Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ELIGIBILITY DISRUPTED: Tre White, Kansas Jayhawks Face MAJOR HURDLE for 5th Year DREAM Addition

Episode Date: August 22, 2026

NCAA eligibility ruling shakes up Kansas Jayhawks' basketball plans—Tre White’s future hangs in the balance. With the 10th Circuit siding with the NCAA, the federal path for a fifth year vanishes for class of 2022 athletes, leaving local court battles as the only lifeline for players like Tre White. Is Kansas running out of options, or could a last-minute legal strategy save their roster? Derek Johnson unpacks how this decision impacts KU’s transfer targets and scholarship strategy, spotlighting names like Melvin Council, Keba Keita, and the possibility of revisiting five-star prospect Javon Bardwell. The discussion examines how fractured eligibility rules across states could disrupt the entire college basketball landscape, and what this means for Bill Self’s pursuit of championship contention. Can the Jayhawks stay competitive amidst the NCAA’s legal chaos, or will rival programs gain the upper hand? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get $10 when you trade $10. .   The Game Don't miss this chance to celebrate 40 years of The Game with 40% off your entire order. Visit https://TheGameCaps.com and use promo code LOCKEDONat checkout. 5-Hour ENERGY Bring on the sweetness with Cotton Candy 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots—available online now at https:/5hourENERGY.com or on Amazon. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMto play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season.  FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The eligibility game for a lot of these players trying to get a fifth year, including Trey White, just got a whole lot more difficult. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Derek Johnson here? And on today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to get to the ruling from the 10th Circuit, which has gone on the side of the NCAA and what that means for Kansas. what it means for Trey White, what it means for future targets.

And is there a workaround to this? You know, we'll get into all that on this bonus episode of the show. Let's start right there. The breaking news came out earlier today. This is tweeted out by Austin Massey, SBI, who's been covering this stuff. He said, breaking the 10th circuit has granted the NCAA stay request in Wisney versus NCAA. Judge Sweeney's nationwide injunction is now stayed pending appeal, meaning qualifying class of 22 athletes lose its federal fifth season protection for now.

So basically what this is is this is the Colorado case, which was challenging that basically the judge, Judge Sweeney, aforementioned there, basically said everybody in the class of 2022. I'm making everybody eligible because I think they should all be eligible, right? And so basically this got sent through an appeal process. It went on the side of Sweeney and then it got sent now to this 10th circuit basically to appeal it from the NCAA side. I don't know for sure on if this is like the finality of the case

or if this just means that their injunction doesn't apply. But regardless, the ultimate outcome here is that all those players that were, I guess, momentarily eligible for their fifth season because of the blanket-wide approach from Judge Sweeney are no longer eligible because of that. Now, it is important to note that the players, the guys that and the gals, I guess, for some women's basketball players who are part of this,

who have been in some of these more statewide class action lawsuits where you see, you know, 15, a group of 15 players in Kansas or I don't think Kansas had one, but, you know, Georgia or California or wherever sued the NCAA at a local level, those players who won the injunction there, those players are still eligible. So now we're left in a very weird situation

where not everybody in the class of 2022 is eligible, but some people in the class of 2022 are eligible. Basically what this is going to lead to is more local state suings versus the NCAA. And it's going to get really sticky because if there are certain states that deny it and then other states that accept it, like it's going to lead to a very fractured college athletics eligibility world this upcoming season.

So who does it impact in regards to KU and some of their targets involving Trey White as well? We'll get to that. And is there still a path to eligibility here? We'll get to all that coming up in a moment. This is locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by the game hats. Since 1986, the game has been creating classic

college hats that fans are so proud to wear, whether you're an alum, a current student, season ticket holder, or simply someone who never misses a game, a great college hat is more than just apparel. It's a way to represent your school wherever you go. Well, this year, the game is celebrating anniversary number 40 by giving fans a chance to save on some of the most iconic college hats. If you've been thinking about replacing an old favorite or adding a new one to your collection, now is the perfect time, right? Get it before the season starts here, right? And And looking at the Kansas ones, like if you want to go with a white hat, they got red, they got blue, they got the rope hat, which is one of my favorite ones, the Kansas Roper hat, which you can find. They got some of the dad hats, the gray.

