Court documents filed this month show the Jayhawks quietly working behind the scenes to get Emmanuel Ogbole, a former Rutgers big man, back on the floor somewhere in America. Anywhere, really, as long as the NCAA finally says yes.
The Player Nobody Can Sign
Ogbole spent three seasons at Rutgers after a year at Monroe College, a junior college, and finished last season starting 30 games, while averaging 4.7 points and 6.0 rebounds for the Scarlet Knights. When his eligibility ran out, he entered the transfer portal anyway, hoping a waiver would clear him for one more season. It never came.
Ogbole’s lawsuit, filed in Westchester County, New York, and first surfaced by the Lawrence Journal-World, lays out the problem in plain terms. As detailed by Fanrecap, the complaint states that “every program has told him it cannot commit a roster spot or scholarship to a player whose eligibility the NCAA disputes.”
Kansas is one of the programs that tried anyway.
Why the Jayhawks Are Named in a Lawsuit
Court exhibits show KU assistant athletic director for compliance Tayler Vena Harrell filed a waiver appeal on Ogbole’s behalf on July 31 — the final day the NCAA accepted waiver requests before shifting to its new five-year eligibility model, which effectively ends the waiver process going forward.
In an email entered into the case as an exhibit, Harrell wrote that the NCAA was prioritizing waivers “in the order that eligibility is needed,” while cautioning she didn’t “anticipate a quick turnaround.”
Kansas isn’t alone in circling him, either.
The lawsuit names Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee and UNLV as programs interested if Ogbole becomes eligible, with an UNLV assistant coach quoted as writing the school “would potentially have a scholarship for him” if his case breaks his way.
For Kansas specifically, the timing tracks with an actual need. Bill Self said in late July, the Jayhawks were looking to add frontcourt depth while returning center Christian Reeves recovers from offseason shoulder surgery.
A Restraining Order That Wasn’t Quite One
Ogbole’s case took an odd turn last week.
On3 reported he had “received a preliminary temporary restraining order giving him another year of eligibility.” Not exactly.
Court records reviewed by RAWCHILI show Judge Diane M. Clerkin actually crossed out the section of the order that would have granted him immediate eligibility, issuing an order to show cause instead. She did lock in a hearing date: this Thursday, September 17, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, when the NCAA will have to argue in court why Ogbole shouldn’t be cleared to play.
Part of Something Much Bigger
Ogbole’s fight is far from an isolated one.
The College Sports Litigation Tracker currently lists more than a dozen active cases challenging NCAA eligibility rules across football and basketball, several filed within just the last two weeks — Kaufman-Renn, Harris, Council, Sane, Pratt and Daley among them.
Most argue that the NCAA’s new five-year eligibility model, adopted this offseason, is being applied unevenly to players stuck between the old system and the new one.
Former Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. is fighting a nearly identical battle of his own. A judge has already ordered the NCAA to explain why he shouldn’t get a sixth season, with a hearing set for September 23 — five days after Kansas’s own late-enrollment deadline passes.
None of these cases will be resolved before practice starts. Kansas opens its season in November with Reeves’ health and Ogbole’s eligibility both still up in the air, one courtroom ruling away from changing everything on the roster, or nothing at all.
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This story was originally published by Lindys Sports on Sep 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Basketball section. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.