meaningful exceptions to its rule to avoid unfairness to student-athletes whose individual circumstances may justify a departure.' He also observed that the NCAA's own practices show flexibility can work, pointing out that its rules already allow D-I football teams 'to fill roster spots with experienced, transfer players, crowding out younger athletes.' Conley's observations are consistent with those offered by other federal judges, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in NCAA v. Alston and Chief U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell Jr. in Pavia v. NCAA. These judges view big-time college football players as occupying a labor market that antitrust law ought to protect. In a statement shared with Sportico, an NCAA spokesperson said Conley's ruling will bring negative consequences, and it supplies additional reasons for Congress to advance reforms that stabilize college sports. 'The NCAA supports all student-athletes maximizing their name, image and likeness potential, but today's ruling creates even more uncertainty and may lead to countless high school students losing opportunities to compete in college athletics,' the statement read. 'The NCAA and its member schools are making changes to deliver more benefits to student-athletes, but the recent patchwork of state laws and court opinions continues to make clear that partnering with Congress is essential to provide stability for the future of all college athletes.' Best of College Athletes as Employees: Answering 25 Key Questions