You can get the Jayhawks on there. You can get Kansas, KU, the bucket hat even. I kind of am loki in love with the bucket hat they have, too. So with hundreds of officially licensed college hats that choose from, you'll find the perfect fit for game day and every day. Don't miss the chance to celebrate 40 years of the game with 40% off your entire order. Visit the gamecaps.com and use promo code locked on at checkout. That is the gamecaps.com promo code locked on celebrate 40 years of the game with 40% off. But don't wait, this anniversary offer won't last forever.

Thanks, you have for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. So who does this impact in regards to KU? Let's start with Trey White. That's the big one here, right? Like this clearly has an impact on Trey White. If this would have gone in the favor of the class of 2022, wouldn't have surprised me. if we would have like pretty much shortly after sometime this weekend seeing you know some news about okay tray white is is coming back to kansas right now instead

the pathway to tray white getting eligible he's going to have to find a local judge he's going to have to find a local you know one of these class actions suits that he can kind of jump aboard and try to get eligible i guess the the old fashion way the way that this kind of all started up to begin with right um but it does at least eliminate one pathway for him getting eligible. So, you know, I was kind of saying before, like, I put above a 50% chance on Trey White getting eligible. And the big reason why was he had two pathways to get eligible.

Well, now he's down to only one pathway to get eligible. So that number drops down. Maybe it's more of a 50, 50 coin flip at this point. The local courtships, so to speak, have typically gone pretty good for the players, but it's still not a guarantee. And then a lot of potential KU targets, right? There's a lot of players caught up in this that were entering the portal or were expected to be eligible or currently eligible. Well, they kind of go to the wayside now as players.

It does seem kind of interestingly enough. Some of the players that have been publicly linked to Kansas interest, though, have been players who have gained eligibility from their local court decisions, which means they're still eligible at this point in time right now. There's an interesting question as part of this, too, that just, I think, well, okay, here's two potential side effects. One, does the NCAA use this ruling? to attack some of the local rulings in a different way now that's going to allow them to win some more of the local rulings and make it more difficult for some of these players. It's entirely possible, right?

There's a little bit of push that back there that we'll get to in the third segment, but it is entirely possible. And the other one is in a world where like, okay, in a world where some guys from 2022 are not eligible and other guys from 2022, the class of 22, are eligible, that sucks for KU if it doesn't benefit them, right? That sucks for any school if it doesn't benefit them, but it benefits these other teams and makes them better. In a world where everyone is eligible from the class of 2022,

that benefits Kansas and a lot of other teams. In a world where nobody's eligible from the class of 2022, if it ends up going that way, you know, sure, Kansas, it probably prevents Kansas from being like an elite team coming into the year, but it almost makes more teams around them worse, than it makes Kansas. Like a team like Texas Tech would like fall off the map. So it is kind of interesting from that standpoint,

how it would have an impact on the entire college basketball world. But what is that other path still to eligibility? We touched on a little bit with Trey White. What about some of these other targets? What about Melvin Council? Where's he at? Could KU kick the tires again on Javon Bardwell? And where could this all lead to?

Where could this all go? What are the repercussions? We'll get to that next. Our episode today is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. Baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a home run today, Fandu'll's giving you a free chance to call your shot with Daily Dingers. It is easy to play.

You just make a free pick over who you think is going to hit a home run in their game. And if you're right, you'll receive a profit boost to use on your next bet for a chance at extra winnings. Best of all, you can make a free pick every day throughout the MLB season. Daily Dingers is another fun way to stay engaged with every day's games, whether you're following your favorite team or keeping an eye on matchups across the league. Every game has someone capable of going deep. but now you get the chance to make your prediction before first pitch.

I think I saw Cags is getting back into the lineup for the Royals. So that's obviously good to see. And obviously somebody that you can go with for hitting a home run, Bobby Witt finish out the season strong, right? So are you ready to play your game today? Join all the action at fandwell.com. That is fanduel.com to play daily dingers, make your free pick on who's hit in a home run.

