Syracuse football wide receiver Justus Ross-Simmons is expected to play for the Orange at home on Saturday afternoon against California, but the fifth-year player needed a last-minute temporary restraining order ("TRO") from a local judge on Friday evening to be eligible for SU's Atlantic Coast Conference opener.
In late August, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Ross-Simmons, a Rochester, N.Y., native who has already played four seasons in college and is thus not eligible to suit up in the 2026 campaign under the NCAA's new 5-for-5 eligibility model, received positive news after Judge Martin Hoffman of the 68th District Court in Dallas, Texas, issued a TRO that would allow several dozen athletes in the 2022 class to return for the 2026-27 sports season.
Ross-Simmons had been attached to that TRO; however, at a hearing on Friday, Ross-Simmons was among various plaintiffs who were removed from that case in Texas due to jurisdictional concerns, according to media reports.
Quickly thereafter, attorneys at the law firm of Newman & Lickstein LLP in Syracuse filed a lawsuit on Ross-Simmons' behalf against the NCAA in the New York State Supreme Court for Onondaga County. Newman & Lickstein is also the law firm working with Syracuse basketball transfer forward Amarri Monroe on his lawsuit against the NCAA.
By roughly 6:30 pm on Friday, according to court documents, Supreme Court Justice Jean Marie Westlake had issued a TRO to Justus Ross-Simmons and his legal team that will enable him to play on Saturday at the JMA Wireless Dome.
Syracuse football WR Justus Ross-Simmons is able to play on Saturday against Cal.
While Friday's TRO allows Ross-Simmons to compete against the Golden Bears on Saturday, how long he will be able to play for Syracuse football in 2026 is unclear. A TRO only lasts for a couple of weeks, and there is an initial hearing in his case set for September 30.
To compete for the entire 2026 season, Ross-Simmons would need a preliminary injunction. The NCAA, as Inside the Loud House has noted in recent articles, has had some success of late in having preliminary injunctions stayed (i.e., paused) while cases at the federal and state levels are heard on appeal.
Approved in late June, the NCAA's new 5-for-5 eligibility model doesn't grant 2022 athletes a fifth season of eligibility if they have already played four seasons in college. Ross-Simmons suited up for two seasons at Colorado State and then two more at Syracuse.
In late July, U.S. District Court of Colorado Judge Charlotte Sweeney issued a preliminary class-wide injunction for all 2022 athletes, allowing them to play a fifth season in college if they want to, and with certain parameters.
Last month, though, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver granted the NCAA's request to stay Sweeney's injunction, and that has led more 2022 athletes to file lawsuits in state courts or attach their names to existing injunctions at the state level, something that both Monroe and Ross-Simmons have done.
In court documents submitted to the New York State Supreme Court for Onondaga County on Friday, Ross-Simmons said that he has signed a financial aid agreement with Syracuse and also has an agreement for the use of his name, image and likeness ("NIL"). Ross-Simmons didn't say how much his NIL agreement is worth, but he did note that "the compensation available to me under that agreement is contingent upon my eligibility to participate in football for Syracuse."
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