photo by: AP Photo/Rick Scuteri

Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. drives past Arizona State forward Andrija Grbovic (14) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Tempe, Ariz.

Recent Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. received a preliminary injunction against the NCAA in Monroe County, New York, court, which will allow him to become eligible for the 2026-27 basketball season.

Judge Daniel J. Doyle issued his decision on Tuesday morning, and the terms of the injunction also prevent the NCAA from retroactively penalizing Council or any institution that may choose to put him on its roster.

It is not yet clear how long this injunction may last. In concluding his judgment, Doyle instructed Council’s lawyers to draft a proposed order “and circulate it to opposing counsel prior to submission to the court by Oct. 27. If an agreement cannot be reached by the parties, each party must submit argument in favor of a requested undertaking with the proposed order.”

It also remains to be seen whether Council will return to KU. He was recently listed in the student directory, as the Journal-World reported, prior to the deadline to petition for late enrollment. The university has not responded to multiple queries about whether Council is in fact enrolled.

Council did enter the portal after the 2025-26 season when it appeared he had no remaining eligibility, and one of his lawyers’ stated reasons for moving his case from Douglas County to New York in the first place was to broaden the scope of his case beyond KU and the Big 12 Conference — there was some concern as to whether KU would put him on its roster in light of the Big 12’s rule change prohibiting professional players.

That concern seems less relevant now that KU has added White — who like Council played in the NBA Summer League — to its roster and also given that Doyle did not sympathize with the NCAA’s efforts to show that Council was a professional athlete. He instead sided with Council’s contention that NCAA bylaws do not prohibit Summer League participation.

In his decision, Doyle takes particular issue with the NCAA’s handling of Council’s NCAA waiver requests. To review, the substance of Council’s legal case is that he believes his time spent at a junior college should not count against his four years of NCAA eligibility, and contends that he was forced to attend a JUCO out of high school because he was facing pending criminal charges from which he was later exonerated.

Doyle found no evidence that the NCAA “reviewed, considered, or even passingly contemplated” Council’s waiver requests in the context of these circumstances and its Bylaw 12.6.1.7.1.3, which reads, “The Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement reserves the right to review requests that do not meet the more-than-one-year criteria of this waiver for circumstances of extraordinary or extreme hardship.”

“Could the NCAA have invoked their Bylaws to grant Council an additional year of eligibility in light of the circumstances outside his control emanating from the subsequently vacated guilty plea?” Doyle wrote. “Absolutely, yes.”

If KU does choose to bring Council back, it would seemingly fill the Jayhawks’ final available roster spot. Council, who after his time at Monroe College played at Wagner and St. Bonaventure, averaged 12.7 points, 5.1 assists and 5.0 rebounds for the Jayhawks during the 2025-26 season.

The Journal-World has requested comment from KU and the NCAA.

This story will be updated.