Play ball and swing for the fences on Fandul, an official partner of the MOB. Thanks you for joining us here on Lockdown, Jayhawks. Okay, so the path now is through the local courts. And interestingly enough, somebody that we're going to be doing a deep dive on soon within the next, I guess, 24 hours, depending when you're listening to this, is Kaba Keda. And he's the big man from BYU. He actually, you know, part of a, I think is the California suit that gets him eligible. So like he is somebody who becomes very interesting from that standpoint, obviously, because he is eligible, right?

that separate of this, he's eligible there. That is obviously a good thing for a potential target for KU. Again, Trey White has to go to the local courts. Meanwhile, with Melvin Council, this has no impact on his situation. His situation was never about the five and five. Counsel's situation has always been about making it so that his Juko years do not count, right? And so his process continues to play through. We got an update, sort of an update, not really an update today.

Henry Greenstein sent out that basically they needed some time to figure out how to respond to some certain things at the NCAA. They weren't totally prepared for them to send off to. And basically it sounds like the trial is on like September 4th. So we got to wait a couple weeks for that one, right? That's the update there that we got to wait a little bit longer. I wonder now, is there any chance with things starting to get a little flimsier here, the start of the school year? I think what on Monday here for KU. Is there any chance KU could kick back the tires on,

to my knowledge, Javon Bardwell hasn't committed anywhere yet, right? The five star was committed to Kansas reclassified. His clock starts anyway, so he was like, I need to reclassify. Kansas couldn't commit to using one of the scholarships on him because they're holding them for counsel in white. And maybe they still are. But if you're Kansas, do you view this as,

you know what, this just got a little dice here? Hey, Javon, you want to reclassified? to us this year, you know, you haven't committed yet. You want to come on down? I don't know. That might make some sense here, right? Can you get Mahalo Musich eligible, right? I still remain kind of pessimistic on being able to do that, but maybe that becomes

back in the fold here. Any chance that the guy visiting, we just did a deep dive on Fabian Kaiser, the really good international crew from Germany, again, the plan is for him to be in the class of 2027, but there's some other guys in his class like Nicola Costa Rica, who's going to UCLA, even though he has to play two years of college before he can go to the NBA. Same with the Joaquin Bumche Bunche guy going to Duke. Like could Kaiser just follow that path and come to KU? And then, yeah, some of the other portal options that maybe would be available

specifically if you're talking about guys who have won their local cases. That's kind of now what you're looking at for Kansas. I think Field of 68 actually has like a good graphic of who's kind of available right now and whatnot. Now, I should mention this as well. I was going to mention this earlier. Darren Heitner, who's been like the attorney kind of, you know, capitalizing, I'm sure making a lot of money on all of these things happening right now with a lot of these local injunctions, tweeted this out and do keep in mind the source that's coming from.

This is coming from the guy who is confidently fighting the NCAA. So he's not going to come out and be all doom and gloom about it. But he said, while the NCAA may be celebrating the appeal decision in Colorado, more state court judges are ruling for the named plaintiffs. The Colorado case is based on an antitrust claim. The state court cases primarily revolve around athletes being third party beneficiaries and the NCAA's arbitrary application of its own rules. I will continue to work with the class of 22 players who wish to file in state court. And again, it seems like that's the way to go about this. So it's just interesting.

I saw something earlier in the day where it was like in one of those state trials or whatever, like one of the NCAA people, like they asked. him why they couldn't make this happen for the entirety of the class of 22. And he, I don't know if there's a guy or girl answering, but they were basically like, we, we just don't have enough administrators to deal with all the paperwork and the stuff. And I'm just like sitting there like, that's your answer because it's too much work for you. Like imagine, imagine like LSU basketball this season. Like they only have like four guys on the roster.

They just go into the year and they just like, you know what? We don't get any losses because or like, KU football. this here's a here's a good one k u football back in like the charlie wise david baidy days when they had you know they're playing with 10 15 20 less scholarships than some of the other teams they're playing against because of some you know scholarship mismanagement um and imagine if k u just goes back and you know what we're not going to count any of those losses during the weiss and bady era because we we didn't have enough people to be able to get the job done so it shouldn't count you know that's just dumbest argument ever anyway that's the ncdbblain and

nutshell. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. Cabaceta deep dive coming soon as well. So stick around for that and see you next time on LOJ.