Loyola guard Jayden Dawson has been granted a preliminary injunction allowing him to return to the team for a fifth season of eligibility.
Dawson spent his first three seasons at Loyola, developing into a starter and double-digit scorer, before playing a reserve role at Kansas last season.
The Ramblers were left with just three players on their men’s basketball roster following a disappointing 2024-25 season. Coach Drew Valentine added 11 transfers over the offseason before bringing in Dawson just weeks before the season began.
Two years ago, Dawson was a key contributor for Valentine’s squad, averaging 13.9 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. He played in 24 games for Kansas last season, averaging 2.1 points per game.
Despite exhausting his NCAA eligibility under the previous rules, Dawson entered the transfer portal in spring 2026 while seeking a medical redshirt waiver for his freshman season at Loyola. After the NCAA denied his waiver request, he joined a lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s five-year eligibility rule.
Dawson and more than 90 other athletes are now part of an amended complaint challenging the NCAA. The student-athletes are challenging a ruling that limited high school athletes from the class of 2022 who had not redshirted to four seasons of eligibility while allowing five seasons for more recent graduating classes.
The Chisom Okpara et al. v. NCAA lawsuit seeks an injunction that would make the student-athletes eligible to compete during the 2026-27 season.
Melvin Council Jr. and Tre White, Dawson’s former teammates at Kansas, are also pursuing additional seasons of eligibility. White’s circumstances are similar to Dawson’s, while Council is arguing that his junior college seasons should not count toward his eligibility.
In similar cases, courts have been more willing to scrutinize the NCAA’s eligibility rules when plaintiffs show that granting additional eligibility would cause only limited immediate disruption to team rosters. Dawson’s situation fits that argument.
The court issued a preliminary injunction temporarily granting Dawson eligibility on Sept. 23. Although he has been practicing with the Ramblers, his eligibility remains subject to a final decision in the lawsuit against the NCAA.