MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean was granted a preliminary injunction on Thursday that would allow him to maintain his college eligibility and continue playing for the Badgers this fall.
U.S. District Judge William Conley issued his ruling two days after Fourqurean argued at a hearing that the two seasons he played at Division II program Grand Valley State shouldn’t count against his college eligibility.
The judge ruled the night before the Friday deadline that Fourqurean faced for opting out of consideration for the NFL draft. Fourqurean took his case to court last week after the NCAA denied Wisconsin’s request for a waiver granting him another year of eligibility.
Fourqurean had argued the NCAA is violating federal antitrust law by not granting him a waiver and by limiting his economic opportunities to receive name, image and likeness benefits because of his prior attendance at a Division II school.
Conley wrote that he granted the injunction because Fourqurean’s claim was “likely to succeed” and that he “would suffer irreparable injury without injunctive relief.”
“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 NCAA said in a statement responding to the ruling. “Altering the enforcement of foundational eligibility rules — approved and supported by membership leaders — that are designed to help ensure competition is safe and fair for current and future student-athletes makes a shifting environment even more unsettled.
“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.”
Fourqurean enrolled at Grand Valley State in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the season. He then played at Grand Valley State in 2021 and 2022 before transferring to Wisconsin in 2023.
In the complaint he filed last week, Fourqurean noted that the death of his father in the summer of 2021 impacted his mental health and limited his offseason training. Fourqurean participated in 11 games for Grand Valley State but played only 155 snaps.
Fourqurean said at Tuesday’s hearing that he earned $5,000 from NIL in 2023 and $45,000 in 2024, and that he could make “hundreds of thousands” by playing for Wisconsin in 2025, though he acknowledged he had no signed contract. He said he received no NIL benefits at Grand Valley State.
Lawyers for Fourqurean released a declaration from Christopher Overton, a sports marketing consultant who said Fourqurean could make “something north of $250,000, and maybe as high as $500,000” by playing at Wisconsin this fall. Fourqurean said he would probably be a late-round pick or undrafted free agent if he entered the draft this year.
Fourqurean’s lawyers also issued a declaration from Matt Mitchell, who coached Fourqurean at Grand Valley State and said the cornerback was forced into action in 2021 because of injuries to other players but wasn’t “physically ready or in a great mental head space.”
“In most normal years as a D2 head coach, he would not have played,” Mitchell said.
Conley noted the NCAA’s concern that granting Fourqurean relief could “open the floodgates of litigation by encouraging every student-athlete dissatisfied with defendant’s waiver denial to come to court,” he pointed out this was a narrow ruling preventing the NCAA from applying its eligibility rule “against this plaintiff without demonstrating that his unique circumstances should not give rise to an exception.”
This ruling comes less than two months after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction enabling Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who spent two years at a junior college, to get another year of eligibility.
The NCAA is appealing the Pavia case but also issued a waiver enabling athletes who played at a non-NCAA school for more than one year to compete for one more year if they otherwise would have exhausted their eligibility in 2024-25.
Fourqurean had 51 tackles and one interception last season while starting all 12 games for Wisconsin. He started five of the Badgers’ last six games in 2023.