NCAA appealing Trinidad Chambliss injunction that granted Ole Miss QB eligibility for 2026 season: Reports

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The NCAA is appealing the preliminary injunction a Mississippi state judge granted Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss last month, according to multiplereports Thursday.

The injunction prevents the NCAA from prohibiting the 23-year-old Chambliss from playing until his eligibility case is fully litigated, effectively affording him a sixth year of eligibility for the 2026 season.

Chambliss argued that he should have received a medical redshirt in 2022, when he lost a year of eligibility despite not appearing in a game at Division II Ferris State in Michigan. At the time, he was dealing with health issues that ultimately resulted in him getting his tonsils removed in 2024.

But, in a 658-page filing to the Mississippi State Supreme Court Thursday, the NCAA asked that the injunction be overruled and petitioned the court for interlocutory review of the trial court's order, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported.

"If courts can intervene in NCAA eligibility decisions to provide special treatment to favored athletes, then the NCAA’s ability to ensure fair athletic competition in which all participants play by the same rules will depend upon the whims of trial courts throughout the country," the filing read, via Thamel.

On3's Pete Nakos posted a screenshot of the filing's introduction Thursday. 

It states that Chambliss has "exhausted his eligibility to compete in NCAA Division I football because his five-year period to complete up to four seasons of competition under the NCAA's 'Five-Year Rule' has terminated."

Thamel also posted a screenshot of the filing on X, revealing that the appeal states that "NCAA members and student-athletes will be irreparably harmed in the absence of interlocutory review."

The NCAA postulates that Ole Miss will have the luxury of rostering a star quarterback "who is no longer eligible to compete."

The NCAA essentially claims that the Rebels' unfair advantage places a burden on Ole Miss' opponents during the 2026 season and potentially could affect other schools' postseason fates. 

One member of Chambliss' representation reportedly isn't worried.

"Everyone remembers when the NCAA famously appealed to the Supreme Court in the Alston case and got their teeth knocked out by Justice Kavanaugh," Tom Mars, an attorney representing Chambliss, told ESPN, per Thamel.

"I expect the NCAA to be spitting chiclets in this appeal as well."

The injunction Chambliss was granted on Feb. 12 came after the NCAA denied his request for a sixth year of eligibility not once but twice.

Last month in Mississippi state court, Judge Robert Whitwell noted that the NCAA had operated "in bad faith" and disregarded Chambliss' medical issues when it refused to grant him an eligibility waiver.

Ole Miss is coming off its best season in recent program history, and Chambliss is a big reason why.

The Rebels finished with a program-best 13 wins, reaching their first-ever College Football Playoff and then the doorstep of the national title game, even though Lane Kiffin left to take the head-coaching job at LSU before the CFP.

Long before that, Chambliss established himself as a breakout star. After a four-year career at Ferris State that started with him redshirting the 2021 season, he transferred to Ole Miss.

Chambliss relieved an injured Austin Simmons in Ole Miss' second game of the season and went on to earn the QB1 job with head-turning dual-threat ability.

He wound up totaling 30 touchdowns — 22 through the air and eight on the ground — while tossing just three interceptions. By season's end, he ranked second in the FBS in total yards with 4,464 to his name.

Chambliss helped smooth the transition from Kiffin to new head coach Pete Golding. Together, they notably knocked off SEC titan Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to advance to the CFP semifinals, where the Rebels ran into a national championship-bound Miami squad in the Fiesta Bowl. 

If Chambliss does in fact return for next season, he will likely be touted as Heisman Trophy candidate.

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