photo by: AP Photo/Colin E. Braley

Kansas defensive end Dean Miller (5) during an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, in Lawrence.

Former Kansas defensive end Dean Miller is suing the NCAA for another season of eligibility, arguing that he had to spend the 2021 season at College of the Canyons due to “circumstances beyond his control” and that the year should not count based on precedents granted to other former junior-college athletes.

The lawsuit was filed in Orange County, Florida, court by attorneys Darren Heitner and Alan Mensa-Wilmot of Heitner Legal on Monday. The complaint, obtained by the Journal-World, seeks a temporary restraining order and an injunction to allow Miller to play the 2026 season at UCF, where he apparently has a deal to receive $200,000 in revenue-sharing money and an additional $100,000 from a third party through the use of his name, image and likeness, according to a signed declaration by his agent Christopher Gil.

Heitner is a high-profile attorney whom Front Office Sports declared “the lawyer steering the NIL era” in a recent feature. After Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger first reported on Miller’s lawsuit on Monday, Heitner wrote in a post on X, “Many courts have sided with athletes in identical circumstances in the recent past, including in the case in which I represent Tristan Smith. (Heitner Legal) is proud to represent Dean Miller in his effort to secure eligibility to compete for the University of Central Florida in the 2026 season. We will advocate vigorously on his behalf.”

In December of 2024, the NCAA granted a one-time blanket waiver to any former junior-college athletes who would otherwise exhaust their eligibility following the 2024-25 academic year, giving them another year of eligibility. A source of much consternation in the world of college athletics in the months since has been the narrow applicability of that waiver — the fact that junior-college years continued to count for other former JUCO athletes, including those like Miller whose eligibility expired with the conclusion of the 2025-26 year.

In the case of the Clemson wide receiver Smith, a South Carolina court did not find material differences between him and 2024-25 athletes like Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia and Oregon wide receiver Malik Benson — outside of the year itself — and so recently granted a temporary injunction allowing him to play during the 2026 season. Smith previously played two seasons at Hutchinson Community College, one at Southeast Missouri State and one at Clemson.

Miller’s situation is a little different in that he started his college career in 2021, but he also redshirted in 2022 at KU so has still played a total of four collegiate seasons.

In the complaint, Heitner and Mensa-Wilmot argue that in denying Miller’s application for a waiver on April 28, and then denying UCF’s appeal on his behalf on May 28, the NCAA is demonstrating “precisely the kind of arbitrary and capricious conduct that courts are authorized and obligated to remedy.”

Heitner and Mensa-Wilmot contend that the NCAA does not address Miller’s specific personal circumstances. One of the key circumstances they highlight is that his choice of College of the Canyons as a freshman in 2021 was apparently a result of COVID-19 restrictions that inhibited his ability to get recruited, making junior college “his only pathway forward.”

“His single season of competition there is not the result of a developmental strategy or personal choice; instead, it was the product of systemic barriers created by a public health crisis,” reads the motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, also obtained by the Journal-World.

The complaint also contends that the circumstances of Miller’s career make an additional year of action particularly important. Heitner and Mensa-Wilmot write that NFL evaluators deemed Miller a potential Day 2 selection in the 2026 NFL Draft during the 2025 season, but “various factors, including increased competition from other defensive ends, timing of his development, and team performance variables, resulted in a decline in his draft stock.”

“By the end of the 2025 season, NFL evaluators had shifted their assessment, and Mr. Miller was facing the realistic prospect of going undrafted,” the complaint adds. “This change in circumstances created a compelling reason to seek an additional year of college competition. One more season at a higher-profile program like UCF, with the opportunity to demonstrate improved performance and athleticism, could substantially alter his professional trajectory and earning potential.”

Miller did indeed experience a decline in production from 2024, when he recorded 32 tackles and six sacks and was named second-team All-Big 12 as a breakout player for the Jayhawks, to 2025, when he had to vie for playing time with Leroy Harris III after an early injury and finished with 29 tackles and one sack.

He entered the transfer portal in January despite having exhausted his eligibility and agreed to terms with conference foe UCF, where he has not enrolled. (In fact, Dellenger’s report on Monday was apparently the first public indication that Miller and UCF were involved at all.)

Now he is seeking to continue his career on the grounds that his circumstances are “equally sympathetic and arguably more compelling” compared to predecessors like Pavia and Benson. The complaint argues that the NCAA is in breach of contract because Miller is an “implied third-party beneficiary” of agreements between the NCAA and UCF, and that the NCAA is engaging in tortious interference with business dealings because it is preventing Miller from following through on earning his $300,000.